One of the Senior Design projects our students in the Civil Engineering Department at Pitt implemented this term was an extensive study of the feasibility of reversing the tendency of Canonsburg Lake to slowly transition from a healthy body of water into a permanent wetland. I distinctly remember when “the aluminum dam” was constructed, forming what is now known as Canonsburg Lake. I remember my father taking my brother and me there fishing in its earlier days. I remember going to plays at the Little Lake Theater in the 1960s. My curiosity made it easy for me to decide to…

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A recent article in the Post-Gazette reported on the dedication of the Gladden Abandoned Mine Drainage (AMD) remediation facility and its effect on Millers Run. For as long as I can remember, this stream, running through the heart of South Fayette, has been a bright orange color, and perhaps the most glaring example of the pollution generated by AMD throughout the Chartiers Creek watershed. My response was to drive to the “mouth of Millers Run” and see for myself. The sight from the bridge carrying Brockwell Street over Millers Run just above the point where it enters Chartiers Creek was…

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The last Tuesday in April presented me with a conflict. The good news was that our Book Club, which has been meeting remotely for over a year was going to convene at Norm Cohen’s home, in person. The bad news was that the Bridgeville Area Historical Society was holding a program meeting that I wanted to attend, at the same time. Fortunately more good news showed up when Tim McNellie filmed the presentation and posted it on “Bridgeville.org”. I knew I would be interested in the presentation as soon as I saw its title, “Day-by-day with the 123rd Pennsylvania Volunteers:…

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One of my favorite experiences each term is serving as a mentor for a team in Pitt’s Civil Engineering Senior Design Project program. Despite the complications of pandemic social distancing, the program has managed to continue to provide each graduating senior with a valuable “near-real-world” engineering experience as a member of an integrated design team. The project assigned to the team I mentored dealt with the feasibility of renovating a major historical building in Brownsville, the Monongahela Railroad Union Station. Combining three of my passions – history, railroading, and engineering – it was an ideal fit for me. The Monongahela…

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It is always a treat to watch Spring arrive in our woods. Somehow the combination of Pandemic exhaustion and my recent illness has made it even more special than usual this year. By my calculations it is about ten days late this year, and more welcome than ever. My walks in the woods invariably begin with a visit to the tree we planted in memory of wife four years ago. We chose a tulip tree in homage to the four magnificent specimens that bordered the deck on our cottage at Conneaut Lake. We dug up saplings in my sister-in-law’s yard…

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I continue to be thrilled by the construction of a new barn at Woodville, part of Neville House Associates’ ambitious project to create “the Woodville Experience” by complementing the Neville House with authentic outbuildings. The result will provide twenty-first century visitors with an opportunity to experience life on a wealthy western Pennsylvania estate in the eighteenth century. The skeleton of the barn is constructed from hand hewn timbers that originally were part of a barn built near Latrobe early in the 1800s. When I wrote about this project a month ago, the erection crew had preassembled the four transverse bents…

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The Bridgeville Area Historical Society celebrated Women’s History Month by welcoming back one of their favorite speakers, Dr. Todd DePastino, and an excellent presentation entitled “Women in World War II”. Todd began his talk with an examination of society’s attitude toward women in general and women in the workplace specifically in the years preceding World War II. He chose to introduce this subject by discussing William Marston, the subject of the recent film “Professor Marston and the Wonder Women”. Marston was an eccentric person, a prominent psychologist and feminist. He was convinced that the masculine personality was responsible for most…

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Our recent column on the evolution of Native Americans in this area ended with the Iroquois in control of the Ohio Country at the beginning of the eighteenth century, treating it primarily as “hunting grounds”. At this point, other nations began to move back into the area – notably the Delaware being forced west by the settlers in eastern Pennsylvania and the Shawnee returning from their diaspora in the south. We will begin our discussion of this era by dealing with the Indian settlements in western Pennsylvania, and defer talking about individuals for a later column. We have chosen the…

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March means different things to different people, most of them positive. Pirate fans like spring training, when “hope springs eternal” and their team hasn’t yet been eliminated from the pennant race. Horticulturalists celebrate the return of daffodils and hyacinths after their winter dormancy. Basketball fans are thrilled by the NCAA tournament and their own “brackets”. For me March is the time for my favorite sports event – the Iditarod. My interest in this wonderful race dates back nearly two decades to an equally wonderful trip my wife and I made to Alaska. Intermingled with many other enjoyable experiences on this…

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A lot of exciting things have happened at Woodville in the past two and a half centuries – I am excited about something happening there right now! Several years ago the Neville House Associates announced “The Woodville Experience” Capital Campaign, a fund raising effort with the goal of enhancing this National Historic Landmark and create “an extraordinary living history complex”. The enhancements include an interpretive log cabin, a whisky still shelter, a fully restored field well, and a circa 1810 Belgian style barn, each faithfully restored to match the late eighteenth century feel of the Neville House. Watching the barn…

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