A Couple Furnaces, a Few Geocaches and Some History

 The day was looking good, clear skies above and the temperature was warm enough to need only a sweatshirt. No rain, no sleet, no graupel. (A word I’ve only recently come across, a type of snow)

    Ann Marie and I were going “on the road” for awhile. We started our tour by heading north on Route 8, towards Butler. We had a list with us with a couple different sites we were going to attempt to find.

    These sites came from a book I was paging through called A Guide To Historic Western Pennsylvania, by Smith & Swetnam. (1991 edition) The book is formatted by counties. We were searching for sites in Butler County for the main part.

    One of the problems with using a book this old, 31 years, is that the information in it may no longer be accurate. The sprawl of mankind often destroys places of historic significance. Our thoughts deal more with the present and future rather than the past. We often forget that it is important to remember the past, our roots as a society!

(1958 Butler map)

    Dropping back in time about 100 years, our first quest was south of Butler. The North Star Inn was a brick tavern used as a stage coach stop. It was located .2 of a mile north of Airport Road, alongside Rt8. This would put it right about where the Dollar General is located. Without going down any driveways or going onto anyone’s property, we didn’t see it. It might still be there, perhaps we will find it some other day, or maybe it’s under the Dollar store.

    In downtown Butler we stopped and walked over to the Little Brick School House. Built in 1838, it was the first public school house built in Butler. Over time it has been used as a meeting house, an office, a center for the Red Cross during WWII and a public library! (Love those libraries!) Now it is a museum.

    There are a couple nice wall paintings in Butler, this one is just a block away from the schoolhouse. There is a nice 3 dimensional look to the one on the left, the shadows painted on the wall matched the shadows on the streets.

    Going further north on Rt8, we turned towards the east on Rt58 in Harrisville. This would take us over to our next item on our list, the Marion Iron Furnace.

    While we traveled we did a few geocaches. The first two were guardrail hides, quick and easy, but still fun to search for! During the day, we found all four of the hides we looked for.

    A little over a ¼ mile away from one of the caches, we got out and tromped through the woods for awhile, looking for the ruins of the iron furnace. We met Todd and his boys, Dylan and Carson fishing in the near-by stream. Explaining to them what we were looking for, they helped us locate the ruins.

    The ruins of the Marion Furnace is a rather large pile of rocks, covered with moss and leaves. Built in 1848, it was used for about 12 years. It produced about 18 tons of iron a week! One of the openings of the furnace is still visible, the stones in it are still sharp and in line after all these years, unlike the rest of the furnace. Not far upstream are the remains of a dam and the planes of several roads can be seen in the woods around the furnace. Rocks  on top of the pile show the curvature of the stack.

    We spent a short time talking with the guys before headed on our way. It is always fun meeting new friends and sharing our similar interests. 

    We stopped in Mercer at the Public Library to search for another cache. While we were there, we met the owner of the cache who works at the library. Mathew came out and watched us as we searched. I have to say it was well hidden, it was right in front of me and I didn’t see it!

    We did another cache near Slippery Rock Creek and while we were there, we visited the Wilroy Iron Furnace.  This was built in1854 and lasted 23 years before being shut down. It is one of the better preserved furnaces in Western PA. 

    In the community of Harmony, we visited Rapp’s Seat. Father George Rapp was the head of the Harmony Society, founded in the early 1800’s. He would sit in a chair carved into a rock formation high above the town to meditate and also to keep an eye on his flock.

    There is a trail going to the chair, a mere137 steps up a steep hillside. The chair is underneath a cliff overlooking the Connoquenesssing Creek and Rt79 in the distance.

    There are a lot of names carved into the rock, some with dates from the early 1900’s. Sadly some newer names and comments have been added with spray paint. After seeing other places during the day unadulterated, it was sad to see this abuse of a historical site.

    Our final stop was at Minetta Spring. This was built by Harry Etheridge in honor of his mother-in-law, Minetta in 1931.

     The spring is located on busy Rt68 between Harmony and Evans City. We were hoping to find an arch near-by which is a remnant of a grist mill built by the Harmonists. Chances are the mill was built near the stream below the roadway. We couldn’t see anything from the road and eventually decided to head for home. I’ll have to do some more research, if it’s there, I’d like to see it!

    From there we returned to Glenshaw, completing our 130+ mile loop. Like all our trips, it was a good one. We met some nice people, made some good memories, visited some great spots and enjoyed a drive with the windows down. What more could we ask for?