Today I ventured back to Centreville to collect data at my soil remediation site. I left in the dark, the sun decided to show up at some point during the drive. It was a beautiful day for field work.
The firs in the field.
When I walked across the field I saw a beautiful sight. Dead firs. More precisely, the right firs are dying. It’s still too early to say if things will develop according to my hypothesis, but it is looking very promising
This made me happy, very happy.
Things took longer at the site than I anticipated. I finally left in the late afternoon with disease ratings, plant heights, a weather station data download, and soil cores. On my return trip I decided to stop by Pithole City. I’ve noticed signs for it along 36 and 8 in the past, and a friend recommended I stop and check it out (thanks Ryan!). So I did.
Welcome to Pithole City.
Pithole City was an oil boom town that existed for a short time. At one point it had the third largest post office in Pennsylvania, behind only Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. No buildings are left standing today, but markers exist to show where buildings were and the streets are mowed into the field.
Holmden Street, the main artery in Pithole City.
I love history, so walking around this place was a lot of fun. I wish the visitor center had been open.
Once a town, now a field.
After leaving Pithole City I stopped very briefly at the Tionesta Lighthouse (I learned it is actually the Sherman Lighthouse). From the road I could not tell that the lighthouse was on a hill. I walked up to it. There is a sign by the door that says “Welcome Friends.” How nice. But the door was locked. Either I’m not a friend or their idea of welcome is different than mine.
The Sherman Lighthouse in Tionesta.
I got back to the lab and weighed all the soil cores. It ended up being 11:30 by the time I biked home. Another 17 hour day of soil remediation data collection. That’s two data collection trips in a row that resulted in 17 hour days. It seems prudent to assume my September trip will take ~17 hours too.
