A Horrific Circus Train Wreck in 1800s near Altoona rumored as source for many Exotic and Cryptic Animals seen around Pa.

 The mountainous  area around Central Pa has seen numerous Accidents over the years be it on a road way and a truck running away   or railroad tracks and one such horrific accident in Tyrone on a steep curve  would end up being the source for many rumored sightings of exotic animals like Black Panthers which should not be here in Pa. . 

 

It was Memorial day in 1893 when the fully loaded  17 car train with custom and oversized railroad cars of the Walter L. Mains  Circus would go off the tracks of the Tyrone and Clearfield  Railroad.  Now known as Norfolk Southern Line on a particular hard right turn curve feared by many an Engineer. 

https://tyroneeagleeyenews.com/126-years-later-tyrone-circus-trainwreck-impacts-the-past-and-present-community/

 

https://www.circusesandsideshows.com/circuses/walterlmaincircus.html

Only the first half of the train and its cars had air brakes the other cars brakeman would have to apply them by hand  and with the trains car being overly long and engineers going into the curve higher than the posted speed tragedy was bound to happen .

The engine and first 2 cars made it but the cars carrying the elephants and other items did not 

and crashed into the  gully and hillside below it was a horrific scene .

In all 6 men would die as well as hundreds of horses and other animals some having to be put down due to being traumatized.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1tgtREE5A8

Strangely some animals like 1 of the 2 lions  sat down by a tree and was quickly collared

Within a week of the accident the circus was able to rebuild and was back on the road . a memorial along one of the roads  is honored yearly in Tyrone

But the story does not end there and even has a strange twist.

Many of the animals where never captured and made it many miles away naturally following the tracks and people claim  to this day that this train wreck is the reason for so many Crytid type animals in Pa 

Due to the interbreeding of these exotic animals with native animals. They sight the mythical Jackalope as an example .Even Big Foot.

While authority's claim the animals would of never survived the cold Pa winters there was plenty of time for cross breeding that summer so who really knows and never say they all could not have survived they may well have made it had they found proper shelter.

Now in a strange twist I was with my wife at railroad museum and saw pictures of the wreck 

and my wife remarked. Her Great Grandfather Albert Tretow who became the first Superintendent of Pittsburgh Zoo was an animal trainer for the Mains Circus But was not involved in the wreck.

He died of a lung disease we now believe to be Bird Flu as he took care of many exotic birds.

The Bellaire House of Mystery in Bellaire Ohio. Definitely an Active Paranormal site you need to investigate

 As you ride thru the Ohio Valley between WV and OH  you come across plenty of abandoned and spooky looking homes and buildings left over from the days when Glass, Steel ,Coal Mining and Pottery Making ruled the valley.

Luckily Bellaire House  which sat empty for a while and was rumored to be haunted  managed to survive the building of Ohio Route 7 which just like its parallel cousin WV Route  2 saw the ripping out and destruction of many homes business and geological features in the valley.

While the Bellaire house  over 100 years old looks like large   Plain Farm House don't lets ts exterior fool you 

Rumored to sit on Ley Lines  and near a continuous water source to draw energy from the Ohio River as well as many other claims in the houses supposed history which  I could not verify as time lines do not match up as well as incidents which happened I can find no proof of  I have researched on it . 

 But there is definitely  paranormal activity's with in  which I can verify because many of the pictures I took would not transfer to this blog no matter what I did never had this problem before.and other investigators who have had experiences as well.

Built over a Hundred years ago by Jacob Heatherington  an owner of Coal Mines in the Valley for him and his wife Eliza Armstrong

 

 

They would have a daughter Rebeca . the house would be passed down to a grand daughter Edna who would pass in the home from Illness in her teens .

The home went thru several owners to then sit vacant for many years  

While it was sitting vacant  neighbors claimed to see people walking about and looking out the windows thou it was locked tight

When Kristen Lee was looking for a home built higher up in the valley after going thru 2 floods in 2005 her and her family moved in and that's when the fun began.  Little incidents soon became intense from pillow being tossed at people to Copper Penny's and much worse according to Kristen.

That forced them to move out .

Kristen now offers those brave enough to stay overnight to stay on Saturday and Sunday evenings investigations 

The home still has all its original Wood work and many beautiful Fire Places 3 story's in all  .

I was given a tour by Dove  and decedent of Jacob who told me of the many happenings in the house.  

Dare you stay at whats rumored to be among the top 5 paranormal hot sots in America? 

