The Weatherworks

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Canoe Ridge in Indiana County for groundhog hunts, roasts, and Groundhog Day forecasts had been forgotten. Except for locals in the region who were told about those early years in Punxsutawney’s Groundhog Day history.

The recruiting of radio and TV personality Godfrey paved the way for unconditional surrender to end the “cold war” with Indiana County and its claim to be the home of Punxsutawney’s world famous groundhog.

Indiana County’s claim ended when it was announced that Gobbler’s Knob has been shifted from its site at Canoe Ridge near Rossiter to a temporary setup for the Knob at Dr. Lorenzo’s lodge near Oliveburg, at least for Groundhog Day in 1952. At the banquet before Groundhog Day it was announced that the 80-acre Alahoe Park, a popular summer resort spot near Big Run, was donated to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club to be a permanent site for Gobbler’s Knob. Though not on an elevated hill or knob in the area, the park became the beginning of another history about Gobbler’s Knob. •

Before Punxsutawney’s Groundhog Day prognostications on February 2 were widely publicized, the one event that captured the attention of readers in newspapers in the early 1900s was the Groundhog Club’s summer Groundhog Hunt and Feast. The September 1907 hunt seen in photo above was held on Williard’s farm on Canoe Ridge in the vicinity of the “official weatherworks.” (photo courtesy PAHGS)

Over many years, a jealousy developed among some folk in southern Indiana County who strongly believed Indiana County should have the rights to the Punxsutawney Groundhog. That the Canoe Ridge Weatherworks was the first “knob” to be used for hunts and Groundhog Day. Before Groundhog Day 1952, a “Cold War” was a story in the Punxsutawney Spirit for readers. The “war” ended when TV personality Arthur Godfrey was enlisted to be General of the Weather Army Air Force. (photos copy from Punxsutawney Spirit)

A few weeks before Groundhog Day in 1952, and with new, younger writers for the Punxsutawney Spirit, a new imaginative story was written about Punxsutawney’s developed fame as the Home of the Groundhog. It was conceived as a “Cold War” between “jealous forces in Indiana County” and other communities about Punxsutawney’s fame with Bre’r Groundhog. In particular, writers of the Indiana newspaper made the claim that Canoe Ridge Weatherworks in Indiana County should be recognized as the original Home of the Groundhog.

In imagined accounts in the Spirit, believers of the claim in Indiana County were identified as “rebels.” The Punxsutawney Groundhog was recognized as “General Groundhog” and other community leaders were identified as Colonel (George) Jones and Sergeant (Fred) Bonadio. In recognition of his many years as president of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, Dr. Frank Lorenzo was nicknamed “Old Ironside.”

The story about the Cold War included captured rebels, captured and jailed captors, and skirmishes between Punxsutawney loyalists against the rebels. (The term “Cold War” was introduced after World War II, and in the 1950s, national news covered the struggles between the U. S. and western countries against communism and the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics).

For readers unfamiliar with Arthur Godfrey, he was a radio and TV personality in the 1940s and 1950s with his Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scout on black-and-white television. In 1929 he had learned to fly and was an amateur aviator.