Silver and Gold Mines Yes they existed in Pa. at one time I actually got to mine in one

I would bet most of you never knew there was an actual working Silver Mine in Pa. near lancaster Pa.
Called the Pequa Silver  Mine.

http://lancasteronline.com/opinion/three-centuries-of-digging-into-pequea-silver-mine/article_5e3ced2e-1b4c-5562-842f-70702f286570.html

http://pequeasilvermine.blogspot.com/

As a young man in 1970's I got the chance to check it out one time after a next door neighbor Lenny Miscovitz   told me about investing in it and gave me a small printed folder  on it. By the time I got there it was no longer a working mine more of a tourist attraction near Lancaster Pa.  it is now a park and off limits the shafts have been sealed after the shafts flooded and caved in. It was another of Lenny's many bad investments which ultimately saw his losing all of his inherited money in one of those Nigerian money scams. 

 

http://www.pequeatwp.org/park-info/

While this was one of the actual documented mines there where many other smaller strikes and pits where mineral washed down with the glaciers and occasional small pockets are still to be found 

https://oroblanco.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/legends-of-lost-silver-mines-in-pennsylvania/

One such pit was said to be in Fayette County some where around where Laurel caverns is located .

While I did not find fame and fortune exploring the Pequa mine that day I did find all kind of neat quartz minerals to bring home and even a very small piece of silver worth about 25 cents   Which I had a camera with me that day but I did not . The matrix rock which holds the silver is extremely hard and requires dynamite etc if you want to do any real mining

 Unfortunately most of my mineral collection was lost or stolen over the years by people who thought they had some valuable mineral sample boy where they ever wrong.

However it was neat to go down in that old mine a see it all. But the older gentleman with me was not happy with what he was finding and decided not to spend much time and left the shaft  after about 15 minutes of exploring and I followed him out shortly. Good thing I later heard there had been a collapse a few days after we where there.

Tommy Knockers the Little Fairys who played tricks on and Warned Miners in W,Pa. Coal Mines

They called them the Tommy Knockers no not the Steven King Movie by the same name
These where the mythical little people like leprechauns  who lived underground who both fooled and warned the many Miners of Welsh decent  of a tragdy about to happen underground with there knocking on the walls

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knocker_%28folklore%29

http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/2010/07/tommy_knockers.html

The Tommy knockers where also responsible for mischief as well in the mines  hiding a miners tools when he would take a break then go back to work and they would be gone or moved.  many Tommy Knockers where believed to be the departed soul of miners killed in cave ins aas well who would warn there fellow miners a cave in was about to begin.

More likely a joke than real deal but many miners believed it.  as did Native American Tribes who describe a race of small people who caused mischief in the deep woods

How ever many years ago when I was a young man and I heard the Tommy knockers in an old silver mine  I was exploring for minerals when I collected them in Lancaster Pa area and got the hell out good thing there was a collapse couple weeks after my visit. Which is another stoy in itself and luckily no one got hurt .

I know when I was a kid many mine entrances where still left open in my area and the old miners would talk about not going in the mines due to the Tommy Knockers mischief  and fact when a shaft was filled in and blocked it trapped the little people underground and could not move onto the next mine workings. In carrick where I lived it was all undermined and at one time you could ride a train underground from carrick all the way to library . How ever when kids started getting to curious all the shafts in the area where finally sealed off after a couple nearly lost their lives.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1350&dat=19630711&id=a8cwAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OAEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4473,1697741

The now long forgotten Rodgers Field in Ohara Twp where Amelia Earhart once crashed her plane

Yes its hard to believe but where  homes sit along Rodgers Drive near the High school   in Ohara Twp. sits was once an airfield  Known as Rodgers Field
which passed into history in the 1930's

 http://www.airfields-freeman.com/PA/Airfields_PA_SW.htm#rodgers

http://triblive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/election/s_687969.html

http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=hswpead;cc=hswpead;rgn=main;view=text;didno=US-QQS-MFF131

 Yes if you drive thru there now hard to believe an airfield even existed there but a family I knew 

The Novasols  Nick,Hilda and there daughter Barbra all knew it existed there it was just a short peaceful walk from there property where there descendants where original homesteaders and farmers  

They talked about sitting and watching the planes while having a Sunday picnic all those years ago .The property is now developed with homes just like Rodgers was.

The Novasol property itself was once used by the Pittsburgh to Philadelphia canal company to keep and maintain its heard of donkeys .

Rodgers was one of the first aviation fields in Western Pa.  but because it did not properly maintain its grass runways and because planes kept getting bigger and needed more run way it fell into irrelevance as aviation evolved .

 However there is one noteworthy event in history that happened here and thats the day Emilia Earhart   crashed her plane after successfully landing and then hitting one of those ruts in the field on one of her many plane trips before vanishing forever.

http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/September-2012/A-Rough-Landing-in-Fox-Chapel/

 While we know what happened in Pittsburgh  we still do not know what happened to Emelia after she took off on a round the world flight and never returned. Thou researchers apear to be getting closer to the answer.