For Further information 

 

www.bellairehousetours.com

A Horific and forgotten Accicdent in Waltersburg Pa which helped to expose the Ford Pinto Exploding Gas Tank Scandal

 In the 1970s Ford motor  company produced the Ford Pinto Compact Hatch Back  Car  It was a great starter car or one for work  except for a hidden flaw 

which in 1973 caused several horrific accidents that saw the occupants of the vehicles burned to death when the cars where hit from behind and gas tanks exploded .

https://www.autosafety.org/ford-pinto-fuel-tank/

 

It got so bad that people started putting signs on their vehicles rear windows saying stay back and flammable saw many riding with our parents on road trips  . My Cousin owned a light green  one and got rid of it as soon as all the bad press came out

 

One such accident in early 70's  now long forgotten which brought the tragedy to life was witnessed by a friend of mine Ken Holzer 

He was a delivery driver for a seafood distributor  at time of wreck and witnessed 2 young lady's be struck from behind  by a pickup their car exploding and then being pushed into the wooded section off of Pa 51  south  also known as Pittsburgh Street in a sleepy little town of Waltersburg.

Just past the  old wooden  historic post office  and 4 way intersection

There was nothing Ken or anyone else could do  that day who witnessed it  and Ken had nightmares about it for years  after and this accident  helped to bring to light the travesty of a scandal  that Ford knew they had a problem and decided to ignore it and pay claims silently instead.  I remember seeing the Newscast the evening of the wreck the reporter was almost in tears . There was also a big write up in Post Gazette but I have not as yet been able to find it.

A large white wooden cross stood in the wooded section of the road for many years marking where the Young Lady s Car landed and eventually fell down and was removed and gravel added into the spot and leveled.

Pa.51 has a very long and deadly legacy over it entire route over 500 plus people have perished over  the decades  from the Ohio line in Beaver County to the end of its lanes in Uniontown in Fayette County. Just last week 3 people died in 2 separate accidents  where excessive speed was involved and vehicle exploded  and they where burned to death. one lady driver was estimated to be going over 120 miles an hour when she hit a steel traffic light post. 

and a young couple died in a fire feed wreck near Allen's Haunted Hayride after smashing into a Water Tanker Truck  at very high speeds you can see the scorched road in picture below.

In both wrecks there would have been NO Fire and Explosion had they been driving at legal speed limits .

With the fact Ford knew there where problems and did nothing the public's eyes where opened to this horrible tragedy and finally the Pintos where recalled around 1978

 

 

AM Radio Waves and the Paranormal Activity they seem to enhance is there anything really to it?

 I have been an investigator of the Unknown and Paranormal for over 45 years and a Contract AM / FM Broadcast Engineer for over 20

While most of the time I can rule out if something is being caused by paranormal activity which is 99% of the time there is that 1 % I can not rule out and that is where the real investigating begins. What is causing it. 

Well now when  I combine the 2 fields of my work Broadcast  Engineer and Paranormal  Investigator that's where things started getting strange to point I started lecturing on it. As you can see below at the recent Creature Fest V in Uniontown Pa. where i am showing all the current radio-wave activity in the theater with a  RF Spectrum Analyzer

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While researching Radio wave patterns for FCC license for AM based Radio stations after one of the stations I contract with was being over run by another station at night because they had failed to lower power or  shut down at dusk as required by FCC I noticed a very strange correlation between where day and night patterns go to. and cross and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM_broadcasting

There also seems to be more Big Foot and UFO activity around these AM transmitter sites as well. 

So I was wondering is there a connection ?  there appears to be one 

Though some may scoff at the idea if you spend time with Broadcast Engineers, Tower Climbers etc. in private they all have strange encounter stories at there transmitter sites often off road and in isolated areas. 

So whats going on?

Well there is  the theory that UFO's and Big Foot  regenerate themselves and draw power from the AM transmitter sites. 

 

This is because partly how they are designed . Where standard FM Towers  the antennas are up near the top  where RF radiates and come in many different styles

FM Antenna

AM antennas however  are considered HOT RF Towers the entire tower is hot with RF and used as an antenna. When a tower is turned on any one attempting to climb them can be severely burned from the RF or even killed to point of being vaporized when you touch a Clear Channel stations tower like KDKA 1020 AM  which are at 50,000 watts  that's 30 amps of RF power going into the tower.

In fact AM antenna towers never touch the ground the tower structures sit on Large  Insulators  

and the towers free float this is why they have all the guy wires FM do not have. There are even 3 and 4 leg AM Antennas which also sit on Insulators  and are fully RF hot like in the example below for WOR AM

 

As you can see in the above photo there is also a grid of wires that go out underground  from tower as far as tower is tall in the shape of a bicycle tire rim. 

