If you travel through any rural area in northwestern Pennsylvania, you will invariably see large boulders dotting the landscape. Most often, they have become lawn ornaments of a sort in homeowners’ yards, marking the entrances to driveways or delineating property lines. These boulders vary in size all the way up to as large as aContinue reading “Erratically Speaking”
Tag Archives: Falls Run
Mayhem at the Cottage
We recently came across a poignant statistic: Only a small percentage of Americans can readily name all eight of their great-grandparents. According to a 2019 survey by Ancestry®: – About 21 percent of Americans don’t know which city any of their grandparents were born in.– 14 percent don’t know what any of their grandparents doContinue reading “Mayhem at the Cottage”
The Portage Escarpment
Background In our earlier Blog, “Formation of the Falls Run Gorge,” we discussed the potential dynamics of how the Gorge and Falls formed during the end of the Laurentide Ice Age over 12,000 years ago. Further review of literature on similar gorges in Ohio and New York allowed us to refine these dynamics further andContinue reading “The Portage Escarpment”
Hillside
Prologue: Last week the Girl Scouts of America received a record donation of $84.5 million from Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. Among other uses, the grant is meant to “create more equitable membership opportunities in communities that have been under-engaged” and “foster meaningful program innovation informed by the current interests and needs of girls to prepare themContinue reading “Hillside”
Update: Falls Run Name Correction
In April of last year, we posted about the ecologically important tributary of Elk Creek where Howard Falls is located. Falls Run originates two miles south of Howard Falls at the St Lawrence continental divide and is a rather insignificant stream for those first two miles. However, after cascading over the Falls, the Falls RunContinue reading “Update: Falls Run Name Correction”
Jake Weiggel and the Legend of the Counterfeit $20s
As we continue to tell the history of Howard Falls, there are stories outside the Howard family we feel are equally important to share – stories about families who were also stewards of the Falls Run Gorge. One such family was the Weiggels, who owned a portion of the Falls Run Gorge property to theContinue reading “Jake Weiggel and the Legend of the Counterfeit $20s”
Old-Growth Forests
Have you ever walked in an old-growth forest? Probably not, as in the Eastern United States, almost all of that majestic forest was clear-cut by 1920. However, before Europeans arrived in North America that old growth forest stretched totally unbroken, from Florida to Maine and west to the Great Plains, as the virgin forest mapContinue reading “Old-Growth Forests”
History of Franklin Township
While most history of the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania starts with settlers coming across a remote, untraveled forest, in reality, this land may have once been the ancestral home to indigenous people and the original stewards of what we now call Howard Falls. In the coming years, we hope to explore and research the indigenousContinue reading “History of Franklin Township”
Formation of the Falls Run Gorge
Waterfalls, such as Howard Falls, are dynamic formations but can maintain their vertical faces over long periods of time. A classic example of such a waterfall is Niagara Falls, where over 100,000 cubic feet of water flow over the escarpment every second, yet the waterfall remains vertical because of a hard sandstone layer at theContinue reading “Formation of the Falls Run Gorge”
Falls Run Name Correction
Falls Run is an ecologically important tributary of Elk Creek, located in Erie County, Pennsylvania. This stream has its origins near the St Lawrence Divide as it crosses Franklin Township in Erie County, PA. Flowing northerly toward its confluence with Elk Creek, it passes through three Pennsylvania Natural Heritage areas, namely Falls Run-Shenango Creek HeadwatersContinue reading “Falls Run Name Correction”