Flaigs Guns a Legendary lodge which was hidden high up in a hill side in Ross Twp Pa. and supposedly had Nazi Leanings

The unique wood sign with carved in lettering which sat at the corner of Thompson Run and  Evergreen Rd is long gone but the legendary Flaigs Hunting Lodge and Gun store  will never be forgotten by those who visited it high up on a cliff along the road which took you up a long narrow twisting and intimating steep path to it. Many would turn around and go back rather than going all the way to the top as it was a challenging if not scary drive up there . I was only there one time when I was tracking down my friend Anthony Skotaks firearms ,which went missing and I inquired had any one tried selling them to him ,as they where very high end hunting rifles and shot guns. Many people thought Flaig was a Nazi or had Nazi leaning because he had Nazi flags and a bust of Adolph Hitler in the shop. It was even thought that during WWII there was collusion with the Nazis going on there the late night secret meetings and such which supposedly went on . Any truth to it? who knows  the shop is long closed now and its secrets long lost. Its private property now. But the rumors still go on to this day.

    But lets allow this edited excerpt in the Pittsburgh Press tell the story from when Mr. Flaig Passed

 February 6, 1991 The Pittsburgh Press Mr.Flaig moved to Ross about 1940. After Flaig's death in 1978, Mellon Bank administered the gun business. "He never set up any provisions for somebody to run it," said Forsythe. Former Aspinwall resident John Levendos, an exporter of commercial shooting supplies, bought Flaig's about two years ago. Levendos always knew about the place, but stayed away. "It was intimidating. I didn't want to go up the driveway. It has Transylvania overtones. Dense stands of tall evergreens still line the narrow road , that climbs, twists and leads to Flaig's, a maze of small buildings on 13 steep acres. Customers do business in the lodge, an 18th-century log house, moved to the site in 1927. A knob shaped like a rabbit "hanging by its back paws opens the lodge's front door. Resale rifles and shotguns hang from the ceiling beams. Antlers from European stags and roe deer decorate the .walls. Shooting supplies fill the cases and shelves. Oblivious to the business at hand, deer and squirrels freely roam the property, safe from the test firings performed on every gun,-new or repaired. "They're safe. We're not that bloodthirsty," said Forsythe. Test shots go into a sand-filled concrete chamber built into ground behind the gun shop where Forsythe works. Although he specializes in 'gun work, Forsythe also carves animals and birds in his spare time. Mr.Nelson was always good; with wood," said former Flaig's manager Bill Knabel of Ross. "He'll duplicate anything by hand. He does a lot .of statue carving. One of his hawks is sitting right here in my kitchen."- Forsythe and his wife, Doris, both shooters, spend most weekends at their farm in Lockport, Mifflin County. They have one daughter, Nicola Hood of Richland. ".: The couple, married almost' 40 years, met as youths. "A date was going out groundhog hunting," said Mrs. Forsythe, who has three guns made by her husband. She often hears about his projects at home. "He's always very proud of the guns he has made. He'll come home and say, 'I made a gun for. this person today.' "He likes to see the finished product, the beautiful wood," she continued. "That's what gives the gun-its beauty Lovers of fine firearms appreciate Nelson Forsythe, a quiet craftsman of uncommon artistry. Forsythe chisels and melds the choice woods and blackened steel that become one in guns made at Flaig's, a one of a kind of shooter's emporium on a hillside in Ross. ' Flaig's reputation for "Serving sportsmen Around the Globe" largely rests with Forsythe, "one of the  best stock makers in the country," said shop manager George Lnoll Jr. "He has made guns for kings, and he has made guns for gasoline station attendants," said Jae Levendos, wife of Flaig's owner, John Levendos. one of Forsythe's latest projects include matching hunting rifles for a Saudi Arabian prince and princess.  The prince's rifle, a Remington powerful enough to hunt elephants, will feature a barrel modified to educe recoil. Hand carvings  will embellish the stocks of both guns, priced about $5,300 for the pair. "It's just another job," said Forsythe, who makes the custom riffles and shotguns each year for hunters and target shooters. He specializes in gun stocks, usually made from assorted walnuts. He also repairs and alters guns for customers across the United States. You always run into something you haven't seen before." More than 100 chisels, rasps and chapers hang above the narrow workbench where Forsythe works, overlooking traffic on Thompson run Road. He talked last week while repairing a loaded shell from one gun's ammed action. "I'm a chiseler," said the 61-year-)ld Butler County resident, one of five gunsmiths among Flaig's eight employees. Each custom-made gun begins as a piece of wood that is cut by machine according to one of more than 100 patterns available to suit any shooter's physical build. While other gunsmiths blacken, cut and assemble the receiver, barrel and trigger, Forsythe fits the wood parts of each gun to its metal components. The exacting work of Gunsmith Nelson Forsythe carves out the stock to Donald J. Stetz of The Pittsburgh Press a rifle by tracing over a template 1953, remembers Forsythe the student "His work stood out." Other fans include Howard Wells of Peters, a gun manufacturer's representative and former professional shooter for the Winchester Repeating Arms Co. "He has built several guns for me. He has done an incredible job. He's a tremendous craftsman. The guns I have, that Nelson has built, have worked as smooth as butter." had to hold it up on a fence for me." Forsythe came to Flaig's in 1957 after training at the Pennsylvania Gunsmith School in Avalon. "They needed somebody and I needed a job." He started as a barrel fitter before he found his niche in woodworking. "I was always more interested in wood than I was in metals." George Thacker, director of the Pennsylvania Gunsmith School since Fellow gunsmith George Bole of Middlesex, a competitor, also praised Forsythe's skill: "He is as good as they come." But Forsythe remains humble about his work. "Really, that's the only thing I've ever done. I can't do much else. A lot of people came and went I just kind of hung in there." The late Edwin Flaig, a World War I veteran, established his gun business in 1934 on the North Side  which requires accuracy within a few thousandths of an inch, "to make it look like the metals are growing out of the wood," said Forsythe, who lives , in Jefferson. A railroader's son and a veteran of the Korean conflict, Forsythe grew up in a family of Mifflin County hunters. "Guns were always an interest to me," be said, recalling his first shot from an old Winchester. "

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