If your thinking there is a treasure of Copper to steal your right but majority of stations including all of mine have coated there copper to render it useless to a thief and remember TRESPASSING AND CAUSING DAMAGE AT A BROADCAST FACILITY IS A FEDERAL CRIME 

So in theory a Big Foot walking thru  or  UFO craft landing in the field  could receive energy the stations are transmitting. 

Which many believe that Big Foot is Interdemensional  why other argue its flesh and blood

But where you find big foot you often find UFO reports. 

One such hot Spot is  the Chestnut Ridge are of  Pa. in Westmoreland County 

Where several Big Foot -UFO groups exist  and Films and documentary have been made  and don't forget Kecksburg and its famous UFO incident is just a few miles away

So while looking at day and night patterns in particular WCNS 1480 AM in Latrobe  which is a Wildcard stations because it unlike most AM stations goes Up in Power at Night instead of down in power like most stations due so they do not interfere with each other when the Ionosphere and Stratosphere go together forming the night sky wave.

During the day the 4 tower facility  has only tower 1# active at 500 watts  and at night all 4 towers comes on and power is locked north south at 1000 watts 

and goes directly up the chestnut ridge. 

 

to left is daytime coverage 

and above is night time coverage going up along the ridge.

Anyone who has investigated the ridge can tell you it is much more active at night .

Coincidence?

Well to make things interesting WCNS was off the air for a month and half  after a snake crawled into the transmitter and damaged it and took it off the air this summer .

When I checked with Stan Gordan and others there seemed to be a less amount of activity on the ridge 

again Coincidence ? 

Well then consider this a friend Shane Ronzio of Creature Fest V  combined all the day and night patterns onto a map for me and some very interesting results happened 

Every where there is a cross or X of lines is a known paranormal Hot Spot again Coincidence? 

Go onto Radio Locator .com download the grids of power levels  get the reports from Stan Gordon and others and decide for yourself.

Is there really something going on ?  or not .

Other have also suggested to look at Ley Line patterns and see if the coordinate as well.  

Either way Keep it Spooky.

A Horrific War Time Tragedy in Beaver County Pa lost to History

 While our men where fighting overseas during WWII  and saw horrific conditions and tragedy the same was true for those on the Home Front . So many where killed and mangled either at work and even just simply on there way to and from work this is one such tragedy which took place like many others around Christmas time on December 23rd 1942.

Men and women on their way to and from a shift at the Aliquippa J&L Steel Works and small stores which lined its streets they worked would never make it home that day .

Because that day the Ohio River Coach Bus they are riding to Pittsburgh will be involved in a massive landslide which would take 22 of their lives  buried under 200 tons of rocks and  60 ton boulder aprox. 1/2 mile  from the Ambridge -Aliquippa Bridge on Constitution Boulevard  also known as Pa route 51. 

which fell off a 600 foot cliff. 

Now this section of road has always been a hazard ever since i was a kid it would have to be closed and rocks cleared and in 90s was totally rebuilt after a major slide

Below is a full accounting of the story from the Little  Beaver County Historical Society Face Book Page

Huge Boulders Drop From Hillside On Constitution Boulevard Near Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge

ALIQUIPPA, Dec. 23 - A mangled mass of painted steel lying along the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie railroad tracks and a mass of massive rocks, mud and shale which completely blocks Constitution Blvd., is mute evidence today of one of Beaver County's most tragic calamities.

Twenty-two persons were killed and four injured when a road side cliff collapsed over an Ohio River Motor Coach Company bus enroute from Aliquippa to Pittsburgh at 5:10 p.m. yesterday on the boulevard about one-half a mile from the Ambridge-Aliquippa Bridge and directly across from Jones and Laughlin Steel Corporation's coke ovens.

CLIFF WEAKENED

The towering 600 foot cliff had been weakened by recent weather conditions. As the bus passed along the highway at its base, 200 tons of rock and dirt, including one boulder weighing approximately 60 tons, smashed down on the bus which was loaded with home-going steel workers and Christmas shoppers.

Except for a bit of the rear of the bus, the machine was at the bottom of a 10 to 12 foot heap of rubble. Volunteers with shovels were joined by police and air raid wardens, finally, by a mobile railroad crane. Because the bus was smashed almost flat, the rubble had to be entirely removed before all the bodies could be extricated.

