The strange abandoned cement ponds in South park which where once swimming pools complete with water fall

If you go up behind the Stone Manse in South Park in Allegheny County Pa. you will find several shallow  cement ponds complete with water fall  emptied and abandoned in early1960s. and now overgrown and forgotten. maybe your grandparents talked about swimming there.

Up until the time they where permanently shit down they where a favorite place for young children to go swimming I went there with my 2 younger brothers several times until the county closed the ponds due to several reasons.

First the ponds had no filtration or treatment to the water and spread of disease was a worry.

2nd they where always being vandalized as they had no fence around them and illegal late night party goers would throw glass beer and wine bottles into the ponds .

 You would have to be in your 50s. to say you swam there but what a neat experience it was
especially getting to play around the water falls. I remember a couple kids brought a plastic boat to the pond which was from a promotion for Chicita bananas one time which stores had on display.

Just one of the great memories I will have that younger generations will never ever know .

If you know where to look the remains of a deadly US Navy Hell Diver Bomber that crashed in the Laurel Highlands can be visited

There have been many small aircraft over the years that have crashed into the mountainous area known as the Laurel Highlands which composes parts of Westmoreland, Fayette and Somerset county's in Pa. Famous for its thick unforgiving fog which has caused many crashes after pilots lost their bearings and did not know mountain was below .

One of the more famous cases is a TWA flight 1# which went down in 1936

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_1

Killing 12 of 14 aboard and recently featured on Mysteries at Museum TV show segment because the Connelsville Canteen Museum has a piece of burnt mail from the crash among their display items.

and of course the tragic crash of flight 93 during 9-11

But one of the lesser known crashes of a Navy Hell diver while on maneuvers  and which plane engine parts can still be scene is one of the forgotten crashes

http://www.tribdem.com/news/local_news/family-visits-plane-crash-site-outside-ligonier/article_b3c1601d-bf44-554a-a614-b7c307b4a465.html

A  Curtis B2C-4E crashed between Ligonier  and Jennerstown on October 9 1945 on a return trip to airbase in Michigan after taking place  with 21 planes from Bombing Squadron  97   in Washington DC celebration that very foggy day

 and has remained largely forgotten .

Petty Officer George A. Cohlmia, who died with Ensign Frank J. Campbell when their U.S. Navy dive bomber tragically slammed  into the mountain at a horrific speed  parts of the plane as seen below still exists to his day and can be viewed if your up to to the strenuous hike to the site, in the middle of no where . Apparently a well known one often tagged by those who chase  geocaches .

If you go remember this is a site of reverence people lost their lives here and respect it as such.

 

AT&T Long Lines Tower in Lillyvale Pa. once part of a very intricate and complex means of protecting the nations communications during the Cold War

As you drive along Pa. 288  from Zelinople to Ellwood City high on one of the slopes sits the Lillyville AT&T Long Lines Microwave Communications Tower.

Now mostly unused  since most phone and data signals now travel by Fiber Optic Lines and Satellite

Complete with underground hardened bunker to protect the electronics these sites played a very critical role insuring communications could continue after a nuclear attack in this case if Pittsburgh where attacked.

http://www.coldwarcomms.org/

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/vintage-skynet-atts-abandoned-long-lines-microwave-tower-network/

 

Many of the large Pittsburgh Corporations also had command centers and storage in nearby Wampum in an underground Lime Stone Mine. The coaxial  lines to the towers where hardened underground as well to prevent damage and where given designations such as L Line etc.
which ran between the various phone exchanges to the towers. The entire system was started  after WWII  and ramped up around
1951 and was in use into 90s in some cases  Till the microwave Horns where turned off but the towers are still used for Cell Service and 2 way radio repeaters etc.  Some Towers have had their horns removed and reconfigured.

Some of the towers and bunkers have been sold off to private communications company's for there use . 

Since these towers are under rules of FCC it is a violation of federal rules to trespass on these sites and penalty's are severe  so urban explorers are best advised to stay out. as with any radio tower site .
working or abandoned . Be warned if you trespass or cause damage you will be prosecuted.

There are many resources on line talk about the whole AT&T Long Lines system and its many fascinating things it did prior to 1984 break up of AT&T

Long Unsolved Murder of the Newcastle Pa. Treasurer John Blevins on January 7 1899

Too much time has passed over 100 years so that even if a killer was identified they have long since passed. However I am sure the Relatives of John Blevins would still like to have answers as to who so violently murdered him.
 Mr. Blevins an immigrant from Ireland ran a small grocery business in between the times he first won the Newcastle treasurers  position in 1875 and again in 1884

although the case is officially unsolved one convicted and executed murderer Charles E. Kruger
 who killed a constable

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19040109&id=eswiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DnMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2748,745854&hl=en

Claims to have been involved in it but it has been  found  by officials at the time not to be credible .


It was in he evening of Saturday January 7,1899 when Treasurer Blevins would be found in a pool of blood after a horrific beating in his treasurers office  in the rear of old City building  after first stopping by his sons store on Washington Street to tell him he would be stopping by the treasurers office . When his son returned home for the evening around 11 Pm his son concerned went to his office since he had not returned home and came upon the ghastly scene  his father lying on the floor unconscious ad dying and blood splattered everywhere thru the office furniture at the time one of the most horrific murders of its day a old timer I meet while at Gem & Mineral show in Newcastle in 70s  and who was alive at time of the case as a young teen told me about the case and he said everyone in town was just in shock over the whole matter.

Despite a very high $2000.00 dollar Reward the equivalent of $200,000.00 today and fact office was view-able from the street, no one came forward with information  .The only clues left by the killer or killers a piece of iron possibly a spring from a horse buggy used to bludgeon the treasurer

Plus there where papers and some money missing later determined to be around $26,000.00 in city and $32,000.00 in school funds .

It is not known if it was taken by the killers or it had been loaned to individuals as Mr. Blevins was known to be honest and accommodating to those who needed to pay taxes and where in arrears and needed more time to pay.

One theory was the killer or killers came to take papers that proved they where loaned the money
or maybe some one he did business with felt cheated by him or even some one who may have lost there home or business to tax sale took revenge. All avenues at the time where pursued but unsuccessful and in 1899 forensics where no where near as sophisticated as today's crime science. 
it goes down as one of Lawrence County's oldest Cold Cases  Hopefully one day we will have answers.


Thank You to the Lawrence County Historical Society who has done extensive research on this case which allowed me to look further into the story since I first heard of it.