E E R F he wind
as t
The Town That Wouldn’t Die
Mansfield professor Gale Largey’s beautiful new book recalls the terrifying 1911 Austin Dam disaster, a boomtown cautionary tale
By Michael Capuzzo Boom Where You Are Planted Get Your Kicks on Route 6 Restaurant, Real Estate Guides Inside
SEPTEMBER 2011
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Volume 6 Issue 4
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The Last Great Place
By Jerry Curreri You Get What You Pay For, so make less money!
By Michael Capuzzo Gale Largey, pictured with Austin friends John and Peggy Rotello, found unforgettable stories of the September 1911 Austin Dam disaster for his new book, published at the 100th anniversary.
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Chatter
42nd Parallel
By Matt Connor In BeTwixt and BeTwain the author digs up a really cool story: “A Remarkable Dream.”
MICHAEL CAPUZZO
By the Mountain Home staff A cross-country biker stops by Papa V’s for A Slice of Life; Labor Day love is Red Riding Good for the American Red Cross; Shooting for a Miracle at Hillside Rod & Gun Club.
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Going Green
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Just Like Gramma’s
Heart of the Mountain
By Patricia Brown Davis Heart to Heart: the gift is the magic of seeing inside.
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JERRY CURRERI
Get Your Kicks on Route 6 By Roberta Curreri It’s All in the Family as Larry’s Sport Center kicks off their 40th year.
Deer Camp
By Jerry & Roberta Curreri Up and Away, Nate goes on maneuvers.
SARAH WAGAMAN
Reading Nature
Cover image by Michael Capuzzo Cover art by Tucker Worthington
By Roberta Curreri Styles come and go, but a good model with great protection is always in vogue. On the 100th anniversary of John M. Brownings’ Model 1911 pistol, Arms and the Man looks at what’s changed and what remains.
By Roberta Curreri What’s cookin’? These homemade cookies from Gramma’s Kitchen are just one of her recipes for sweet success.
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By Tom Murphy Living Deliberately takes more than calculating the odds.
The Town that Wouldn’t Die
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28 Miracle in the Making
By Roberta Curreri Out of the wreckage, a girl gets better by degrees.
30 The Better World
By John & Lynne Diamond-Nigh In Tying the Knot a couple of dreamers is roped to the past while another engages the future.
40 All the World’s a Stage
By Thomas Putnam The sound of great music begins on this note: school programs are the key in Listen Up.
42 Just Like Gramma’s
By Roberta Curreri Everyone wants food that tastes Just Like Gramma’s.
46 My Favorite Things
By Teresa Banik Capuzzo Dine out at the Fly-In Breakfast On a Wing and a Pancake.
50 Finger Lakes Wine Review
By Holly Howell Farmstead and Lakeside: what’s the attraction? Stinging Nettle and Magnus Ridge.
44 Mother Earth
By Gayle Morrow Savoring the sweet fruits of the season is Just the Berries.
52 Boom Where You are Planted!
By Roberta Curreri Growers markets are blooming in Shale Country.
62 Shop Around the Corner
By Roberta Curreri Imagine That—Ginny Coon’s baby grows up!
66 Back of the Mountain
Around the world in 1890s days.
Publisher Michael Capuzzo Editor-in-Chief Teresa Banik Capuzzo Associate Publisher George Bochetto, Esq. Dawn Bilder Managing Editor Roberta Curreri BusinessManager Jerry Curreri Copy Editor Pete Boal Cover Artist Tucker Worthington P r o d u c t i o n M a n a g e r / G r ap h i c D e s i g n e r Amanda Doan Butler Contributing Writers Sarah Bull, Angela Cannon-Crothers, Jennifer Cline, Matt Connor, Barbara Coyle, Kevin Cummings, Georgiana DeCarlo, John & Lynne Diamond-Nigh, Patricia Brown Davis, Lori Duffy Foster, Audrey Fox, Donald Gilliland, Steve Hainsworth, Martha Horton, Holly Howell, David Ira Kagan, Adam Mahonske, Roberta McCulloch-Dews, Cindy Davis Meixel, Suzanne Meredith, Fred Metarko, Karen Meyers, Dave Milano, Gayle Morrow, Tom Murphy, Mary Myers, Jim Obleski, Cornelius O’Donnell, Thomas Putnam, Gary Ranck, Kathleen Thompson, Joyce M. Tice, Linda Williams, Carol Youngs C o n t r i b u t i n g P h o t o g r ap h e r s Mia Lisa Anderson, Bill Crowell, Anne Davenport-Leete, Ann Kamzelski, Ken Meyer, Sarah Wagaman Sales Representatives Christopher Banik, Michele Duffy, Brian Earle, Richard Widmeier G r ap h i c s I n t e r n Ashley Connelly Subscriptions Claire Lafferty Beagle Cosmo Assistant
to the beagle
Yogi Mountain Home is published monthly by Beagle Media LLC, 39 Water St., Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, 16901. Copyright 2010 Beagle Media LLC. All rights reserved. To advertise or subscribe e-mail info@mountainhomemag.com. To provide story ideas e-mail editor@mountainhomemag.com. Reach us by phone at 570-724-3838. Each month copies of Mountain Home are available for free at hundreds of locations in Tioga, Potter, Bradford, Lycoming, Union, and Clinton counties in Pennsylvania; Steuben, Chemung, Schuyler, Yates, Seneca, Tioga, and Ontario counties in New York. Visit us at www.mountainhomemag.com. Get Mountain Home at home. For a one-year subscription to Mountain Home (12 issues), send $24.95, payable to Beagle Media LLC, to 39 Water St., Wellsboro, PA 16901.
