Hike along Gunpowder Falls and see ruins of mills

(North County News) Gunpowder Falls State Park ranger Robert Bailey will lead a Mill Hike on Feb. 25 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Winter is the best time of year to see the ruins of mills that once operated along the Gunpowder Falls. The hike begins at the Paper Mill Road parking lot of the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail. Participants will visit the site of Ashland Furnace, an anthracite-fired furnace active in the mid-19th century, as well as other buildings from that same time period. Continued

Century-old family cemetery is unlikely tenant for Towson Circle III

(Towson Times) As progress has plowed through downtown Towson over the years, family members buried in the 19th century at the Catharine Schmuck Cemetery off Virginia Avenue have had little opportunity to rest in peace.
In fact, right now might be the quietest time for the small Shealey and Schmuck family grave site, surrounded by largely empty parking lots.
That peace will soon be broken with excavation set to begin on an 862-car underground parking garage beneath a 16-screen movie theater — the centerpiece of the Towson Circle III development.
Still, developers of the project say they'll make sure that, at the very least, those buried at the site will continue to rest in the same place. Continued

What Remains

(NYTimes) Perhaps the most famous house of 1861 was, by July of that year, no longer standing. The home, called Spring Hill, belonged to Judith Henry, an invalid widow, and stood on a hill overlooking Bull Run. In the battle that engulfed the fields around Spring Hill on July 21, Henry was killed and her home destroyed, save for a few remnant beams and a section of chimney.
Over the next four years of war, countless thousands of homes, from grand mansions to decrepit shacks, would be damaged or destroyed. Many others were simply abandoned by fleeing families, never to be reclaimed. What was left behind was a landscape of human ruin, some of it still standing today, 150 years later. Continued

Walking and documenting the B&O Railroad

(Baltimore Sun) John David Hiteshew Sr. and Jr. — both known as David — spent four years walking and exploring hundreds of miles of Maryland railroad trackage to document the industrial infrastructure and physical characteristics of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the nation's first common carrier railroad that began building westward from Baltimore in 1827.
They were armed with walking shoes, notepads and a digital camera used to photograph trackage, alignments, curves, grades, tunnels, culverts, bridges — both stone and steel, yards, signals and wayside structures affiliated with the railroad.
They also recorded stations, towers, shop buildings, and the remains or foundations where structures had once stood. No detail, no matter how mundane or pedestrian, escaped their attention and recording process. Continued

Photo: MDRails

Travel the York - Hanover Trolley Line: Abandoned PA

The York Hanover Trolley Line was operated as a passenger trolley line from 1908 until 1939. The historic line, which is approximately 16 miles in length, provided a transportation connection for many outlying communities such as Graybills, Bairs, Sunnyside, and Menges Mills.Take only pictures; leave only footprints.

The Manassas Gap Railroad In Centreville

(Patch) With a tremendous degree of anticipation, I decided recently to set out, Indiana Jones-style, and find a relic from the past. Of course, being limited to Centreville and the surrounding area, I wouldn't find a gold trinket or biblical treasure. Instead, I looked for an archaeological relic—in this particular case a pair of bridge abutments from the Civil War. "You know, you're kind of reinventing the wheel," Jim Burgess, Ranger and Museum Specialist from Manassas National Battlefield Park warned me. "Others have already written about the unfinished railroad." They have, indeed, but with the sesquicentennial of the Civil War approaching, I figured now would be a good time to revisit. Continued

Digs under old outhouses turn up interesting bottles

(YDR) Many collectible enthusiasts search high and low for the items they treasure most, whether it's coins, jewelry, dolls or other antiques. Old bottle enthusiast Thomas Grove Jr. mostly searches low -- preferably below old privy sites.
"Many young people don't know what a privy is," said Grove, of Dover. "It's another name for an outhouse."
Grove has been digging at privy sites for eight years, always hoping to find something rare. Continued

Image: Outhouse, Abingdon Rosenwald School (Falmanac).

