Hike #1386; McVeytown to Mt Union

 

Hike #1386: 1/9/21 McVeytown to Mt. Union with Joel Castus, Professor John DiFiore, and Diane Reider

This next hike would be the next to trace the historic route of the Juniata Division of the Pennsylvania Canal, which also fits into our series on the 911 National Memorial Trail.

The previous trip out there we had walked from Mapleton to Mt Union, a little jump ahead in terms of the canal, but it was the right trip to do at the time because we're also doing Standing Stone Trail.

This time, with the potential for snow on the ground, having something that would have a lot of potential road walking was of course the best choice. Fortunately, we didn't really have to contend with that either.
We met at the Sheetz in Mt Union, the same as we did for the previous one, which would be the end point. It was nice to be there because everything is normal despite all of the virus stuff out there. This time, there were no wardens or anything there to watch us. There really wasn't that many of us to hardly constitute a group anyway. We got some snacks and were ready to go to the start.

The last time we had hiked this division of the Pennsylvania Canal, we finished in Mt Union. I've really loved doing all of this because really no one else attempts something like it.

The 911 Trail actually follows the other side of the Juniata River officially, but it's a larger road with a double yellow line. I can't be leading a hike on something like that, without even having much historic infrastructure, so tracing close to the old canal was really great.

I was kind of surprised that there was only four of us. This entire weird Juniata Valley series had been such a surprisingly fun thing, and I thought we were building up to a stronger following of it, but now it was back down again despite it being a really nice day.

Musser Run Aqueduct site

I wasn't going to let any of that bother me too much. We had a really interesting day ahead of us, and it was full of surprises that made it all worth it.
We shuttled to McVeytown and parked on a side street, near a monument to Joseph Rothrock, who was from the area.

Rothrock, considered the "Father of Forestry" in Pennsylvania, was born in Mcveytown in 1839.

He was a Civil War veteran wounded at Fredericksburg, a doctor who pioneered Tuberculosis treatment, as well as a frontier explorer.

Rothrock worked to preserve and regrow forest lands that had been decimated for a century by logging, tanning, and furnace charcoal production, including the nearby state forest that bears his name.

While having a look at the monument, a lady came out and started talking to us about what we were doing. When I explained to her that we were hiking the old Pennsylvania Canal, she was intrigued, and let us know that she was working at the local museum.

I told her about the lock that used to be right there, and how the 1877 maps of the area showed it.

She said she knew about that, and that when she was a child, the old timers told her that people would wait here for the "Bone Boat" to go by.

The "Bone Boat" would collect all of the bones left from consumed meats and trade them for other goods. We assume these bones would be ground for fertilizer purposes.

This kind of blew my mind, because it's one of those things that no one ever thinks about any more. The early American had to make use of whatever resources they had, and the bones had value. 

So, probably an unloaded boat coming through from a delivery in one direction must have made a weekly bone run. 
The day was already starting of great when it came to learning.
Canal Alley is built over the canal at the lock site there, and then it is built over through the rest of town.
Rts 22 and 522 run through the middle of town here, and somewhere around the intersection with Criswell Street would have been where the canal had crossed. We saw some of the canal prism behind the parking lot of the Dollar General last time.

In the grass parallel with the Dollar General, I was having a closer look and spotted the top of some sort of a wall. This would not have been a lock wall, because we know that was just a bit to the north of here along the present day street. What we found was probably the remnant of some kind of bridge, where the predecessor to Rt 22 probably once crossed over the canal. The canal was obvious in the weeds adjacent to the Dollar General, but we couldn't follow it at this point.

We cut through the Dollar General parking lot, and then headed south on River Road.
From the road, we could see the old canal route pretty plainly, and we crossed over a small tributary known as Musser Road. To our left, we could kind of see the break in the towpath where the canal probably would have crossed this stream on an aqueduct.
We continued on the road, and had a very nice view down over the Juniata Valley, which included the former canal route for a while, but then we started into the undulating terrain from which the canal was no longer visible. 

The road turned left and right a bit, passed by a lot of beautiful farms, and then veered away from the river valley just a bit. When it got back, there was a sort of cul de sac, and a private campground called Harshbarger's. Riverside Drive turned to the left here. I'm not sure if we were supposed to go that way, but we did anyway.

I could see where the canal used to come in on the left.
To the right, the Pennsylvania Railroad crossed over a handsome stone arch bridge over the Juniata, built in 1906. It still had the date plaque and such on it.

The bridge was one of the lovely "skew arches", a style that started out with one on the Allegheny Portage Railroad near the Lemon House at the top of the inclined planes further west. Pennsylvania Railroad carried on the technology.
It's interesting that Pennsylvania Railroad after 1900 used so much fine stone work rather than concrete, but I suppose it wasn't so readily available as it was to railroads like the Reading, Lackawanna, Jersey Central, and Lehigh Valley.