The bus was turned around and pushed off the road by the avalanche and it and the rocks on top of it hung precariously over the 30 foot bank above the railroad tracks making the digging operations more difficult.

THROWS ON BRAKES

At the time of the rock avalanche, Earl Baeuerlein, driving The Daily Citizen car, enroute to Aliquippa to deliver papers, saw it start and hurriedly threw on the brakes. The car stopped at the edge of the rocks. He, with Raymond McNees and Robert Rosensteel, who were in the car, were the first at the scene of the accident on the Ambridge side.

They witnessed the escape of Joseph Manko, Pittsburgh, from the wreckage, who crawled out through a window of the rear end of the bus with the aid of several motorists from cars which were behind the ill fated vehicle, and saw seven men lift a boulder from the near railroad track. McNees and Rosensteel drove the car to Ambridge notifying the Ambridge police of the accident.

Baeuerlein remained to render all assistance possible and to aid in directing traffic until the arrival of the police.

Ambridge and Aliquippa firemen, police, J. & L. workers and volunteers worked heroically until long after midnight in the precarious task of removing and extricating the injured and the bodies of the dead from the wreckage. BODY REMOVED

The driver, Dymtro Karapan, Fair Oaks, was thrown partially through the door and his body was one of the first removed. It was crushed and mangled, police said. He is married and has a three year old daughter. According to reports he was working on his day off as a favor for one of the other operators.

Ben Watkins, Pittsburgh, the sixth person to be removed died in the office of Dr. H. M. Hemming, Ambridge, where he had been removed in J. J. O'Donnell's ambulance. His leg had been severed and his forehead was crushed. Rescuers had to climb a ladder to the bus to get him out and carry another ladder to the boulevard. He was semi-conscious and kept repeating, "Let me up; let me up; I want to get up."

WAS WELL KNOWN

Clyde (Doc) White, Glenfleld, one of the victims was well known throughout the valley for his promotions in sports. For the past three years he has been employed in the sports department of the Pittsburgh Mercantile Company but during the holiday season has been working in the toy department.

The survivors all escaped through the rear window. They were in addition to Manko, Helen Phillips, 22, Aliquippa; John McCarthy, Monaca.

TERRIFIC CRASH

Manko described the experiences of those inside the bus as follows:

"It was a terrific crash. It sounded just like somebody hit a wash tub with a sledge hammer. I was knocked out. When I came to, I saw light coming in a broken window (the rear window). I crawled out and somebody took me to a doctor."

He was taken to the Aliquippa police station by a fellow J. and L. worker where he was given first aid and sent home.

Manko and his friend, James Burger, who also worked in the metallurgic department, were riding together in the rear seat as was their custom. Burger died in Rochester General Hospital at 8 p.m. last night.

LEGS FRACTURED

Miss Helen Phillips, an employee of the P.M. store, suffered fractures of both legs. Her condition is reported as "fair" by Rochester Hospital attaches today.

The condition of John McCarthy, Monaca, also in the hospital, was said to be "fair".

Robert Espey, South Heights, was injured while assisting in the removing of bodies from the wreckage last night and is in the Sewickley Valley Hospital with a fractured skull. Espey has a wooden leg and is employed at an Aliquippa service station.

Miss Martha L. Gearing, who was killed, was a traveling supervisor for the Federal Housing Authority in New York City but resides at her home in Pittsburgh due to the serious illness of her mother. She leaves two brothers in Army service and a sister.

HEADS CRUSHED

The stories told by the men who were engaged on the rescue work were blood curdling. Bodies were severed and heads were crushed beyond recognition. The roof was caved in to the tops of the seats over all but the last two rows.

A mobile railroad crane operated for many hours and lifted the crushed roof in order to remove the last eight bodies.

Jones and Laughlin Corporation had a large section of its fence cut and removed so that the bodies could be carried to the emergency hospital.

ROAD OPENED

The old road, discarded when the present boulevard was built, was opened in order to relieve the congestion which existed following the accident and before the police arrived to regulate the traffic.

The Red Cross carried on canteen service until 2:30 a.m. today. They served coffee and sandwiches to the workers. The Aliquippa side was taken care of by Jean Dowdell, field secretary; Robert Stout, chapter chairman; and two girls. On the Ambridge side Mrs. George Kelley was in charge, assisted by Mrs. Charles Sachs, Mrs. Harry Greenberger, Mrs. Charles E. Meinard and Mrs. Peter Milheim.

From The Ambridge Daily Citizen, December 23, 1942