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Home Territory Distributor of the Month
Welcome to Mountain Home We’re grateful that you’ve already welcomed us onto your porch and into the living room. Thanks to you, Mountain Home, the Twin Tiers lifestyle magazine, has 100,000 readers from the Finger Lakes to the Susquehanna River. Locally owned and based at creek-side offices in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania—population 3,245—we tell local stories by gifted local writers, artists, and photographers (see our awards on the next page). You can get a subscription, but most folks pick us up, “Free as the Wind,” at one of 275 distribution points, represented on this original map by artist Tucker Worthington. Please support our advertisers and distributors—we’ll soon publish a complete list by town of the businesses, from Wegman’s to wineries to the corner store, where you’ll find Mountain Home. Call us at 570-724-3838 to chat, tell a story, or advertise. Meanwhile, happy reading! Teresa & Mike Capuzzo, Wellsboro, Pennsylvania
W
hen folks in Wellsboro crave just about the best and biggest sandwiches in the Allegheny Highlands, they head to The Native Bagel on Central Avenue, the bustling sandwich shop and unofficial community center a block off Main Street. It’s also where thousands of our readers, locals and visitors alike, stop and pick up a copy of Mountain Home magazine, “Free as the Wind.” Mountain Home wouldn’t reach its 100,000 readers in the Twin Tiers without the generous support of our 275 distributors across mountain and lake in two states. But of all the hotels and restaurants, U.S. Post Offices, coffee shops, movie houses, pizzerias, wineries, grocery stores, Wegmans to Tops, Sue Cummings’ The Native Bagel is Distributor No. 1. The very first issues of Mountain Home that rolled off the press were dropped off at the Central Avenue eatery in December 2005, and since then The Native Bagel is always the first stop on the magazine’s delivery run. One reason for this is that Mountain Home’s office is a block away on Water Street. But the main reason is Sue Cummings herself. Sue displays the Mountain Home rack right by The Native Bagel front door, and the first See Distributor on page 64 5
It’s A Love Affair, That’s Why You read us, and you write us. Mountain Home has won an unprecedented 33 statewide Keystone Press Awards for journalism excellence in writing, photography, and design in just five years, and special recognition for attracting the most new readers (100,000) in the state. From Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association says nobody does it better than our writers and readers. F i r s t P l ac e ,
best
N i c h e P u b l i ca t i o n i n t h e s t a t e M o u n t a i n H o m e S t a f f , 2011
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connor,
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F i r s t P l ac e , B u s i n e s s o r C o n s u m e r S t o r y , Jeffrey Allen Federowicz, 2 0 1 0 F i r s t P l ac e , P h o t o S t o r y , A n n K a m z e l sk i , 2 0 1 0 F i r s t P l ac e , S p o r t s O u t d o o r C o l u m n , F r e d M e t a r k o , 2010 F i r s t P l ac e , F r o n t P a g e D e s i g n , T u ck e r W o r t h i n g t o n , 2 0 1 0 S e c o n d P l ac e , F e a t u r e S t o r y , M a t t C o n n o r , 2 0 1 0 Honorable Mention, Sports Story, A n g e l a C a n n o n -C r o t h e r s , 2 0 1 0 F i r s t P l ac e , F e a t u r e S t o r y , J o y c e M. T i c e , 2 0 0 9 S e c o n d P l ac e , B u s i n e s s S t o r y , B a r b a r a C o y l e ,
2009
S e c o n d P l ac e , S p o r t s / O u t d o o r C o l u m n , R o y K a i n , 2 0 0 9 S e c o n d P l ac e , P h o t o S t o r y , A n n K a m z e l sk i , 2 0 0 9 S e c o n d P l ac e , S p o r t s S t o r y , F r e d M e t a r k o , 2 0 0 9 S p e c i a l C i t a t i o n , b e s t p u b l i ca t i o n i n t h e Pennsylvania at growing readership (100,000 Mountain Home Staff, 2 0 0 8
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F i r s t P l ac e , P e r s o n a l i t y P r o f i l e , M i ch a e l C a p u z z o , 2 0 0 8 F i r s t P l ac e , S p o r t s / O u t d o o r C o l u m n , F r e d M e t a r k o , 2 0 0 8 S e c o n d P l ac e , S p o r t s / O u t d o o r C o l u m n , L i z B e r k o w i t z , 2 0 0 8 S e c o n d P l ac e , F e a t u r e S t o r y , M i ch a e l C a p u z z o , 2 0 0 8 Honorable Mention, Business or Consumer Story, Cindy Davis Meixel, 2 0 0 8 H o n o r a b l e M e n t i o n , F e a t u r e P h o t o , Cindy Davis Meixel, 2 0 0 8 F i r s t P l ac e , D i s t i n g u i s h e d W r i t i n g , M i ch a e l C a p u z z o , 2 0 0 7 F i r s t P l ac e , P e r s o n a l i t y P r o f i l e , M i ch a e l C a p u z z o , 2 0 0 7 F i r s t P l ac e , S p o r t s / O u t d o o r C o l u m n , D a v i d C a s e l l a , 2 0 0 7 S e c o n d P l ac e , S p o r t s / O u t d o o r C o l u m n , R o y K a i n , 2 0 0 7 Honorable Mention, Feature Beat Reporting, Teresa Banik Capuzzo, 2 0 0 7
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The Last Great Place
You Get What You Pay For By Jerry Curreri
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
M
– Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
ake less money. How many times do you hear that advice? So, I was teaching school in Livingston, New Jersey in the early 90s when computers hit. All of a sudden there were computers in every classroom, a complete computer lab down the hall, and all kinds of rules about using them for e-mails, lesson plans, report cards, and grade books. And, of course, there were software and hardware problems. In stepped a savior, our computer tech guy, Mr. Lee. He could fix anything, answer any question: a true expert who was not only helpful, he was friendly and patient with a school full of novices, teachers, and students alike. One day as I was going over our teacher and union contract, I saw that Mr. Lee was making $35,000 a year. In business, he would no doubt make three or four times that salary, maybe more. So I asked him, “What the heck are you doing here when you can make zillions more on the ‘outside’?” He laughed and explained, “I did that for ten years and missed everything. Work had me consumed: travel here, travel there; called in on Saturdays, sometimes on Sundays. Now I see my kid’s soccer game. Now I go to my daughter’s recital and coach little league. Now I make less money.” Three years ago, I hired two fellows fromTroy to put up some sheetrock for me, a father and son team that came highly recommended—also, experts in their field. I figured working long days, they would take three days. When I spoke to them on the phone and told them the dimensions of the room addition, they told me it would take six days. I was surprised and asked them, “Why so long?” The father replied, “We only work from eight to four, Monday through Friday. We do great work and we’re fast, but we don’t work more than forty hours a week. So, we have time for the family, church obligations, fishing and hunting. We used to work more, but now we make less money and we like it that way.” Last week I took the morning off and drove to our deer camp down the road. As I entered our field, grown up into five-foot-high weeds, a big black bear, just fifty yards away, stuck his head up and stared right at me. Then he disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. I continued up through the field another hundred yards or so, and two huge white-tailed bucks in velvet popped up, looked at me, and bounded off. How much is that worth? Maybe the Last Great Place isn’t where you live, but how you live.
