Westmont Airport

Reader Barry Orner sent in these rare gems - a Ford Tri-Motor airplane landing at the old Westmont Airport where Sunnehanna is now. Unknown year.

Might be Johnstown...

This is one of my grandfathers pictures and it was among other pictures of Johnstown - which makes me believe it could have been taken somewhere in the Johnstown area. I don't know enough about early dirigibles to say if Johnstown did have a landing strip.  

Jazz along the River - St. Mary's

Another summer of Jazz along the River at St. Mary's kicked off. RJ enjoying his supper.

The kids loves pierogies...

My favorites...

Work on the Minersville Bridge continues.

We always have to feed the ducks and geese.

They were so cute.....

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Chilling out and listening to the music. I have to say - that this was by far the most interesting Jazz along the River I have ever been to. The Aspen Water Group who want to build a Marcellus Shell waste water plant here were having a meeting in the old rectory. Amongst them - were some Native American tribe members from Canada. I am the kind of person that people always come up to and tell me their life story....so it was no surprise when a couple of tribal members including the Chief struck up a conversation with me. They want to do the same thing - back on their lands in Canada.

The funniest part - and I mean no disrepect - considering the amount of time I spend here honoring indian sites....but seeing indians in braided hair - with a plate full of pierogies and pigs in the blanket enjoying their first taste of what most of us take for granted - was funny. And the best part - one of the younger ones - came up to me - eating a gob and asked "have you ever tied one of these things....you know...it's called - oh what's the name again" and I said "you mean a gob" - he said "yes - I've never had anything like this before and they are wonderful". I laughed to myself as he was walking away with a Giant Eagle bag full of them. Who knew - that pierogies and gobs could help forge the bonds of international friendship! Maybe Johnstown is on to something - maybe next time a company has tough contract talks - just bring out a plate of gobs and everybody will leave happy.

Amelia Earhart at Cochran - 1929

Scanning this in today - I did a double take - this is so cool! That's Amelia Earhart at Cochran - who would have thought it. This picture is in a bunch of others - all from Cochran - from various years. I didn't notice her at first - looking through all of them quickly the other day when I picked them up. It was only when I was messing around after scanning today - that I noticed her. I guess the small airplane underneath the banner should have been a clue to me....
Only last week I was talking about her at work and my co-worker stopped off at a bookstore in Gettysburg to pick me up a 1960's era book on her disappearance. I was talking to him about a Florida teenager that might have been the last person to hear Amelia's distress calls - for more on that CLICK HERE.
I wonder where else she stopped off at - when she flew into the old Westmont Airport - for more on that post CLICK HERE. This just goes to show you - sometimes I don't even realize what I have underneath my own nose. Guess I better look at the rest of the pictures more closely.

Westmont Airport - 1929

Another fine and interesting photo - courtesy of the Russell Heffley book. I'm sure it didn't you too long to figure out exactly where this is....the bi-plane is on the grounds of what is now the area around Sunnehanna Country Club - you can just barely see the old clubhouse in the distance.

Also starting today - I added another feed feature - on the upper right hand side of the site - there is a "follow by email" box - just pop your address in there - you can then also see every new post in your inbox automatically.

Amelia Earhart Airplane - Westmont Airport - 1929

Thanks to reader Bob C. for today's very interesting pictures. First up, you are looking at the old Westmont Airport landing field that is now part of Sunnehanna. The airfield is circled. The road in the center - Goucher Street\top of D Street. The barn next to the airfield is still there (Sivi TV). The old Stutzman School is also still around. Interesting to see most of Westmont as farmland and what is now part of Stackhouse Park clear cut.

 A nice close up of the landing strip.

And as luck would have on the AP Wire this morning: Lab scans bones that may belong to Amelia Earhart

(AP) –

NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Three bone fragments found on a South Pacific island could help prove that famed aviator Amelia Earhart died as a castaway after failing in her quest to circumnavigate the globe.
Researchers told The Associated Press that the University of Oklahoma hopes to extract DNA from bones found by a Delaware group dedicated to the recovery of the historic aircraft. The fragments were recovered earlier this year on an uninhabited island about 1,800 miles south of Hawaii.
Earhart and her navigator were nearing the end of their round-the-world trip 73 years ago when they vanished in the South Pacific.
Researchers say crews found other items near the bone fragments, which could also be from a turtle. The university says it doesn't know when the DNA tests will be completed.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated