Valley Girl Views: Abandoned

Showing posts with label Abandoned. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

The Abandoned Nuclear Jet Bunkers In The Quehanna Wild Area

One of the two bunkers left in the Quehanna Wilds. Jet engines would be strapped to nearby cement structures, while Curtiss Wright Employees watched them from the bunkers. The engines would be observed until they burnt up, or blew apart.

Also Nearby:

A short distance into the woods in the Quehanna Wilds sit two separate bunkers, relics of 1953 Eisenhower's "Atom's For Peace" initiative. Two years after announcing his policy, the Curtiss-Wright Corporation (Formed when Orville & Wilbur Wright's Company merged with Curtiss' aircraft development company, in 1929), purchased & leased a combination of 54,000 acres for nuclear research, development, and testing facility. The corporation had received a contract to build nuclear powered jet plane motors for the Air Force.

Millions of dollars were spent building roads, buildings, even a new town with a school, in the area, where more than 200 hunting camps had had their leases terminated with short notice.

But within just a few years time, the Air Force decided not to use nuclear engines, the government contracts were cancelled, and all of the other Curtiss-Wright Operations in the area were abandoned. Today, all that is left are some overgrown roads, crumbling cement structures, and two bunkers - one above ground, and one that has been covered up with ground. There's not a lot to see, but it's interesting, and the walk is short and easy.

The Kune's Camp Ruins

The Kune's Camp Ruins, in the Quehanna Wilds Area

This unique hunting camp was built using two large stone boulders as the side walls. Stone walls were added at each end, and at one time, the structure had a wooden roof.

Today the Kunes Hiking Trail goes directly through the remains of the camp building. If you hike the trail, you cannot miss the structure, as you will walk right through it.

In 1986 A Plane Crashed Near Lock Haven, & It's Still On The Mountain

Piper Plane N32777 Crashed On July 16 1986

32 year old John Yatso, of Hazelton, had been in Lock Haven for the Piper Plane Reunion. As he returned home, shortly after take off a wind sheer caused his 1975 Piper Cherokee to flip and land upside down in the trees.

GPS Coords N 41° 07.785 W 077° 22.423

Yatso was unconscious for a short time. When he came around, he got himself out of the plane and walked two and a half miles before being picked up by a passing car.

On Thursday July 17th, Yatsko was reported to be in satisfactory condition, with a slight fracture of his spine and an eye injury. The Hazelton newspaper ran a short blurb just over a month later that he had been discharged from the hospital and was returning home to finish recuperating.

Several newspapers reported in July that the plane had not been located - I'm not sure when it was finally discovered.

More of the wreckage, down the hill to the west

With almost every hike we do, I tell you that if I can do it anyone can. I won't say that about this one. There is no trail here. It's a mountain of small loose boulders, covered in thick moss and layers of leaves, so every step can be tricky. It is very, very steep in spots, which makes the trip back down very tricky.

Because of this, I really can't even tell you how to get here. Not because I don't want to, but because there is no real trail, path, or established way there. I can tell you that there is a Winchester trail that apparently comes close across the top, others have approached that way. Start at Zindel park. It will be about a 9 mile hike, and its still a good change in elevation - you are climbing up a mountain, no way around that. But the elevation change will be more gradual, not quite as steep. I have not done this myself, but we know others who have. The local Sierra Club sometimes hikes this. [Read the comments on this post for more instructions on how to get there]

Our route was a "shortcut", and all in all it took us between 3 and 4 hours.(Although to be fair, we stopped a LOT to catch our breath and enjoy the views on the way up - and we spent a good bit of time at the site itself) We went straight up the mountain. It's not simple, there's a fence between 220 and the mountain (about 50 feet off the road - so you won't see the fence until you start to climb), you have to know where there is no fence, to get up this way.. and it is a scary steep descent, where you need a walking stick to know where it is safe to step, as many of the boulders will roll and move, and the moss has grown thick over deep holes between rocks that you do not want to step into, and the leaves covering the ground are thick and slippery. Again, there is no trail here. Not even a path.

