A Ghost Town in Southeastern Butler

A ghost town is a place that once was an active community but has since been abandoned by all or nearly all of its residents. Buildings, ruins and sometimes only roads remain. Ghost towns can be found on every continent.

    Friday morning I met two other photographer/explorers and we headed north into Butler County. Getting up early, I was able to see the planet Venus and the moon high in the sky as I packed my car. It was looking good for the day ahead!

    Franko, Bob and I got off rt.28 near Freeport and headed east to Winfield Road. We passed through farmland and eventually dropped off of the top of the hills and entered into the valley. A huge cement plant sits at the bottom of the hill, right beside our destination, West Winfield.

    Making a turn, we entered what used to be the main street of the community. Today, there is nothing there. Houses lined both sides of the road for about a ½ mile or so. There was a plant which processed limestone from the mines across the stream. A railroad ran into the town and further down the road, a brick plant used to operate. Earlier in the town’s history, an iron furnace produced pig iron which was ferried by mules down to Freeport along what would later become the rail line.

    For a while the town was known as Winfield Furnace before becoming West Winfield. Interestingly, West Winfield sits on the eastern edge of Winfield Township. (There is another Winfield in Pennsylvania, about 50-60 miles north of Harrisburg. It had an iron furnace in it also. Could this be why it is called “West” Winfield?) The town was a “company town”. The houses were for the miners and workers who processed the limestone dug out of the hills around it.

    The town was rather big, it had stores, a school, a Roman Catholic Church, (St. Mary’s) and a Protestant Church, a Post Office and railroad station and of course, lots of jobs. One of the stores was run by the limestone company and you could get your pay there, and have your purchases taken right out of it. Houses and buildings lined the road.

    The town was divided by the railroad tracks, most of the people living above the tracks were of European ancestry while the newer immigrants (?) lived below the tracks. (On the wrong side of the tracks?) Why the town disappeared isn’t known to me, maybe because the jobs were no longer there. The railroad tracks were removed in the early 80’s and the houses were torn down around the same time, give or take a decade or two.

    We started out on the far side of town. We looked along the old RR path looking for anything exciting. We came across an old coupler near where we think an incline might have been. We found a slew of bricks, none of which were interesting to the brick-collector of the bunch.

    In our group, we had one guy looking for old and interesting bricks, another who was photographing the streams, waterfalls and trees and me, who was mostly excited about re-visiting the Winfield Furnace. An odd group but we worked well together!

    We gradually worked our way back into the main section of what used to be the town. A small level spot in the road marks where the tracks used to cross it. Following this track we passed where a train station used to stand. There is nothing to suggest that any buildings ever stood there. It is a short walk to where the stack stands. High tree-like shrubs hide it from view. Piles of asphalt and a few pieces of metal machinery sit in what used to be the rail yard. 

If you are looking for the furnace you’d find it, if you were just walking through, you might pass it without ever realizing it.

    The furnace was built in 1847 and produced iron for 17 years, going out of blast in 1864. The stack is still standing tall but parts of it have collapsed into the center. Some of the stones have cracked and there are plants growing on it but all-in-all, it looks pretty good! There are various things painted on the stones but none are recent and they are slowly eroding away, like the furnace. I’ve said it before, it is sad that we as a people choose to degrade things to enable our being remembered. I’ve never understood the urge to put graffiti on old structures or buildings. (This could be another blog completely!)

    One of the men I was with told me that there was a pit near the furnace in which a railroad turntable had sat. In the picture above which was taken after a flood in 1904, both the furnace and the turntable can be seen. It supposedly spanned 60’. The turntable can also be seen in the first picture in this blog, in the bottom left, right above the word “birdseye”.

    I didn’t remember ever seeing it before and was excited when he pointed out where it was. I needed to work my way through some rather thick brush to get to it and I couldn’t really see it until I was actually inside it. It was filled with dirt and debris on one side and there were lots of things growing in it, obscuring the view. 

    Once I saw the wall, about 2-3 feet high, I could see the radius, the curve of it. Once I had seen that, I could picture it. I had walked over some stones from the wall on my way in and hadn't realized it. I would love to see what it would look like cleared out. Is there a center still in it? I’ll have to bring a small shovel with me on my next visit! 

