Abraham Lincoln, Harrisburg, Dauphin County

I probably don't need to tell very many of you this, but it is cold here. We had several inches of snow dumped on us this past weekend, followed by two days of single-digit temperatures, and they're predicting an extremely bad snowstorm for this coming weekend too. I'm already expecting to call out of work on Sunday, since as of right now the snow is projected to start sometime Saturday night and not stop until sometime on Monday. Currently my plans for the event involve soup, cats, computer games, and maybe a little crafting - basically not a whole lot of movement.

For now, though, let's visit a different winter. This blog post is going to be on the relatively short side, because I'm not finding a great many sources about it, but it's nevertheless very interesting and worth examining. While he was on his way to be inaugurated as President in 1861, the great Abraham Lincoln had a stop in our capital city and gave two speeches - one short, one longer.

Market Square, Harrisburg, Dauphin County

You all are amazing! When I updated last week, I said that the blog was about to reach 17,000 hits for the month. Well, apparently some of you took that as a challenge, because July ended with more than 18,000. (Think we can get 20,000 this month? Let's find out.)

As my Facebook followers may have seen, I took the leap and started an Instagram account for the blog. I have never used Insta before and I have practically no idea what I'm doing, but let's see how it goes. If you're on that app, please consider giving MQ a follow - you'll find it here. Not much there just yet but I'm trying.

For this week's quest, I realized it's been months since we talked about anything in Dauphin County, so I decided a look at Harrisburg's early days was in order. As you might expect, it looked very different than it does today.

Grace Methodist Church, Harrisburg, Dauphin County

April feels (to me at least) like it's been about three months long. Then again, ever since the pandemic I'm pretty sure time has lost a lot of its meaning. In any case, I've got one more blog post for you before we head into the month of May, so let's take a trek to Dauphin County and learn about a building that served one very unusual purpose: saving Harrisburg's role as capital of the commonwealth.

Harrisburg State Hospital, Harrisburg, Dauphin County

I'm eager for the weather to improve so that I can start going out again in search of markers (and other adventures - I have some ideas up my sleeve). I'm also looking forward to throwing off the last of this lingering cough and getting my voice back to normal, as that's kind of necessary for a project I've been contemplating for a while. In the meantime, I'm trying to devote my energies to tackling a number of other things, which of course includes blog posts. 

For this week's quest, we're going to venture out to lovely Harrisburg and take a look at one of the many beautiful buildings found there. This one isn't like most of the others, though; it sits on a lonely hillside, somewhat removed from the bustle of the city, and no - you can't go inside.

Executive Mansion, Harrisburg, Dauphin County

Happy #143Day, Pennsylvania! This annual observance was inspired by one of my personal heroes, Mr. Rogers, whose personal favorite number was 143 - because it represents the number of letters in "I love you." So every year on the 143rd day of the year, Pennsylvanians are urged to commit acts of kindness in his memory, and share them on social media. Read all about it here.

I really thought this would be the week where I'd have to finally repeat a county for the first time all year. But this past Saturday was the quarterly meeting of the White Rose Irregulars of York, and after discussing all things Sherlockian, my stepdad Ravi very generously took a detour through Harrisburg on the way home to help me collect some markers there. I came away with twelve thanks to his driving and my bff Andrea's talent for spotting them, so I'm doing a Dauphin County post for the first time in quite a while.

The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg, Dauphin County

For reasons that probably don't need to be explained, I haven't been able to travel to today's subject and take pictures. But last fall, my parents were in the city of Harrisburg, as I mentioned in my post about the Underground Railroad, and they got a few pictures of markers for me while they were in the vicinity. Today my stepdad joins the ranks of the blog's guest photographers, and hopefully, he and I will both get to make a proper visit to the subject in the relatively near future. Whenever I'm finally able to go, I'll come back and edit this post to add more pictures - I promise I'll let you know when that happens.

"Pennsylvania," says one of my sources for today's post, "is a history-minded state." That, of course, is why I'm here and why you're here with me.

Underground Railroad, Harrisburg, Dauphin County

As I write this, my region is feeling the effects of Winter Storm Gail. Jim Cantore, famous fan of "thunder snow" from The Weather Channel, has traveled over to Bethlehem to experience the storm firsthand. When he shows up, you know it's serious. I've got chili in the slow cooker and we're planning to basically just graze and try to relax. I hope everyone affected by the storm is warm and safe.

Before I get into today's quest, a quick word of thanks to everyone who has sent congratulatory messages on the publication of Laury's Island. The response has been more than slightly overwhelming - I was even interviewed by my local TV news station! (It will air next Monday, December 21st. Details are on this page down at the bottom.)

I had planned, as my last quest for 2020, to talk about the two historical markers dedicated to George Taylor. However, I seem to be missing a couple of the photographs I need for the post; I know I took them, but for the life of me I cannot find them. So we'll leave Mr. Taylor until the new year, by which time I should have either found or replaced the pictures, and today I'll add one more new guest photographer to this blog. My parents were in Harrisburg some weeks back, and while they were in the vicinity, they were kind enough to send me a few pictures of markers they encountered.