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C hatter Shooting for a Miracle To benefit Children’s Miracle Network pediatrics and neonatal intensive care, the Hillside Rod & Gun Club of Blossburg and the Morris Run American Legion Post 167 are sponsoring the 9th Annual Trap Shoot on September 18 at 1 p.m. This event, with a $10 registration, will medal 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places for classes A-B-C-D open-junior and sub-junior. Special prizes are to be raffled along with door prizes. For information call Clayton Hoffman 570-549-3844 or email jncaguy@fronteirnet.net. ~Roberta Curreri
Red Riding Good Over Labor Day Weekend, the 2nd annual Ride for the Red, hosted by the Corning New York HOG Chapter 2077, hopes to hit the road with at least 200 bikes. “This is our second Ride for the Red. Our proceeds go toward our services to the Armed Forces, supporting soldiers and their families,” explains Executive Director Brian McConnell of the Greater Steuben County Chapter of the American Red Cross. The event kicks off on Friday September 2 with a motorcycle run and clambake, sponsored by Wegman’s. The preliminary motorcycle ride leaves Wegman’s parking lot on the corner of Bridge Street and Dennison Parkway in Corning at 3:30 p.m. It is followed by a clambake, open to the public, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. in the Wegman’s parking lot. Other menu items will be available. Ride for the Red continues on Saturday September 3 with its motorcycle dice run starting at American Twin HarleyDavidson in Painted Post, New York. Registration at American Twin HarleyDavidson begins at 9 a.m. with the last bike out by 11 a.m. The ride ends by 3 p.m. at the latest and prize drawings start at 4 p.m. Up for grabs is a dinner for two at the Stockyard Grill and a one night stay at the Painted Post Ramada Inn. Ride for the Red is open to the 8
public and welcomes all bikes, classic cars, muscle cars, and street rods to join in. The cost is $20 per rider and $20 per passenger, and each registrant receives a T-shirt. A large vendor attendance with food and merchandise is expected. The after-ride nighttime party entertainment by Whiskey Creek starts at 8 p.m. at the Stockyard Grill, located at the Painted Post Ramada Inn. Pre-register to ride at: www.gsredcross. org scroll to bottom of page and then click on Continue Shopping. ~Roberta Curreri
A Slice of Life
Not on a shoe-string budget, but a bikechain one! Amanda Baldwin coasted up to Papa V’s Pizzeria in Mansfield on July 31, having departed Burlington, Vermont seven days before. She needed to refuel her internal combustion engine for the next leg of her ride— a very long leg. Destination: the sunny beaches of California where she will recuperate for a month before flying home. “The trip should take two months total,” notes Amanda, who spent half of her two thousand dollar budget on gear. “I have a thousand dollars left for food and bike repairs. I’ll be camping all the way.” Amanda ordered one slice of meat-lovers pizza, ate half…took the rest for the road. ~Roberta Curreri
Oops & Etc... The Victorian painted lady featured in last month’s Home & Garden section is located at Waln and Grant Streets in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. *** The information box for last month’s Shop Around the Corner was inadvertently omitted: Flint Creek Soap Company; 6094 Italy Valley Rd, Naples, New York; Tues-Sun 11 a.m.-5 p.m. (check for seasonal hours); 585-3746778; www.flintcreeksoap.com
s r a e Y 0 2 g n i t a r b e eC l
Indigo
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The Town That Wouldn’t Die Mansfield professor Gale Largey’s lovely new book recalls the terrifying 1911 Austin Dam disaster, a boomtown cautionary tale
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By Michael Capuzzo
t began on Saturday afternoon, September 30, 1911, in the remote lumber boomtown of Austin, Pennsylvania, known for its pulp factory, woodhick population, gambling, whiskey, and Miss Cora Brooks’ hilltop whorehouse. The notorious Miss Brooks, a stout, hard-eyed Elmira native linked to prostitution and murder in two states, had alarmed the good people of Austin by flaunting her thriving bordello as the town boomed to 2,000 souls. But shortly past 2:20 that afternoon, following a busy Friday night, it was the madam’s turn to startle as she looked out the window. Far below in the valley at the head of a mile-long reservoir was something far worse than the hellfire glares of church folk, worse than more lawmen hustling up to her door. The paper mill’s huge dam—a giant cement retaining wall stretching across the valley to block Freemans Run, 534 feet long and 50 feet high and holding back 500,000,000 gallons of water—was bowed in the middle like a pregnant sow about to give birth. In memory of the murderous 1889 Johnstown Flood, it was a sight to a Pennsylvanian more terrifying than a Confederate cavalry charge.