I had thought when I planned this hike that the canal used to go further along Riverside Drive beside the river, and I didn't want to encroach too much on private land, so we went up to the tracks.

We started following them for just a bit, and I soon realized that the railroad actually took over the old canal after it was abandoned.
In fact, the Pennsylvania Railroad didn't used to even be on this side of the river prior to 1906. It used to remain on the south side, and a road called Stayrook Lane was built on top of it. It used to cross the Juniata on a bridge a little further down. So the 1906 construction was actually a realignment.
I could see the canal prism at times to the left of the railroad right of way, and we continued straight through an open plane area.

Riverside Drive came to an end to the left jsut before reaching a narrow area along the river. The tracks were once four wide, and certainly overtook the entire canal in this area.

Soon, just around the corner, ruins came into view to the right.
This area was a settlement known as Vineyard as I understand, and this was a quarry operation that served the railroad long after the canal was abandoned.

Still, the canal and the railroad did split at this point, and remnants of the old canal were visible in the weeds directly in front of all of the ruins. 

I'm not sure how all of this worked; there appears to be quarried lands near the site up on the hills, but this area sat too close to the tracks. It must have been some sort of loading area or something.
Further, it had what appeared to be a brick power plant. 
I had to see all of it, so we checked out the concrete step ruins, and then Joel and I first went up to the sturdy brick building. It had doors and windows and such, but it certainly didn't look like a home or office of any kind.

Diane came up and went in, and she confirmed that based on her experience, from many buildings she's been in, that this building was set up as a power plant structure.

I couldn't tell much about the site by checking aerial images or the old USGS maps beside the name of the area being "Vineyard".
We had a look around a bit more, then headed out to continue to the west.
The canal shifted from the north side of the tracks to the south, along the river, and looked like it might have lost some elevation, so maybe there was a lock somewhere in this area. I'm not sure.
In this stretch, a train went by, so we stayed off on the canal while the engine went past.
Somewhat near the first house on the north side of the tracks, there was a doorway type of tunnel beneath the railroad, and steps down toward the Juniata River. 

"In the New Year, never forget to thank your past years because they enabled you to reach today! Without the stairs of the past, you cannot arrive at the future!" - Mehmet Murat idan

I thought to try to go down to follow the canal more closely in this area, since it didn't appear to be wrecked by the railroad, but when I went down the steps to take a look, it was so badly overgrown that I was content to stay above.
In this area, the railroad spit with another right of way on the right.

The original Pennsylvania Railroad alignment crossed back over the river and joined the currently active route, but the other right of way to the right I think might have been the original where it might have crossed the later route, rerouted for straighter and faster travel.

We turned right and followed this other alignment for a while.
It was really a great route. Cleared by ATVs, it was just a nice black cinder path parallel with the tracks, but well into the woods. 

We passed by another former quarry spot with a small abandone brick building, probably that once held explosives. 

We pushed ahead until the railroad bed got to be completely overgrown, and I think it returned to the later Pennsylvania Railroad route.

Once we got to there, I had been studying the 1877 maps and determined that there was once a lock a little ways beyond the tracks to the south, closer to the river. This was a pretty dense woodland, and so I wanted to get back in there and see if we could find the old lock.

We bushwhacked for a bit, and I wasn't finding anything right away, but then I found a rather narrow channel I thought might have been the old canal.

Lock House site

There was also a large pond sort of thing that might have been a dry dock for repairs, or some sort of adjacent basin. It's hard to tell which might have been the canal, but then once I found a good amount of stone work, the search was over.

Canal lock ruin near Barbens Camp

It was in extremely bad shape, but small portions of the lock walls were still standing, and it was indisputable what we were looking at. 

Bypass Flume

In addition to the lock itself, I identified a former bridge site, based on abutments in place and the 1877 map, where a road once went over the canal. I then found the bypass flume associated with the lock, as well as the recognizable foundation of the lock house.

This was a great discovery. The lock was in pretty horrible shape, but still recognizable.

It always amazes me how poorly so many of the Pennsylvania Canal locks held up compared to many of the locks of other canals we had followed. Maybe "good enough for government work" goes back much farther than the present day connotation, since the Pennsylvania Canal was state owned and built, and others like the Morris, Lehigh, and Delaware and Hudson were privately owned and operated.

I decided to try to follow the canal a little bit more to the west. It was watered at this point, and the towpath much more recognizable. It was approaching the Beaverdam Run, and so I figured there would have to be remnants of either an aqueduct or a weir there.

Beaverdam Creek Aqueduct site

Sure enough, there was an excellent aqueduct remnant.

The two abutments that carried the canal aqueduct were in place and beautiful. They were in better shape than most all aqueduct ruins I'd seen on this canal. Unfortunately, the east wall of it is bowing and getting ready to collapse quite badly. I was very happy to have gotten to see it before that happens.

