Continuing with my little Buzzy tour of the States, today let’s take a trip to North Western Pennsylvania. A very nice couple in Buzzy’s Country Store Saturday were visiting here from Pittsburgh and celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary. They reminded me of something I had heard earlier in the week via a radio interview with the author of 50 Great American Places. One of the 50 places he mentioned was Forks of Ohio in Pittsburgh where the Ohio, Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet. (Remember Three Rivers Stadium was located nearby before it became Heinz Field and PNC Park?)
The book’s author Dr. Glass also discussed North Western Pennsylvania in general and how historic it was because of its oil industry history. Long before Texas became the oil center for the U.S., North Western Pennsylvania produced most of our oil (click here.) Quaker State and Pennzoil for instance have their roots in NWP. John D. Rockefeller started his Standard Oil company initially as a locomotive company that transported oil out of the area to other parts of the country.
When I informed the couple from Pittsburgh about this, the lady told me that her grandmother living in that area still has an old abandoned oil derrick in her back yard.
I then told them about another North Western Pennsylvania connection that occurred in Buzzy’s a couple summers back when a couple from Meadville, Pa. dropped into the Store. They informed me that they both worked for Channellocks which is headquartered and has two facilities in Meadville. I was unaware that Channellocks was a specific manufacturer by that name and had always thought that “Channel Locks” was just the name of the tool. (The old Coke, Xerox, Kleenex syndrome.) The couple from Meadville got a drink and were sitting out on the porch when another couple came in a few minutes later. In talking to them I learned that they were from Erie, Pa. just up the road from Meadville. I took them out to the front porch and introduced them to the Meadville couple. Turns out that two of them had attended the same high school albeit at different times.
But back to the 50 Great Places book and the one listing from Maryland is Mt. Clare B&O Train Station in Baltimore. Of course, I think Southern Maryland should have been mentioned but then again, I may have to get the book and see what other sites are listed ahead of us.
Speaking of trains, Robert Johnson was most famous for his Crossroads song where he sold his soul to the devil, but I always liked his “looked her in the eye” train song. (Note that Ludlow, Pa. appearing at the 1:00 mark in the video is located in the Allegheny National Forest in green on the above map.)