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Later when she told the story, the madam was hailed in newspapers worldwide as “Heroine Cora Brooks,” the redeemed prostitute who saved countless lives. But in that moment the unimaginable stole her attention. At 2:29, the massive cement dam shuddered, cracked, and split near the middle then all along the great wall, its towering flailing cement chunks exposing iron support bars like innards. With a great roar, the pent-up water lept the ruins and filled the narrow valley. Dammed for a decade, Freemans Run was free at last, a forty-foot wall of water surging toward Austin proper, two miles downstream. “An awful roar filled my ears,” Cora recalled, and “I ran screaming through the house…For God’s sake…the dam is going out!” Horrified, Cora watched as houses and men clinging to rooftops tumbled along in the flood, which moved strangely slowly, swirling with 20,000 floating cord feet of logs and pulpwood from an upstream dam, blasting away everything in its path. She watched, “fascinated like,” until “I became sick and could not watch it any longer.” The tale of the woodhicks’ madam is among dozens of remarkable stories preserved in The Austin Disaster, 1911 by historian and Mansfield University professor emeritus Gale Largey, published this month to mark the centennial of one of Pennsylvania’s greatest disasters. It was a hundred years ago this month that the massive dam, built by the Bayless Pulp and Paper Company of Binghamton, New York to supply water to its Austin pulp mill, failed. It failed because scandalous, deliberately inferior, cost-cutting construction, unleashed a torrent that took seventy-eight lives and all but wiped Austin and Costello off the map of southern Potter County. The flood demolished hundreds of buildings and the history of progress in Austin, and had a profound impact on American history as the second-deadliest Pennsylvania dam disaster after Johnstown. Largey’s newest book, The Austin Disaster, 1911, is subtitled, As Reported in the Media before Radio, Television, and the Internet. It’s a glossy, heavy-stock, large-format hardcover coffee table book of 272 pages, a fascinating, unusual, and collectible volume. Designed by local graphic artists Andy Worthington and Phil Ogden and printed by Reed Hann Litho Co., of Williamsport (list price $35.95), it’s an even more finely published book than the professor’s earlier, remarkably popular black-and-white photo books of Wellsboro history. (Life in Wellsboro: 1880-1920, A Sociohistorical Portrait, published in 1980, could
be had for $70 or $89.95 on Amazon.com recently, while the lone Amazon copy of its sequel, Life in Wellsboro: 1920-1960, A Sociohistorical Portrait, was priced at $200). Largey’s book is one of two volumes published this month by a noted local writer marking the centennial of the Austin Dam disaster. Paul W. Heimel of Coudersport, a former journalist and author of a local history book on Eliot Ness and his time in Coudersport, is publishing 1911, The Austin Flood, a 202-page paperback narrative history with more than 200 photographs (Knox Books, Coudersport, $16.95). For both local writers, it was more than a labor of history; it was personal. Heimel grew up less than a dozen miles from the Austin Dam, has spent his life in Potter County, and spent hours hiking Freemans Run, climbing the dam’s cement ruins, “grasping its protruding twisted steel rods—yearning for a connection.” Near the end of years of research, he learned that his great-grandfather, German immigrant Casper W. Heimel, was a town constable in southwestern Pennsylvania sent to Austin to help with recovery. Gale was raised in St. Mary’s, thirty miles from Austin, in a German-Irish family steeped in woodhick lore. His father was a laborer who quit school in sixth grade to support his family. His grandfather drove a horse-team wagon for Straub’s beer, delivering the St. Mary’s brew to the woodhick camps, where his grandmother worked as a cook. His great-grandfather was a woodhick, the breed of lumberjacks that made Pennsylvania a timber capital of the world. Largey’s first boyhood views of the famous ruined dam, built to supply water to the paper mill fed by woodhick lumber, imprinted him with a sense of awe he never lost. Largey is well known as a prolific writer of
books and producer of documentary films bringing northern Pennsylvania’s past to new life. Whether researching his books on Wellsboro, Mansfield, Morris, Liberty, and Roseville, or producing documentaries on The Laurel Festival’s Depression-era birth in Wellsboro, Tioga County’s greatest generation (102 interviews with World War II vets), or Bradford County’s Lester Ward, the overlooked turn-of-the-century founder of sociology and “the architect of the modern welfare state,” Largey is a Pennsylvania original. He’s a Ken Burns of the backwoods, a filmmaker and scholar with a storyteller’s love for the people and land where he grew up and has lived most of his adult life. According to Largey, the Austin dam disaster offers a distant mirror, a cautionary tale during the current gas-industry boom, and the choices a society makes. “What price are we willing to pay for jobs?” he asked. The disaster has been a lifelong obsession. In the 1990s, he spent five years writing, directing, and producing a widely praised documentary that aired in 1997, The Austin Disaster 1911: A Chronicle of Human Character. With his usual verve, he produced the film using only volunteers, an army of helpers that included Wellsboro historian Scott Gitchell, Wellsboro local jug band Sadie Green Sales, former U.S. President Gerald Ford (the voice of President William Howard Taft), Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge (the voice of Governor John K. Tener), and even Willie Nelson, who agreed to narrate the film. Largey persuaded him that it was fitting because Austin’s prophet of doom was a grocer named William (“Willie”) Nelson. Largey has a sense of humor, and an appreciation for the vagaries of human nature. In addition to the Republican President
In his new book published for the 100th anniversary, Gale Largey unearthed remarkable untold stories of the Austin Dam disaster.