Dysart House ruin

No one else went with me to this point. I got into the Beaverdam Run, and started walking upstream in it.

I came upon a nearly rusted away car laying in the middle of Beaverdam Run, and tagged Barben's Camp, which is next property over, in the post. Barben's Camp responded, and said they access the creek from their property, and that this was a VW Bug that had been pushed into the creek many years ago, and washes further and further down over the years. He also invited me back to check out the property and explore, which maybe I'll take him up on one day.

I made my way up out of the brook and into the woods where I came upon the old stone ruins of a homestead. As per the 1877 map, this was the J C Dysart House. 

The east and west walls still stood but the others had collapsed. Those walls still have chimneys, with a first floor fireplace on the west side, and two stories of fireplaces on the east. 

When I got back closer to the railroad bed, there was a beautiful stone culvert with an odd alignment, more building out on the left side on an outcropping on the Beaverdam Creek. It was clearly not all new construction like the previous stone work and bridges, although maybe it was widened on the upstream side. I didn't see.
I met the others on the tracks, and we were back about where the old railroad bed rejoined the new one on the north side. Just there, more right of way continued on the south side. This was also the pre-1906 alignment of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Rather than walk active tracks, we opted to get onto the original alignment.

The double track wide right of way went into a very deep cut that was quite impressive. It got too weedy to walk through, so we went up on the height of land that separates the active right of way with the old one. A train went by when we were in this area, which was cool.

We tried to push through on the old right of way, but it was at a completely different grade than the new one and we didn't really have a good way down. From on the actual grade, we got to the edge, and had to carefully climb down a bit of a rock face to get back to the active line, and then head out to safety on roads. There was no other way out really, except going all the way back.
I found one little cleft that didn't involve as much of a drop, so we took that.

Aqueduct in Newton Hamilton

We hurried away from the cut and out to Ferguson Valley Road where we climbed down,

A short distance walking to the south on the road brought us back to the old canal, by the intersection with Norton Road. From there, the road beside the canal is known as Front Street.

A little stream flowed under the road as we entered the town of Newton Hamilton.

To the right, there were still stone abutments of another aqueduct that carried the canal across. There was a lock at this site, one one side of the aqueduct, but I'm not sure which. The lock house was located on the east side as per the 1877 map.

The area on the west side of the aqueduct was the H C Craig boat yard in the past.

Beyond the former yard site, there was some stone work buried for the most part in a slope. I thought maybe that might be a lock site, but that would mean the 1877 map is wrong, which is possible. It could easily also be part of the foundation of a building on the now vacant lot.

Newton Hamilton was originally a tract of land warranted to Hugh Brown in 1762. Upon his death, sometime before 1783, ownership of the land was deeded to Margaret Hamilton.

The town was laid out in 1802, and Mrs. Hamilton sold building lots through 1897 referring to the settlement as "Newton Hamilton". The post office was established just after the arrival of the canal in 1836, and the borough was incorporated in 1843.

Just ahead on the edge of the old canal was the historic Norton and Hamilton Store and Post Office, which might date back to those original days. The beautiful building certainly has the old canal town look. 

Just past the store, there was a wharf on the canal. A wide area where the water used to be is still very obvious walking above it.

Some of the old canal is farmed over a bit ahead, seen along Water Street heading west out of Newton Hamilton. Soon though, the canal was watered and looked very nice. We could see it pretty well along Water Street as we continued to the west.

Aqueduct Road and Bowers Lane broke off to the left somewhat soon, and we turned. I walked just a bit down Bowers Lane to where the canal crossed to see if I could get a good view of the former lock that used to be here. I think the stones were removed from it, because I didn't see any remnants right there, unless they're a little further back.

We continued back onto Aqueduct Lane and began following it parallel to the canal, which was off to our left.

A short distance in, a sign read "Welcome to the Aqueduct Family Farm Campground Preserve". It was nice to read something welcoming for a change while trying to follow the canal.

We pushed on along the road and the canal shifted from the left side to the right. I think there was another lock somewhere in this area, but we missed it.

In a short bit, remaining on Aqueduct Road, which was now pleasant and unpaved, we had the retaining wall that held up the canal to our right. Once that ended, we could step up and see the preserved canal prism with campers parked in it. 

The canal pretty much stayed to the right of the road, and went through private home and camp sites as we continued. There were beautiful views of the Juniata River throughout this entire stretch.

As we went further and further down the road, I had to be ready for whatever came up. It was getting to be too far to walk back. We might have to bushwhack to the south to get over to the next bit. I just wasn't optimistic about getting on through.

When we passed the last house, we had no problem. There was a farm gate, and we were able to walk through the fields directly parallel with the old canal route around what was known as "Big Bend".