    I have been to this site at least 12 times now. I took the picture above sometime in the late 70’s, you can see that the railroad was still there. I believe it was my first time to see the furnace. I think I first found out about it while reading A Guide to Historic Western Pennsylvania, a book that is still in my collection and used often.

    We all enjoyed the day and returned with a lot of pictures. Along with pictures I came home with some questions…why did the town disappear? Did the people just drift away as jobs became scarce? Does the cement/limestone company still own the area? Why did they bulldoze all the houses? Were they vandalized or was the company worried about fire or lawsuits? Hardly anything is left. Nature is taking it all back. Luckily, there are some records of the town along with a few pictures.

    West Winfield, stop by and visit it, a bit of Butler County history that is slowly fading away…

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?

The Christmas Eve Cruise- 2020

 

The Christmas Eve Cruise-2020

                The weather forecast was rather ominous; rain most of the day and then dropping temperatures leading into snowfall. The weather gurus were warning about travel problems and slippery roads. The bad conditions were due to start around 7 in the morning.

                Ann Marie and I had been thinking about taking a drive. Even though it might be a miserable day, we thought it would be nice to get out of the house for awhile and take a cruise in the car. We could do that and still remain “safe”. We decided to head north to the town of Franklin.

                The morning dawned with rain falling. The roads were wet but the temperatures were in the mid-40’s. The weather prognosticators had pushed the freezing temperatures and snow squalls back so things looked good for a drive. We were on the road by 9:30.

                In the second county we visited, Butler, we stopped to pick up a couple cups of coffee because we all know that a long drive always goes better with some hot coffee! The coffee was weak, I think there might have been some caffeine in it but I’m not really sure. It was served in a coffee cup so it must’ve been coffee...it was hot and it had a slight taste of coffee so I’m pretty sure that is what it was. (sigh)

                We stopped alongside the road about 8-10 miles out of Franklin to try and locate a Heron rookery. (also called a Heronry)  The last time we had been here it had been snowing, the road was covered and we turned around before we reached Franklin. We pulled over to try and find the tree covered with nests but we couldn’t see any more than 10-20 feet. Everything beyond was white. We didn’t stay long.

This year we were able to locate it. About 100 yards away from the road it almost looked as if the tree had flower blossoms on it. Dark objects sat near the ends of the limbs. With the binoculars we could see that they were bunches of sticks, nests hanging on the branches. There were no herons around. Most herons migrate to warmer climates during the winter. The tree has been their northern home for many years. Some of the older nests can be as large as four feet across and just as deep.

                After finding the rookery we continued into Franklin. The rain let up a bit giving us the opportunity to walk around the main part of town.

 We window shopped and got a couple cups of REAL coffee for the trip back. We had packed a couple sandwiches and ate them in the car. (Ham and cheese on 7 grain sour dough bread) We took Rt. 322 over to Brookville driving through Clarion on the way. A quick stop alongside the Clarion River to admire the fog gave us another chance to stretch our legs. The rain sent us back to the car quickly. In Brookville, we drove through the center of town but the rain kept us in the car.

Interestingly enough, Brookville is the county seat of Jefferson County. Franklin is the county seat of Venango County and Clarion is the county seat of Clarion County and to round it out, Butler is the county seat of Butler County. Our journey took us past Kittanning, the county seat of Armstrong County but we didn’t actually drive through it. We should have driven through Pittsburgh to add Allegheny County to the “County Seat” list. In all we passed through six counties on our journey.

                We nearly ran out of gas near Freeport. We had been watching the gas prices and the stations nearest to home were the cheapest. I just happened to look at the gas gauge and saw we had about 20 miles of gas left in the tank. A stop at the next gas station fixed that problem. Home was about 25 minutes away. We got back home around 3:30, the temperatures were still in the 40’s. The rain had increased but we were still snow free. We had traveled about 206 miles.

                It was five or six hours of watching the Pennsylvania scenery slip past our windows. The troubles of the world were left behind, just Ann Marie and me, warm and dry enjoying each other’s company. Listening to Christmas songs on the radio and sometimes singing along with em. What a nice way to spend Christmas Eve!