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Ford, the documentary contains a quote denouncing capitalism from an undeniable Marxist. That would be Frederique LonguetMarx, great-great granddaughter of Karl Marx, who was visiting Mansfield University on a lecture tour. “I’m just an old guy who gets lots of help,” Largey said. “You can’t accomplish anything without other people, and Willie Nelson would never have agreed to do it unless he’d met Mina Cooney and Dixie Ripple, Austin women whose essential goodness won the day.” Largey also gently hounded the country singer during four different concerts. After the documentary came out, the professor couldn’t stop researching the Austin dam. He couldn’t stop even after he retired in 2005 after thirty-five years of teaching sociology at Mansfield University. He couldn’t stop even though his days are already richly filled, blessed as he is with “a wonderful wife, children, grandchildren, in-laws, and friends.” He kept learning fascinating new things, and the result is the companion book to the film. The book is a page-turner designed to be browsed again and again, featuring incredible,
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if not always credible, contemporary newspaper accounts from around the world of the Austin Dam disaster. From The New York Times, The London Times, and the Times of Fairbanks, Alaska (“Our Slogan: Eight Days to the States”); from the Harrisburg Telegraph and Hong Kong Telegraph, the Wellsboro Gazette, the Gazette de France in Paris, the front pages are beautifully reproduced with lively photographs, drawings, and amazing human interest stories that make modern newspapers dull in comparison. Amazing and sometimes even true: it was the heyday of William Randolph Hearst, when journalists didn’t merely wrestle with “bias” charges, they exuberantly made things up. “BIG DAM BREAKS, 850 DROWNED,” blared the San Francisco Chronicle front page of Oct 1, 1911. It must have sounded good to the headline writer; The London Times figured 2,000 dead sounded even better. “DAYLIGHT REVEALS HORRORS OF AUSTIN FLOOD, IN WHICH 300 PERISHED,” blared the Chronicle’s next day, corrective headline. The following day, Oct. 3, a smaller story:
“TOTAL NUMBER OF VICTIMS NOW PLACED AT 150.” Eventually, the newspapers lowered the total to seventy-eight victims, now the official number. Newspapers “greatly exaggerated the number of victims” to sell newspapers, Largey wrote in an explanatory note, “but the following days the number was lowered… on a positive note, the exaggerations may have sparked greater national interest and contributions for disaster relief.” Largey was afraid the story was in danger of fading into obscurity, forgotten by locals and overlooked by historians. “I think it’s important that a region preserve its past, that people tell their own stories. Austin is a remarkable town, with great people. This is their story.” On a recent day, the professor visited the ruins of the dam, and drove into the quiet town of Austin (population 623), a tranquil collection of well-tended houses in a peaceful, sunlit valley with the feeling that time has slipped the hills, and may not be missed. He stopped at a large, white, two-story Victorian house with gingerbread trim at 1 Town Square. The handsome
house—the E.O. Austin Home and Historical Society—is a replica of the house that town founder Edward Orramel Austin built in 1856 when he came from White’s Corners, New York to the valley of the vast timberlands. Austin went to the Civil War, came back and watched his town boom into a lumber capital, and grow with the times to a population of more than 2,000. Austin, who died two years before the flood, didn’t live to see his house washed away, or the industry and the people leave and never come back. Now Austin boasts its own school district, the smallest in the state. Local folks, spurning government money and its control, have, by dint of their own efforts, turned the Austin Dam site into a lovely ten-acre park, memorial, and concert site that makes the travel guide books. The remarkable, highly professional historical museum is a gem. Under the leadership of Ron Ebbert, it tells the story of the town and its Great Flood with special care—with love—and with a spirit that may be matched but can’t be exceeded by any town this size or many times larger. It’s an achievement worthy of an Austin that calls itself, “The
Town That Wouldn’t Die.” Much of the museum is devoted to the 1911 flood. Starting in the 1880s, great sawmills roared and woodhicks clear-cut the old growth on the surrounding hills until the sawmills shut their doors. The tannery arrived and stripped the hemlocks for tannins until the bark liquor was gone and the tannery left, leaving only the pulp trees. Yet the sprawling junk-wood forests were magnificent to George Bayless of the Bayless
Pulp and Paper Company, the capitalist who built the huge paper mill, bringing two hundred jobs and fresh boom times. State senator Frank Baldwin, a prominent Austin attorney, persuaded Bayless to build his paper mill two miles upstream from the town in 1900. The community raised over $5,000 to buy a mill site for Bayless, including $300 from Austin’s Willie Nelson. It didn’t matter that several county commissioners would later be indicted for