Linking the Keys

(LoC) On January 22, 1912, the nearly twenty thousand residents of the city of Key West, Florida, located on a small island some 128 miles south of the Florida peninsula, observed the completion of an overseas rail connection to the mainland. The Florida East Coast Railway served the island until 1935, when it was destroyed by a hurricane. It was replaced in 1938 by the Overseas Highway, built on the foundation of the old railroad bed. This system of forty-two bridges, which connects the Florida Keys to the mainland, is one of the longest over-water roads in the world. Continued

Photos: MDRails

Fort Towson

(Wikipedia) Fort Towson was a frontier outpost for Frontier Army Quartermasters along the Permanent Indian Frontier located about two miles (3 km) northeast of the present community of Fort Towson, Oklahoma.
It was established in May 1824, under Col. Matthew Arbuckle, on the southern edge of Indian Territory to guard the Spanish border. It was named for Nathaniel Towson, Paymaster General of the Army.
... The last remaining Confederate Army troops, commanded by General Stand Watie, surrendered to Union forces at Fort Towson on June 23, 1865, following the Battle of Doaksville. Continued

Where Ghost Passengers Await Very Late Trains

(NYTimes) ... THE Bronx stations of the old New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad are like a string of pearls — a very broken string. Some have been lost, and others are being slowly crushed by the boot of time.
Built in 1908 and designed by Cass Gilbert, those that have not been demolished are near collapse, like the Westchester Avenue station. It is a sublime glazed terra-cotta temple, its little tragedy now exposed on all four sides with the opening of the new Concrete Plant Park. Continued

Photo: Westchester Avenue station Jim.henderson/Wikipedia

Dawn of the Dead Mall

(Change Observer) ... Good riddance to bad rubbish, some say. In the comment thread to the November 12, 2008, Newsweek article, “Is the Mall Dead?,” a reader writes, “The end of temples of consumerism and irresponsibility? Sweet. The demise of a culture of greed? No problem.”
But wait, my Inner Marxist wonders: isn’t that the voice of bobo privilege talking? Teens marooned in decentered developments didn’t ask to live there; for many of them, the local mall is the closest thing to a commons, be it ever so ersatz. And malls are employment engines. Sure, in many cases the jobs they generate are low-skill and low-wage, but From Each According to His Ability, etc. Continued

Photo of the Hunt Valley Mall courtesy of Deadmalls.com

Shipwrecks on the Chesapeake

Via Windows on Cecil County's Past (WoCCP)

The Last Best Ghost Town: Bodie, California

(mental floss) By 1879 Bodie boasted a population of 10,000 and was second to none for wickedness, badmen and “the worst climate out of doors.” One little girl, whose family was taking her to the remote and infamous town, wrote in her diary: “Goodbye God, I’m going to Bodie.” Continued

Photos: Library of Congress

Sparks students celebrate old and not-so-old school buildings

(North County News) - Sparks Elementary School is throwing a party to celebrate 10 years of existence at its Belfast Road location and to honor the 100-year history of the stone building on Sparks Road that was destroyed in a 1995 fire.
The festivities are Oct. 3, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., and include a visit from Joe Hairston, Baltimore County schools superintendent, as well as current and former students, teachers and administrators. Continued

Photos: Falmanac. We have more pictures of the old school building here.

24 indicted in Four Corners artifact theft probe

SALT LAKE CITY (MSNBC) - Two dozen people were indicted Wednesday after a sweeping undercover investigation into ancient artifacts stolen from public and tribal lands in the Four Corners area.
Federal indictments unsealed Wednesday accuse the people of stealing, receiving or trying to sell American Indian artifacts, including bowls, stone pipes, sandals, arrowheads, jars, pendants and necklaces. Continued

Photo: Library of Congress

The Antiquities Act of 1906

(Wikipedia) - The Antiquities Act of 1906, officially An Act for the Preservation of American Antiquities (16 USC 431-433), is an act passed by the United States Congress and signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt on June 8, 1906 giving the President of the United States authority to restrict the use of particular public land owned by the federal government by executive order, bypassing Congressional oversight. The Act has been used over a hundred times since its passage. Its use frequently creates significant controversy. Continued

Photo: Pueblo Bonito Chaco Canyon New Mexico (Library of Congress).

Lebow Clothing Factory

"Photos taken at the abandoned Lebow Clothing Factory in Baltimore, MD. Lebow Clothing manufactured fine suits and jackets at this factory. This building also housed a consumer outlet store. The site appears to have shut down sometime in the 80's, but unfortunately, there isn't much information about why this factory was closed." Link

Via boingboing

The Hill of Slane

This is a video response to Call for films for Wyllie O Hagan St Patrick's Day Film Festival

Almost Gone: Another Farm

New Freedom, PA (vicinity).

Canon EOS 50D

A piece of Rodgers Forge history

(Baltimore Sun) - The heavy black piece of iron has spent the past few decades at Rodgers Forge Elementary School, first on display in the school library, then migrating into storage and even serving as a doorstop before the principal spirited it away to a closet for safekeeping. Now the Rodgers Forge school is offering the piece to the Maryland Historical Society, in hopes that it will once again serve as a reminder of the Towson-area neighborhood's roots. Continued

Photo: Hardfortheyard.com