Park # 268 Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural NHS Buffalo NY

Got here today as my last stop on the Buffalo tour-  I wasn't able to get the house tour in, due to timing-  this park doesn't seem to have a full affiliation with Eastern National they didn't have any of the usual EN things in the gift shop, no "official" pin, no medallion, and they had a lot of crafty stuff for sale. 

This is what the pin looked like- no ID at all. 

Park 267 Allegheney Portage Railroad NHS Cresson, Pa.

I have to confess here I didn't really know the "whole" story behind this park-  The Allegheny Portage was a scheme to move cargo and tow boats over the Allegheny Mountains for a stretch of some 30 miles so that the State of Pennsylvania could compete with the westward movement of the 1840's to almost 1860, when it lost out to more powerful steam engines on the railroad. 

That pretty much sums up the park and its purpose. 

They had a really pretty visitors center- I hit the mother lode here for stamps, they had a box underneath the register with about 8 old stamps that had expired, dating back to the 90's.!

Also got a pin and medallion, postcards, and Civil War Trading Cards for my Roanoke Buddies. 

Park 266 Johnstown Flood NHS St Mary's Pa. July 18, 2013

I've been wanting to visit here for a long time, as I have always found this historical aspect interesting-  learning the story about this great tragedy of 1899- and this park did a wonderful job with the interpretation of it. 

We opted to park in a high school parking lot down in the little valley, and I unhooked and drove up to the site-  Watched a 35 minute movie that was very sobering, and looked at the incident from a very personal perspective of the victims. 

Got a pin and medallion here, and some postcards as well.  The 1899 club house portion of the park was closed, but I got the stamps anyway.  So I was 2 for 2 here. 

The sidebar to the story is a couple of things I think, one, the decision to locate the town in a flood prone valley in the first place, and two, the liability of the "rich folks" who built the damn that failed, and escaped any culpability from it.   Interesting visit. 

Multiple stops- Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail - South Western Pennsylvania

Did several stops today on the Potomac Heritage Scenic Trail- 

First up was two stops at the Ohiopyle State Park in Ohiopyle, Pa.  There was an office for the park, and something called the Train Station Visitor Center. 

Actually went to a wrong address here, since the Data Base had a bad address- 

The Train Station

They had most of the stamps they were supposed to, but were missing some too.  I'll send in updates. 

Next stop was a couple of other state parks, Laurel Hill and Kooser. 

Laurel Hill had all the stamps for both locations, which was actually a good deal, since the Kooser location was locked up-  so I wound up getting credit for all the stamps, even though Kooser was not open.  Score. 

Laurel Hill office

Kooser Office

Last stop for the day was a visit to the Meyersdale Pa Train Station, where I got all the five stamps that were supposed to be there. 

Park #265 Flight 93 National Memorial Shanksville, Pa.

I had been really wanting to get to this site, and now that I've been there, glad I made the effort.  There was obviously a lot of planning and thought that went into this park-  It's literally out in the middle of nowhere, but they've built a beautiful 3.5 mile approach road, and a wonderful permanent memorial. 

The actual memorial-  there is a panel for each of those who died. 



This is the site of the new Visitor's center, which is scheduled to be available in 2015. 

New National Heritage Area for me, the Wheeling NHA Wheeling, West Virginia

I stopped off late this afternoon for one of the two stops for the Wheeling National Heritage Area, in downtown Wheeling West Virginia. 

Turns out there is only one stamp for this area, split between two locations across the street from each other! 

Only one of the two locations was open today, and I got the stamp at the Wheeling convention and Visitor's Center

The other location, across the street, was closed today-  Not to worry, since the stamp is a duplicate it would have been ignored anyway. 

Revisit to Dayton Aviation Heritage NHP Dayton Ohio

Made a quick run up to Dayton to revisit the Aviation Trail VC to see if I could get the Xenia Ohio location stamp for Charles Young- which I wasn't able to get-  I did get a second copy of the Wilberforce Site stamp. 

Did a quick tour of the main museum, couldn't get to the Cycle shop, since they only had one Ranger on duty available.