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illegally lowering Bayless’s tax assessments to attract him to town. The boosters were in power. By 1909, when Bayless proposed building the immense dam to solve seasonal water shortages, The Potter Enterprise crowed that the company “is composed of as fair, just and enterprising men as ever did business in any town in the world and the sooner the people of this country gets this idea instilled in their minds the better.” But in early December 1909, as soon as the dam was completed, even before it was asked to withstand the unstable forces of millions of gallons of water, fiftyfoot-long vertical cracks appeared on its face, running top-to-bottom in the new cement. A month later, in January 1910, the townsfolk were terrified as the great cement wall bowed out more than thirtysix feet under the force of the spring melt. A major problem was cost-cutting. Bayless had ignored many of the safety recommendations of the engineer who designed the dam, T. Chalkey Hatton, including installing a safety valve to relieve enormous excess pressures. Now he brought in another expert, a man who helped rebuild
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San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake, who successfully relieved the pressure by dynamiting away a large section of cement. The dam returned to a reassuring form. “Austin Is Treated to A ‘Johnstown Flood’ Scare,” said the headline in the Austin Autograph, but the newspaper concluded it was only a “good scare” being distorted by big-city “yellow journalists.” Bayless told the Autograph that he personally promised “absolute safety in the future, under any and all conditions.” Willie Nelson, the Austin grocer, wasn’t reassured. Nelson visited the dam often, The Wellsboro Gazette reported, “sometimes… before going to bed, feeling too anxious about the perilous concrete wall to sleep without inspecting it and assuring himself that the cracks had not widened.” Denounced as an alarmist, “Nelson was Austin’s Jeremiah,” Largey says, “the prophet of doom.” Less noticed in the panic were fifteenfoot sprays and gushes of water shooting out from under the dam through the base rock. Bayless didn’t address the fact that he had heedlessly built the dam on a foundation only four feet deep. He didn’t dig deep
enough to discover the weak shale below the sandstone. Unknown to the public, the shale, and the entire dam, were shifting. Unknown to Austin, Largey writes, “After the scare of 1910, Hatton made specific recommendations to ensure the safety of the dam, but Bayless decided the costs were too excessive.” Eighteen months later, he writes, “the heavy rains of September 1911 set the stage for disaster.” As the dam burst that Saturday afternoon, the madam, Cora Brooks, picked up the telephone and called operator Lena Binckley to warn the town. Binckley and another phone operator, Kathleen Lyons, ran into the street, shouting, “The dam has broken!” They were hailed as heroes in Nebraska, where The Omaha Sunday Bee headlined, “Stories of the Operators Who Sit like Fate at the Switchboard—a Telephone Girl Who Beat a Racing Flood!” Easier said than done. Looking toward Freemans Run at the approaching roar, Binckley was astounded. “The wall of water seemed fifty feet high. Above it rose a great cloud of spray, in which houses seemed to toss, bumping against one
another, spinning and turning as they fell to pieces.” The pulp mill raised an alarm of eight short hoots and a long blast moments before the flood and flying logs obliterated the factory, drowning and crushing workers. Instead of saving herself, Senator Baldwin’s sister rescued her crippled father and nearly blind mother from their house. A stunned witness “saw the church topple and fall upon the three as the daughter urged her parents along the street,” The Philadelphia Public Ledger reported. The nervous grocer Willie Nelson, too, was killed, and remembered by The Wellsboro Gazette as “one of Austin’s truest citizens.” Like the Johnstown Flood, in which 2,209 people died during the collapse of the dam maintained by a private rod and gun club whose members included Andrew Carnegie, the Austin Dam disaster offered a moral tale of turn-of-the-century capitalists preying on ordinary folk. But while Carnegie and his pals were held blameless by a controversial court that ruled the Johnstown Flood an “act of God,” the culpability of George Bayless in the Austin disaster seems clear. Though Bayless, too, was never held
responsible by a court (he rebuilt the paper mill in exchange for pledges that Austin folks wouldn’t sue him), his own engineer, Hatton, condemned the mogul for inhumanly pushing for cheaper methods. The Austin disaster led the Pennsylvania legislature finally to pass the nation’s first dam safety and inspection law, The Water Obstructions Act of 1913, which it had steadfastly refused to pass after Johnstown. As the Utica, New York Saturday Globe opined: “…if the frightful fate visited upon Austin results in greater engineer and construction care in the…many great dams now being built…the sacrifice, needless and probably criminal as it was, will not have been in vain.” Weeks later, Cora Brooks was brought to trial for prostitution. The judge studied a petition from dozens of townsfolk pleading for the mercy of the court, and dismissed the case. “In a time of crisis,” he wrote, “Cora Brooks proved she was not only human, but humane.”
WHAT: Austin Flood Centennial celebration WHEN: Friday, Saturday and Sunday September 30 and October 1 & 2, 2011 WHERE: Austin Town Square, Main Street (Route 607), and Austin Dam Park, Route 872, Austin, PA. HIGHLIGHTS: Commemorative festival marking the “Potter County event of the century,” the sixth worse dam failure in U.S. history, features tours of the dam, historical re-enactors, 1911-style food, music, craft and trade demonstrations, vintage baseball, woodhick games, hot air balloon rides, ceremony honoring victims and survivors. AUTHOR: Paul Heimel, author of 1911: The Austin Flood, will provide a dramatization of eyewitness accounts by flood witnesses at 3 p.m. Friday at the Austin Fire Hall. Gale Largey, author of The Austin Disaster, 1911, will screen his documentary about the flood at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Austin Dam. Both authors will repeat their performances on Saturday. Times to be determined. Visit www.austin2011.com for more information.