Ahead of us was the American Legion Country Club. I don't know what the status of the land is between here, but when we finally got around the bend and reached the next tree line, there was a gate and it all seemed public. The canal was down below the dirt access road to the left, and was holding some water. I saw someone walking ahead in this section, and I wondered if it was going to be someone to tell us to scram, but it was just a walker who turned around before we reached him and was heading back.

The road became Front Drive, heading in toward the village of Kistler. It turned left, and crossed the old canal route which was again holding some water. It moved away and turned right, somewhat parallel with it.

For a while, the canal was out in the golf course off to the right of us, and we could kind of see the line of trees it followed. Front Drive changed names to Lower Country Club Road.

At a bend in the road, we came upon the old Morrison Cemetery, which had a sign on it from 1934, but that must only be when that plaque was placed there, because there were far older burials there than that. The cemetery also had a handsome, giant Copper Beech tree growing in it.

Ahead, the canal and towpath were pretty well intact. The road went across it, and climbed higher, but for a good long stretch it seemed clear.

Unfortunately, this entire area was heavily signed with no trespassing and private property signs. Despite how welcoming it looked, we opted to stay up a little higher along the road, and only looked down on the old canal.
It's really a shame here because the entire stretch would be perfect for a trail, and it doesn't really have a lot of value as private land.

After that stretch and another access to it, the road moved off further to the right of the canal. We had to meander up that way, but the road soon returned to and crossed the former canal route, at a driveway known as Chris Lane.

At the crossing, we found another old canal lock. It was barely recognizable at first glance, but it was the canal. Some small sections of the lock walls were still standing, with some of the recesses that held the wooden paneling that lined the sides still discernible.
There were no signs or anything denoting this historic landmark. It just skirted people's yards and probably hardly anyone knows what it is. I went down Chris Lane briefly to get another angle of it, which was where I could see better remnants.

middle lock

This was the first of the Kistler locks.

Ahead, Country Club Road is partially built on the old canal. A little trench to the right of the road heading west still carries some water, and it is the route of the old canal.

Near the intersection with Blue River Lane, the road can be seen going ever so slightly up. This was the location of the second lock.

western lock

In the weeds to the right, there is some stone work, and a rise in land that is probably what remains of a berm wall. Country Club becomes Kistler Road as we approached the settlement, and the third of the three Kistler locks was in this area, just about where there is a yellow swerving car on a road sign. Like the previous one, most of the lock is overtaken by the road, but there was evidence of stone work and the definite rise in the road at this point.

As we headed through this settlement, the canal prism was often still very recognizable to the right. It wasn't until we came close to the fill of the former Pennsylvania Railroad that it became unrecognizable. Either the road was built over it at this point, or the railroad was.

It looks like the old maps are more of an approximation of where exactly things were, and it shows the canal as quite a straight line.
As we were heading out of Kistler, where Kistler Road crosses the Juniata River into Mt Union, the canal would have remained at a lower level. The current circa 1907 railroad bridge that currently carries the tracks over the river was the replacement for the original line, which sat right next to where the Kistler Road bridge is today. The stone abutments for that original bridge are still in place. That was the line that coexisted with the canal. The best I can tell is that the canal went across right about where the railroad goes, or slightly to the left of it.

There might be some remains of footings for an aqueduct here in the river, but I can't be sure based on what I saw. It looks like the canal followed Water Street in Mt Union, so it would have had to deviate from the later railroad route just a little bit.

The original alignment went into Mt Union along Pennsylvania Avenue.
There were no tracks at first, but after we got across the bridge a bit, that right of way had ties, and then some rails.
As we approached the grade crossing of Franklin Street, the East Broad Top Railroad was coming in from the left.
This line is quite historic, and I would love to hike it, but we'd need to have special permission for it at this point.
It was the East Broad Top Railroad and Coal Company that operated as a common carrier from 1871 until 1956. It is regarded among the best preserved narrow gauge railroads in the nation.

Stone work in Mt Union

From 1960 to 2011, the East Broad Top was a heritage operation hosting excursion train rides. I'd always wanted to see it, but never got around to it, and then it was abandoned in 2012.

After the hiatus, the line was to reopen for rides in 2021, and I pretty much missed the chance to walk it.
Still, I'd like to work something out with the owners to check it out and maybe hike something of it.

Those narrow gauge tracks went parallel with the former Pennsylvania Railroad tracks ahead, and there was a trail along the PRR through this area. There was also an old railroad hotel to the right.
It was just about getting dark, and we had covered more and discovered more than I ever thought we would have going into this day.
At this point, with the exception of a short bit from Huntingdon to Mapleton, I had traced pretty closely the entire Juniata Divison Pennsylvania Canal. I would soon post a hike as the Juniata Finale, and that would close in the gap with the entire 911 Memorial Trail all the way from New York City to Johnstown.