Carl A. Spaatz, Boyertown, Berks County

Before diving into the heart of this week's post, I wanted to share some fascinating news that's been released by the PHMC (you know, the folks who put up these markers I chase). As part of the celebrations for America's 250th anniversary in 2026, they're going to be organizing some of the historical markers into "trails" according to certain themes. These include We the People, for "stories of identity, belonging, and community," and Unfinished Revolutions, for "ongoing struggles for justice, equity, and freedom." The trails will be announced quarterly, starting this fall, and will be a significant reminder of Pennsylvania's place in our country's history. Check out all the details here!

In other, arguably less exciting news, my longtime readers might remember that this is my birthday week. I am a lot older than I like to think and a lot younger than my body sometimes feels. I was hoping to finish the first marker book in time for the occasion, as a gift to myself, but I've still got a couple chapters to go so I probably won't quite make it. But we're celebrating by going to Knoebels and probably grabbing a few more markers along the way. I hope that you'll celebrate the occasion by doing something nice for yourself. (If you want to do something nice for me as well, consider going back and reading older posts to bump up my hit count for the month!)

As for this week's quest, we're heading to beautiful Berks County, where Boyertown was the birthplace of one of the country's foremost Air Force personnel. You might have heard of him; I'll admit that I never did until I found his marker.

Sylvania Electric Products, Emporium, Cameron County

Still at work on the book I mentioned last week. Have you ever heard the Weird Al song "Everything You Know Is Wrong"? That's sort of how some of the chapters of the book are making me feel. I almost cringe looking at my blog posts on the subject, because it's clear to me that I've grown as a writer in the years since they were first done, but also because so much of what I wrote was based on incorrect information. Granted, that's not entirely my fault, but it's still humbling. 

But I'm still doing my best! This week we're debuting the first post from Cameron County, thanks to a picture sent by the Shenandoah Sentinel's Kaylee Lindenmuth. She had to make a trip there one day this summer and sent me a few pictures. (She always thinks of this blog when she sees a marker and tries to help. I appreciate her so much.) This company's story is a little bit complicated, because the names changed a lot, but I'll try to make it as easy to follow as I can.

McCoy Home, Lewistown, Mifflin County

As promised in last week's post, this week I'll be taking my first shot at Mifflin County! It's always exciting when I get to do the first post from a county on this blog. The photos in this post all come courtesy of Kaylee Lindenmuth, the driving force behind the Shenandoah Sentinel. She's got to be one of the hardest-working young people in modern media and I genuinely do not know when she finds the time to sleep, much less send me pictures. But she had to take a road trip recently and was kind enough to provide me with some fodder for blog posts, so thank you, Kaylee!

This one's for all my readers who are fans of military history, since the family who lived in this house had not one but two generations of high-ranking soldiers. And yes, they were the real McCoys! (Probably not related to the one who started that expression though. But maybe?)

Bellefonte Air Mail Field, Bellefonte, Centre County

It's crunch time for Zenkaikon. We leave tomorrow and spend three and a quarter lovely days in beautiful downtown Lancaster, hobnobbing with other weirdos (most of them in costume). I'll be doing two presentations about Lancaster history and one about Celtic mythology. I'm not sure which ones will be available to watch via Zenkaikon Online, but they did make it free for everyone this year - so if and when I have links to share, I'll provide them for anyone who might care to watch me babble about history. I'll also return to uploading podcast episodes next week when it's over, I want to do a little fine-tuning.

For today, you just get to read my babbling. We're going to skip back in time just a little over a century, back to when air mail was a relatively new thing and somewhat dangerous to boot. A little community in central Pennsylvania was key to the success of the endeavor.

Bethlehem Steel Plant, Bethlehem, Northampton County

Zenkaikon was - as always - exactly what the doctor ordered for me. My presentation about "The Red Rose City: A History of Lancaster" (and also my second presentation about Welsh history and language) went extremely well and I was very excited! I had wonderful attentive audience members who asked great questions and really wanted more stories, so I've promised to come back next year and provide them. Hello to everyone who has found their way here because of the convention, and thank you for checking out my passion project!

The April newsletter went out a few days ago - if you haven't seen it yet, you can find it here. I'm hoping to do something interesting for my subscribers in the coming months, so please consider subscribing. (It's free!)

I came back from the convention and got sucked right into a week of work, so I just had no time to do a blog post last week. Heck, I barely remembered to get the newsletter done. But this week I'm going to stay right here in my adopted county of Northampton, and take a look at one of the Lehigh Valley's biggest industry titans of bygone days. Bethlehem Steel has a couple markers, actually, which we'll be examining in coming posts; today, we're going to visit the actual plant... or what's left of it. This post has more pictures than usual, simply because I have been there so many times and taken so many pictures.

Anna Wagner Keichline, Bellefonte, Centre County

And this is the last of the 'county firsts' for August! Kevin and I were both absolutely charmed by the little community of Bellefonte, which we visited on our way home from his birthday trip last month; it's picturesque and out of the way, nestled between the mountains of Centre County. We were actually a little sorry that we couldn't stay longer. It seemed like every turn we took brought us to another beautiful building, particularly the Centre County Courthouse, and there were a surprising number of historical markers to be found.

I decided to go with this one for the first Centre County marker because the woman it celebrates is quite extraordinary, and I was curious to learn more about her.

A. Mitchell Palmer, Stroudsburg, Monroe County

Between the winter weather and a rather annoying sinus infection, I haven't felt too terrific lately. I hope my readers are in better shape! I'm certainly not sorry to be saying goodbye to January, and they're promising warmer temperatures for the first week of February, so fingers crossed.

I'm sure that as cold as it is here, though, it's much colder up in Monroe County at the gateway to the Poconos, where today's marker stands by the county courthouse.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gettysburg, Adams County

I'm not a big fan of winter, as you might have guessed from previous posts. The temperatures this week have been remarkably unpleasant, even for January. So I'm heading back to my sunny weekend in Gettysburg for today's quest.

I'm sure that Dwight Eisenhower doesn't require much of an introduction. He was a hero of World War II, President of the United States, and so on. I imagine that at least some of my readers are also aware that, after his Presidency, he retired to a beautiful farm on the outskirts of Gettysburg, which today is a historic site toured by thousands of visitors annually. However, that's not where we're going, because that's not where his Gettysburg marker can actually be found.