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15
42nd Parallel
BeTwixt and BeTwain By Matt Connor
“I slept profoundly, but how long, I do not know. All at once, I found myself awake, and filled with a sudden shuddering expectancy. All was still. All but my own heart—I could hear it beat. Presently, the bedclothes began to slip away toward the foot of the bed, as if someone were pulling them! I could not stir; I could not speak…I lay a long time, peering into the darkness and listening. Then I heard a grating noise overheard, like the dragging of a heavy body across the floor; then the throwing down of the body, and the shaking of my windows in response to the concussion…Then I became conscious that my chamber was invaded—that I was not alone.” –Mark Twain’s song of the cemetery
T
hose wonderfully creepy words were penned by Mark Twain in 1869 as a prelude to a ghostly visitation in his short story, “A Remarkable Dream.” But the story behind this tale by the greatest American author of his day is just as fascinating as the story itself. The same year he wrote the story—it was first published in 1870 in a Buffalo, New York newspaper—Twain was in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, to give a lecture and read from one of his works. At some point he took a walk around the city and came upon a sight that left him feeling sad and angry. “Basically he was here in town for a speaking engagement, and at one point he was out walking around and stopped to rest at the Pine Street Methodist Church,” said Lycoming County Historical Society Curator Scott Sagar. “The cemetery was right across the street from that, a very old cemetery in town. It was where city hall is now. “He was pretty distressed at how run down it was and wrote a story about it where he saw a skeleton coming out of the cemetery because the skeleton couldn’t stand living in such a run down cemetery anymore.” In the story, Twain recounts a visit from the ghost of John Baxter Copmanhurst, who died in May, 1839. Copmanhurst expresses his great disappointment at being forced to spend eternity in a shroud of rags and a casket that is battered and worn. And here is where the famous Twain 16
humor comes in. “Ah, it was worth ten years of a man’s life to be dead then!” Copmanhurst tells the author. “Everything was pleasant. I was in a good neighborhood, for all the dead people that lived near me belonged to the best families in the city. Our posterity appeared to think the world of us. They kept our graves in the very best condition; the fences were in faultless repair, headboards were kept painted or whitewashed, and were replaced with new ones as soon as they began to look rusty or decayed; monuments were kept upright, railings intact and bright, the rose bushes and shrubbery trimmed, trained and free from blemish, the walks clean and smooth and graveled. “But that day is gone by. Our descendants have forgotten us...I sleep in a neglected grave...I and friends that lie with me founded and secured the prosperity of this fine city, and the stately bantling of our loves leaves us to rot in a dilapidated cemetery which neighbors curse and strangers scoff at.” Twain’s sympathetic response is that “the community that can stand such graveyards as those we are emigrating from can stand anything a body can say about the neglected
and forsaken dead that lie in them.” “I don’t know if it was as a direct result of Mark Twain writing the story or not, but they did eventually move that cemetery out to Washington Boulevard.,” said Sagar. “It’s called Williamsport Cemetery now. I think it was called Ross Cemetery when it existed at the current city hall location on Pine Street.” How does he feel that Twain’s negative impressions of the city ended up inspiring this macabre short story so critical of Williamsport’s town fathers? “Unfortunately a lot of people don’t know about it, and for the people that do, I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘Oh my gosh, it was so embarrassing that Twain wrote disparagingly about Williamsport’ or ‘How dare he?!’ They say, ‘Oh, cool! Mark Twain.’ “It’s more along the lines of, whatever he said, good or bad, he’s still Mark Twain. We’ll take it.” This column explores the strange mysteries and folklore of Pennsylvania and New York, a region linked by the 42nd Parallel, which connects our states on its way to other colorful points around the globe.
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Heart of the Mountain
Heart to Heart By Patricia Brown Davis
It isn’t the size of the gift that matters, but the size of the heart that gives it. ~ Eileen Elias Freeman, The Angels’ Little Instruction Book, 1994
G
ifting those we love is always a treasure, especially if it’s very personal and goes to those who are special to us. As Pierre Corneille said, “The manner of giving is worth more than the gift.” It always out-weighs the value and becomes attached to our hearts. The very first piece of jewelry I remember owning was a gift from Dad. Up to that time either Santa Claus or other family members were in charge of purchasing and gifting items of necessity. So one Christmas morning I was excited to find a tiny exquisitely wrapped box under the tree saying “To Patty Lou, from Daddy.” I noted my sister Ann also had a tiny box just like mine. Imagine our surprise when we opened our boxes to find gold heart-shaped lockets. On the front of mine were some engraved flowers. Ann’s locket also had flowers, but different ones. And when we turned our lockets over, our names were individually engraved on them. Mine said “Patty Lou.” Ann’s said, “Punkin”—for that’s what everyone called her. Oh, we felt so grown-up, for we both knew grown-up women wore lockets. I remember the first time I saw one. My Grandmother, Eva Brown, had one. Hers was much larger and the chain more substantial. The first time Grandma opened her locket to show photos inside, I was astounded. Pure magic! And those photos were of people I knew! One side was a photo of her mother and the other, her father. I eagerly opened my locket, and sure enough, inside were photos of Mom and Dad. Ann’s locket had the same. I remember wearing it a lot. Sometimes I slept with it on. But more often than not, Mom made me place it in a small jewelry box for special occasions. That suited me fine, for I always wanted to show it off to others. Dad was always surprising us with unusual items and gifts and fun surprises—like this necklace.
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At some point the necklace disappeared. I don’t exactly remember when. Perhaps the clasp broke or the chain became too tight. Perhaps it was lost; I cannot recall. But I never forgot the great memory of receiving that first special gift “from Daddy.” Of course, our family is prone to telling family stories again and again. It’s what we do when we get together. And I suppose I had mentioned this story to my own children, for, just a few years ago, (and fifty years later) I received a lovely tiny gift from my youngest daughter. When I opened the box, there was a lovely little heart-shaped locket lying on white cotton...not gold, but silver, which is mostly what I wear today. On opening the clasp, there were two photos—one of my dad and one of me of about the ages we were when I owned the little gold locket. I turned it over and there engraved were the words, “Patty Lou.” Enclosed was a lovely original verse that read: “Gold and Silver, Past and Present; it’s all the same, you see. As a child, he gave you a locket; as a mother, you receive one from me.” Like my silver hoop earrings, the locket has become my “everyday jewelry.” Every time I see it, I think not only of my dad and his special gifting, but know that his spirit of love has passed through me to my children, and no doubt has passed on to theirs as well. Gifts of the heart! Patricia Brown Davis is a professional musician and memoirist seeking stories about the Wellsboro glass factory. Contact her at patd@ mountainhomemag.com.