There are directions on the geocaching page for those of you who geocache, that will take you this way. We didn't even really follow those, but I don't think our path was wise and I'm not going to share it here. If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the post and read the comments, there is a better route given that may help.

Some of the piper planes lined up at the 1986 Reunion in Lock Haven.

Lock Haven had been the world headquarters of the Piper Aircraft corp from 1937 to 1984, when the company was sold and moved to Vero Beach Florida. Approximately 240 Piper planes, and pilots, had attended the reunion.

Crash Reports:

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A different wreck, also with debris left on another nearby mountain

The Allegheny Airlines Flight 371 Crash Site

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-flight-371-crash-site.html

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Find More Places To Hike

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2019/05/places-to-hike.html

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March 2020

Wednesday, July 3, 2019

The Abandoned Hotel Essick Casino

A beautiful old building we saw while geocaching

41.354656, -76.691843

This is the old Essick Hotel Casino - Also called The Bowling Alley.

There was a 9 hole golf course, in addition to a two story Casino. The Casino had two bowling alleys, a shuffle board, pool tables, a post office, and a place for dancing and gambling.

The Essick Hotel was built by Dr. H. M. Essick of Picture Rocks. "The home of Dr. Essick can still be recognized on Main Street by the bell in the front yard. The hotel was designed by William Laird and bears a striking resemblance the the Raymond Hotel in Eagles Mere which he also designed" - The ELHS

The hotel, a massive summer resort, was lost in a fire in 1916, but the casino still stands.

Casino At Essick Heights

It was in later years a bowling alley.

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The windows are beautiful colored glass!

Note - There's a window in the Hughesville Historical Society, and several others Hughesville buildings with the same style of stained glass windows. I could be wrong, but I seem to remember seeing the same style of glass in the Sonestown Train Station too.

As someone else mentioned, it appears to be rather "rustic" stained glass work, and was possibly locally made, in the East Lycoming county area?

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The Hotel Essick

Highland Lake Pa

The Hotel Essick, Essick Heights PA

First opened to the public on June 1, 1889

The hotel was designed by William Laird and bears a striking resemblance the the Raymond Hotel in Eagles Mere which he also designed.

Burnt to the ground April 1916

The small village that grew up around the hotel was known as Essick Heights, but later known as Camp Genessee.

In 1902, Dr. Essick brought the new electric light to his hotel. He purchased two Bates and Edmonds units and had them placed in a stone powerhouse about 200 yards from his hotel. Each unit provided 5kw of direct current so it is hard to imagine how well a four story hotel could have been illuminated! But an old newspaper clipping states that the hotel could be seen from Hughesville, in the Muncy valley eight miles south and it was considered a "modern marvel".

However, the grand adventure was short lived and, as Sherry Gardner states in her book "Around Picture Rocks," the Essick Hotel opened on June 1, 1889 and was destroyed by fire on Nov. 15, 1916. This situation forced Dr. Essick into bankruptcy and ended any further development of Highland lake.

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Appears to be out of print

https://www.google.com/books/edition/Ghost_on_the_Allegheny/_R4UDAEACAAJ

From the Hughesville Mail, 1904

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

The Old "Springhouse" on Camels Road In Hillsgrove Pa

Camels Road, Hillsgrove Pa

41.4833216,-76.7460344

This is a "Seen While Geocaching" structure. The cache page refers to it as a springhouse, and also as a well. It's located in the same general area as some great waterfalls, and overlooks, and is one more neat thing to see in this area.. but I sure would love to know exactly what it was!

Springhouses are typical found beside dairy farms, and are small buildings over a stream, used to keep items cool. More information here. I'm really not sure that is what this structure was - but it is possible.

The Geocache here is named "Thirsty? Too Bad."

There is an amazing site here with old photos and history of Hillsgrove, but I did not see any mention of this structure, unfortunately.