Baker Mansion, Altoona, Blair County

Those of you who follow the blog's Facebook may have seen a post from me a few days ago, which I've since deleted, about how I was contacted by a literary agent who was interested in my work. It was a scam. I'm addressing it now because I want to warn fellow creatives about it - the company, Sourcebooks, is legitimate, and Anna Michels really is their senior editorial consultant. However, they've had a number of instances of people being sent spoof emails in recent months, wherein authors and illustrators are being approached with possible offers of being published by the company. Long story short, if you get an email from someone claiming to be with Sourcebooks, unless it comes from an email address ending with sourcebooks.com, it is not legitimate.

Fortunately, I did a little research before I responded to the email or did anything more than reporting it as spam, so no harm done except to my ego. I'll live. Just be careful out there!

Moving on, I realized that it's been a long time since Kevin and I went to the city of Altoona for his birthday. A lot has happened since then; sadly, Leap-the-Dips has been officially closed, because Lakemont Park has shifted its focus to things like picnics rather than amusement rides. It was already closed when we were there, so we didn't get to ride it, but since then it became official that it will not reopen, or at least not any time soon. I was looking through my folder of photos from the trip, and I realized there was one more marker I photographed while we were there that I haven't profiled here on the blog yet. Seems like a good time.

Hockendauqua Indian Town, Northampton, Northampton County

This is an odd one, which is part of why it's taken me so long to put it together. The borough of Hokendauqua as we know it today is in Lehigh County. However, this marker - like the original settlement by that name - is in Northampton County, although very close to the border.

This marker located right next to one of the (many, many) markers for the Walking Purchase, which is going to be a ridiculously long blog post. It's taking me forever to collect them all and I might end up skipping some, depending on my mood. This marker is clearly at least somewhat associated with the same thing. I know that in part, the situation is the way that it is because this marker is a plaque, and dates from back when the PHMC was just called the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, so it's a lot older than the standard blue and gold collection and the wording is, shall we say, less politically correct.

Hereford Furnace, Hereford Township, Berks County

July's been very topsy-turvy for me, as you might have guessed from last week's post. This past week has been no different, as I've been occupied with what feels like everything under the sun, including but not limited to doctor's appointments and also seeing my late Aunt Gene's beloved cat off to his new home. He's living out west of here with my dear friends at Moon Family Studios, and the photos I've been receiving suggest that he's being absolutely spoiled. As he should be.

I've also been getting ready for a short trip for husband Kevin's birthday, which is next week. We're not going quite as far this year as we did a couple years ago, when we ventured out to Altoona to (try and fail to) ride Leap-the-Dips. Instead, I've been invited to the museum of the Sullivan County Historical Society, as they very much enjoyed my recent post about the Old Woolen Factory. Since nobody gets more excited about people paying attention to my blog than Kevin (no, not even me), he immediately suggested we make it a road trip for his birthday. So we'll be going there and we'll also be checking out the natural beauty at Penn's Cave, which is in that neck of the woods.

But first, a blog post. It's been a while since I did anything from Berks County, so I think it's time for a visit. I collected this one a while back and I sat on it in the hopes that I might be able to get a picture of whatever's left of the furnace, but apparently there isn't much to see. There's always history, though.

Phoenix Iron Company, Phoenixville, Chester County

The May newsletter is out! If you're not already subscribed, you can read it here. (But please consider subscribing.)

This Friday, May 3rd, I'll be heading to my birth city to attend the marker dedication ceremony for the Allentown State Hospital. It was originally supposed to be held last fall but got rescheduled, and I only just found out a few days ago that it was set for this week! They've scheduled a few more dedication ceremonies throughout the coming summer, so be sure to check the official calendar to see if any of them are happening near you.

Meanwhile, for the first quest of the fifth month, let's travel to Chester County and take a look at the history of a company which, like the bird for which it was named, emerged from its own ashes repeatedly over almost two centuries before finally closing its doors.

Charming Forge, Womelsdorf, Berks County

First of all, I want to express my appreciation to everyone who has checked out the podcast so far! I genuinely had my doubts about it, despite what my friends said, but it's been very reassuring to get so much positive feedback. I anticipate uploading the next episode tomorrow, and it's my hope that I will have all of 'season one' (that is, the blog posts from 2018) recorded and uploaded by the end of May.

Meanwhile, for this week's quest we're going to visit an allegedly haunted house in Berks County. I say 'allegedly' mostly because I can't verify either way, but the stories persist.

Bellefonte, Centre County

It always throws me off a little when there are five Wednesdays in a month, because it means one extra blog post sneaks in there. Next week is my birthday, and I'll be taking some time off from work for the occasion - not so much to celebrate getting older, but in order to get moving on a couple of projects I've been trying to get underway. If all goes well, I should be making an announcement in the next few weeks that I never expected I would be making, but here we are.

Go ahead and indulge your imaginations. No, I'm not having a child or getting another pet, but beyond that, feel free to go wild.

Anyway, for this final quest in August, we're heading out to almost the exact middle of the state for another visit to the adorable borough of Bellefonte. This time we'll just find out why the community itself is significant - it actually has two (identical) historical markers of its own.

Thaddeus Stevens, Lancaster, Lancaster County

And here we are for part two of the 230th birthday celebration for Mr. Thaddeus Stevens! I very much would like to thank everyone who has shared the previous post, especially the Thaddeus Stevens Society. This past weekend, they celebrated his birthday by putting up a new statue of the gentleman outside of the Adams County courthouse, and I'll look forward to seeing that the next time I go to Gettysburg. I'm also grateful to my fellow Zenkaikon attendees who expressed interest in this, and who have been so kind as to click the links I'm giving them.

This post will be a little more image-heavy than the first one was, because I have more pictures from Thaddeus's later life. I made them smaller than usual for the post, but you can click on any of the pictures if you want to see the larger versions.

Thaddeus Stevens, Gettysburg, Adams County

As my Facebook followers are aware, I went radio silent for much of the past week due to being on a desperately-needed vacation. For the first time since 2019, my beloved Zenkaikon once again took place at the Lancaster County Convention Center and I was there for the whole thing, participating in discussions about my favorite media and admiring the colorful costumes and hugging people I had not seen in far too long. It is my happy place and I missed it more than I can say. (To use a modern colloquialism: If you know, you know.)

It was originally my intention to do this as a double marker post. However, there is simply too much to say about this particular subject; I can't confine myself to just one. So since there are two markers, in two counties, and a lot to say... you get two posts. The timing of this is deliberate, because the gentleman in question is observing his 230th birthday this coming week, and the two posts will be examining his life and legacy in both Gettysburg and Lancaster. 

Durham Furnace, Durham Township, Bucks County

As you might have seen on the Facebook page for the blog, there was no post last week; I came down with a sinus infection that made me very sleepy and unable to focus. Sorry for the delay! We're back to business as usual now.

Before I get started on the subject of last-week's-post-turned-this-week, I do want to give a shout to the Herstory Club, which you might recall accepted me into its ranks last fall. This month's blog theme is medieval history, and I had the chance to make my first contribution! I introduced the Herstorians to one of my favorite historical figures, Princess Gwenllian of Wales; they seemed to really enjoy it and I hope you enjoy it too. Thanks for the opportunity, team!

Back in March, my husband Kevin and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Most things were still kind of locked down, though, so we decided to just go for a nice drive and enjoy the scenery. The roads brought us down to Bucks County, to where George Taylor had once been the ironmaster, and we got out of the car and snooped around with our phone cameras for a bit. (We must look like weird tourists.)