Blanket Hill near Kittaning Pa. one of the first cases of Biological Warfare being used in the US in 1754

 I drive up to Altoona via US422 several times each summer to help out a customer  and at the top of one hill is a state marker as well as a  large stone historical marker the name of the hill is  Blanket Hill it got its name from blankets and other materials  left behind by fleeing British troops after encountering a large band of Indian raiders near Kittaning.

http://thepennsylvaniarambler.blogspot.com/2012/09/catastrophe-at-kittanning-battle-of.html

http://www.mohicanpress.com/kittanning_battle.html

Yes hard to believe that way back in 1754   but  British troops fleeing from the battle with Indians  are said to have left behind blankets which where deliberately  infected with Smallpox yet some historians debate if this actually happened during this battle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Fort_Pitt#Biological_warfare

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

How effective it was against the Indians is debated to this day.  But the British are known to have used small pox against the Indians even into the revolutionary war and possibly against American troops.

Small Pox was so feared at Fort Pitt they set up a isolation hospital several miles away in Crafton
to care for troops who had it.

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=40394

So it is not inconceivable that those blankets left on blanket hill where in fact  infected with small pox.  today it is not the once feared disease it once was because vaccines and better hygiene have eradicated it for the most part to 3rd world county's but it still pops up on occasion.

A 13 year old Zachary Proper, kills his grandparents is caught and sentenced and then commits suicide in Prison leaving behind more Questions then answers

I travel thru Oil city couple times a year .A rural city in the North West Corner of  Pa.  where Oil was discovered  and was once a booming town now part of the rust belt after refiners moved out and not a place you would ever expect such a headline.

Shocking News a 13 yr old Oil City boy shoots and kills his Loving Grandparents .

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2012/10/10/Venango-boy-13-charged-with-weekend-killings-of-grandparents/stories/201210100118

http://www.titusvilleherald.com/articles/2012/10/10/news/doc5074ec6e348f4122536588.txt

http://www.thederrick.com/topic/?q=zachary%20proper&l=25&sd=asc

It was a horrific crime as the young man shot and killed his grandparents a direct shot to the head of his grandmother and then unloading the rest of the guns clip into his disabled  grandfather .

he would then flee to cousins and party with them till he was apprehended.

When asked why he did it he claimed his grandparents insulted his mothers name.

From all accounts he was a mild mannered child but then it appears he started hanging out with the wrong crowd and started getting into drugs at a time when a child is most vulnerable as they go thru puberty. I have seen so many nice young kids turn into complete monsters starting at this age when they get involved with the wrong crowd of people.  I have had to watch as a good friend and customers child was arrested and hauled to jail at 16 for stealing from his fathers business  and doing drugs and the heart ache it brought my friend.

When his son was finally released from prison after several repeat trips  I asked his son why? all he could say was he had no self esteem and hung with the wrong crowd he was now 33 had 2 kids and been divorced twice  unfortunately shortly after talking to him he is back in jail again after violating his probation he stole scrap metal from his father and wrecked his truck after getting drunk. 

 Yet I have other customers whose kids have gone on to great things and raise a family and contribute to society. 

But this was never to be for Zachary Proper who recently committed suicide in prison. 

 

http://www.wpxi.com/news/news/local/indiana-county-teen-who-killed-grandparents-kills-/nhKCn/

 With his death go so many unanswered questions and just speculation now as to why he did what he did and how he got there in the first place.

So many Coal Mine Disasters that left behind many unanswered questions as to how they started and how many victims their really where ?

 As I travel the back roads of Pa. and W.Va I often come across old coal mine workings and all too often memorials to miners who lost their lives. Including across the valley from me in Harmar Twp where over 100 men lost their lives and inspired the Carnegie Heroes Medal

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

http://carnegiehero.org/about-the-fund/history/

 
 But now that its  December  it seems was always the worst time to be the wife of a coal miner it seemed the holidays brought with it a Coal Mine Disaster when Black damp  a gas  would build up in tunnels and one spark was all it took to wipe out hundreds of lives.
often times the simple spark from a miner head lamp was all it would take.
One of the worst Holiday time mine disasters was in Monongah W.Virginia and near by Rostraver pa at the Darr Mine and Naomi Mine in Nearby Fayette city

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

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

all 3 happening with in days of each other and to this day it is not known how they truly happened or how many where killed.

Coffins lined up at Darr Mine

Aftermath Monongah mines

http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com/faynaomi.html

http://patheoldminer.rootsweb.ancestry.com/darr2.html

http://www.msha.gov/DISASTER/MONONGAH/MONON1.asp

 

All investigators could do was to speculate as to what caused the explosion like a miners open light 

But how many died is also truly not known because mines did not keep good records of who was working and many immigrant miners would bring relatives into mine to help mine coal and no one knew they where even there .In the Darr and Monongah cases the actual number dead is believed to be over 400-500 dead or more.

 But we will never know as the shafts collapsed in and workers where buried and are still entombed to this day.

Luckily modern mining is much safer and the large numbers of men working underground is no more, at most you have 50-100 working  at a time but accidents still happen and miners die. 

and companys still get away with bad practices as they delay and appeal fines and court decisions.

We can never do away completely with coal mining as coal is used in many more ways than just electric and steel. and until the day it is all done by robots and automation death and danger will be lurking .