Gen. Wayne Headquarters, York, York County

Tomorrow we leave for Zenkaikon, and I'm running around in circles trying to get everything done that I need to have done. That of course includes this blog post.

It's been a while since we looked at anything in York, so I thought it would be good to head back there. In the process of setting up this post, I learned that the individual named on the marker actually has a couple of markers about him. So I won't be talking a whole lot about the gentleman himself - we'll leave that for when I've collected those markers. I will, however, go into the details about his time in York.

The Union League of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

The next few weeks are going to be very busy for me - not only do I have Zenkaikon coming up next week, but in April I'll be on a family trip out of the country. (No marker hunting? What do normal people do on vacation?) Throw in the job, the writing gigs, the book I'm trying to finish... well, there's a reason I'm actually working on this blog post the night before it goes live instead of on Wednesday morning.

I'm not complaining, though. I do like to keep busy. Now if it would just stop snowing...

For today we're going back to that very un-snowy day last August, when my mother treated the BFF and me to a day in Philadelphia and helped me catch some markers there. This was one of the markers I spotted while we were riding on the upper level of a double-decker bus tour; for that reason, my current photo of the marker is not the clearest, and I promise to replace it with a better one at the first opportunity.

Columbia County

I leave for my annual sojourn to Lancaster two weeks from tomorrow, and for some reason it just doesn't seem like my to-do list gets any smaller. (Maybe it's because I keep thinking of things to add to it...) I'm both excited and nervous, since my presentation on "The Red Rose City: A History of Lancaster" will be the first time I'm doing an actual public engagement as the face of this blog. Adding to both the excitement and the nervousness, they have me scheduled to give my presentation in one of the two biggest rooms in the whole convention. Either they expect a lot of people to be interested in the subject or they ran out of broom closets. I kid, of course, and I'm honored to be regarded as one of this year's featured panelists.

But first, a blog post. Once the weather gets more palatable, unlike the wind that's howling outside my window right now, I'll be heading back up to Columbia County to collect some more markers and pay a visit to the kindly folks at the Columbia-Montour Visitors Center. In the meantime, let's take a look at the history of the county itself.

Cumberland Valley Railroad, Mechanicsburg, Cumberland County

Many thanks to everyone who shared and commented on last week's post! I'm sure the good folks at the Liberty Bell Museum will be grateful that so many people have taken an interest in the museum's precarious situation, and I truly hope that we can make a difference.

Just a quick reminder that it's the first of the month, which means the newsletter has gone out with links to all of the February posts. To read it online, click here - and please do consider subscribing, it's free and sometimes there is exclusive content.

For today's post, I'm introducing the first new county of 2023. This past Saturday, Kevin and I made our way to Mechanicsburg for a meeting of our beloved Sherlock Holmes club, the White Rose Irregulars. After the meeting, we amused ourselves with running around the community collecting markers, and managed to get almost all of them. As a reward for his help, I treated him to some incredible homemade ice cream at Urban Churn Creamery. (I had the honey lemon lavender, and all I can say is that it's a good thing this place isn't closer to our house, because I'd go bankrupt.) This was the first of the seven markers we got that day, and we were a little chagrined that we were about twenty minutes too late to go inside the building in question.

History Endangered: Can the Shrine Be Saved?

This isn't the blog post I had intended to write today, but it's the one that I'm writing because... well, to put it bluntly, I'm upset.

A while back, my friend John, who lives in Allentown, contacted me to say that the Liberty Bell Shrine on Hamilton Street was in trouble. My regular readers may recall that the old Zion's Reformed Church is where the Liberty Bell was concealed for safekeeping during the American Revolution; for sixty years, a museum has been maintained in the church basement to celebrate this fact. Last summer they got a PHMC marker and I attended the dedication ceremony. At the time, attendance in the church was dwindling, due to an aging congregation, and they were expecting to sell the building.

John was letting me know that the museum was in danger of not surviving the forthcoming transition. As a member of the museum, I was concerned; however, due to various schedule conflicts I didn't have a chance to follow up on his tip, and what I had heard from other sources was that the buyers of the church were interested in maintaining the museum's presence, so I thought it was one of those things that would work itself out.

I have always been a little too optimistic.

Pennsylvania Match Factory, Bellefonte, Centre County

We've had suspiciously decent weather in recent days. February feels more like early April. I'm not sure I trust it, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts.

For this week's quest, we're heading back to beautiful Centre County, which I visited with husband Kevin last summer on his birthday trip. The weather was much more predictable on that occasion, since one generally knows what to expect from July, and we were charmed by the county seat of Bellefonte. The community has a lot of markers, including one for what I hadn't realized was once a major industry in central Pennsylvania.

Harold L. Ickes, Altoona, Blair County

Back in the saddle this week - I ended up having to take last week off from blogging, as my Facebook followers know, because I was hit with a sudden and unpleasant stomach bug. I did manage to get the February newsletter out at least, though, so if you didn't get your copy of that you can find it here.

So let's get into what would have been last week's post if I'd felt well enough to pull it together! The gentleman being profiled today was a key member of Franklin Roosevelt's cabinet and a fierce defender of the great outdoors. He also has a fictional claim to fame that I think might be unique to him among all Pennsylvanians, although I could be wrong.