Reed's Fort, Annville, Lebanon County

So today's blog post took a weird turn as I was collecting my sources. As I was searching for information online as I do every week, I came across a YouTube video from nearly a year ago, part of a series related to the PHMC markers. "Cool," I thought, "I can watch this and see what the Hometown Historian has to say about Reed's Fort!" And so I started to do exactly that, and then I got about two minutes into the video and had to stop because I was completely gobsmacked.

I have the video linked down below, so you can see it for yourself, but the long and short of it is that the good Hometown Historian talks about this blog. This one. The one you are reading right now. He couldn't remember what it was called, but given that my work is extremely niche I think it's fair to say that there's no other blog it could have been. He had some very nice things to say about it and I'm extremely flattered, so thank you, sir! We're corresponding and will possibly be collaborating on something in the future.

Researching this one has been a wee bit tricky, because Reed's Fort and Fort Reed are two completely different places. They both have markers, so we'll get to Fort Reed whenever I finally make my way to Clinton County. Today, we're looking at Reed's Fort.

John Walter, Annville, Lebanon County

Before I get into today's subject, I just want to give a shout-out to my fellow local author, Scott Morro. I've mentioned Scott before as having written The Washington Pursuit, an enthralling young adult mystery set in Moravian Bethlehem. He announced on Twitter yesterday that the sequel, The Albrecht Society, will be released later this year and he's anticipating a launch event on August 20th. I very much enjoyed Pursuit and am looking forward to being there. Congratulations, Scott!

Fun fact: Scott's new book actually has a relationship to today's blog post. Well, sort of.

Indiantown and Indiantown Gap Military Reservation, Annville, Lebanon County

This rightly should have been posted two weeks ago, but it turned out to be more complicated than I expected; I also haven't been feeling my best, thanks to all the shifts in Pennsylvania's weather.

Before we get started, I wanted to let my readers know that the PHMC has begun sharing this year's marker dedication ceremonies on its calendar. The first one will be in Chester County next month, when a marker will celebrate musician Jim Croce. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to make it there myself, but we'll see!

My initial intention with this post was to do it simply about the "Indiantown" marker. The thing is, there's not a whole lot to say about that one. So I ended up having to bundle it in with Fort Indiantown Gap, about which there's plenty more information, and the result is that you get this massive twofer - or if you want to be picky, a fourfer, since Fort Indiantown Gap has three markers to its name.

Blue Mountain Forts, Annville, Lebanon County

If you live in Pennsylvania, you know that last week we had a lot of severe weather all over the state for a few days in a row, including several tornado watches and warnings. As I mentioned in the past, my body reacts badly to severe weather, so I was in pretty bad shape and missed last week's update. My apologies to anyone who was looking forward to it!

It seems that the last time I mentioned my problems with the weather was in my post about the Hanover Resolves. Today's post has two things in common with that one, and this is the first. The second is that, like in that post, I only have one photograph for today - the picture of the historical marker itself. After attending the latest meeting of the White Rose Irregulars of York, my companions and I made a brief detour in Lebanon County to collect a few markers there, and here is the first post from that county.