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O U tdo O rs
Get Your Kicks On Route 6 Larry’s Sports Center is All in the Family By Brad Wilson
I
n March, 1971, Larry Knapp thought a little motorcycle shop would be a nice hobby and a tax write-off. That business, it turns out, far out-distanced his modest expectations. Over the last forty years, Larry’s Sport Center of Galeton became a sprawling 500-foot-long, 28,000 square foot dealer of anything—from a $20 shirt to a $37,000 Screaming Eagle Harley- Davidson. It has just about anything for the lover of motorized outdoor recreation. While traveling down Route 6 out of Galeton, Pennsylvania, one is captured by the overall scale of the mountains and great outdoors. I can’t believe there is a motorcycle shop this big out in the middle of nowhere! “I can’t tell you how many times people passing through or looking to purchase a motorcycle have said this to me,” says Cheryl Main, owner of Larry’s Sport Center. When Larry applied for his franchise years ago, even the Harley-
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Photography By Ken Meyer Davidson big wigs asked, “Why would we want a dealer way out here?” Keep in mind, Galeton is in the least populated county in Pennsylvania. But after a visit, a review of the shop’s sales records, and a look at the beautiful Potter County countryside, the motorcycle company decided it would be more than happy to have Larry’s become a Harley Dealer. In fact, after realizing that this area is a motorcycle touring heaven, Harley-Davidson designated US Route 6 as one of the top ten motorcycle touring roads in the United States. What really keeps this business growing is the staff of thirteen or so employees and their hard work attitude, says Cheryl Main. When she was eleven years old, her dad set her working in his shop from time to time. As she grew, so did the business. Then at eighteen, she took a more active role in the shop. In the last five years her father and mother, Larry and Beverly, have retired, and the second generation has taken hold of the
handlebars and is cruising on a very successful business. Its immense inventory includes ATV’s, snowmobiles, and their best seller, motorcycles—Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha, and Harley-Davidson—as well as motor accessories like helmets, gloves, boots, jackets, goggles. The store is currently run like a well-oiled machine and at the throttle are owners and general managers Cheryl Main and Laura Bennett, Larry and Beverly’s daughters. Cheryl’s husband, Wesley, is service manager and their daughter, Stefanie, is the office manager. Daughter-in-law Lauren works in the office, too. To celebrate forty years of continued success and community support, Larry’s Sport Center is holding their anniversary “Welcome 2012 Harley-Davidson Open House” on Saturday, September 24, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Cheryl and Wesley are inviting all friends, customers, and See Kicks on page 22
Outdoors
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Outdoors
Kicks continued from page 20
their families to come out and show off their rides while enjoying some free food, demo rides, and door prizes. They hope to fill their entire field with motorcycles, ATVs, UTVs, cars, trucks, snowmobiles, and even tractors. Old and new, they want to see them all. A lot has changed in the area of late with the influx of people in the gas industry. “It has been both good and bad,” says Cheryl. “Good because land owners and farmers that have leased their land now have more money to spend on all-terrain vehicles, but bad because the high wages paid by the gas companies have taken some of my work force.” Besides the day-to-day running of a successful business, Larry’s has found time to be involved in charities which Cheryl says are “too many to name, but range from the Special Olympics and local charities to the Vietnam Veterans.” She notes with pride their part in all the local motorcycle charity runs for forty years as well as their benefits for veterans for the past five years—because there wasn’t anything like that in the area. On Saturday, November 12 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Larry’s
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Cheryl Main
will hold their annual Veteran’s Appreciation Day. Harley’s Heroes Day’s representatives will be on site to review veteran’s benefits and to assist with any unresolved issues. There will be free thank you gifts and lunch for all veterans and current enlisted servicemen and women. Hosting events and showing appreciation to their customers and neighbors adds the spark that keeps Larry’s running with the bragging rights of being the third in the country for used vehicle sales. Knowing that they reside in not only a motorcycle touring heaven but also a hunter’s paradise, Cheryl and crew decided to involve the area hunters. So, sixteen years ago, they started their Potter County Big Buck Contest that is free to enter and open to both Pennsylvania and New York archers and riflemen. The contest is simple, just bring your Buck—or just the head— to Larry’s to have the number of points on the Buck’s rack verified and fill out that number of entry ballots (example: six-point buck = six entries), for the drawing. Any size buck can win. Preregistration before opening day is required. Contact Larry’s at 814-435-6548 or at larryssportcenter@
hotmail.com, for more information. The winner need not be a HOG member to receives a Yamaha 4x4 Grizzly! Mountain Home contributing writer Brad Wilson, trout bum and fly-tying artist, considers his wife his best catch.
Outdoors
Arms & the Man
Going Green By Roberta Curreri
L
Jerry Curreri
Debra and David Whiting
ately, if you want to be politically correct, it’s all about “going green.” So, being a fashion forward female firearms shopper, I just couldn’t pass up the chance to be well-dressed and well armed. No sporting a Smith & Wesson rosy pink revolver or a raspberry pink Ruger for me. No Remington compact camo pink pump action pop gun either. When I saw the Wilson Combat CQB Model 1911 in OD green—it almost jumped right off of its “hanger”—that hot little number had to go in my shopping bag. My CQB (close quarters battle) maintains the original style, but is a fully modernized version, of the 1911 design by John M. Browning, the reputed “Father of Automatic Fire.” The Colt 45 ACP (automatic Colt pistol) was designed by Browning to overcome the inadequate stopping power of the .38 caliber revolver. It was formally adopted by the US Army on March 29, 1911, and so became known officially as the Model 1911. The US Navy and US Marine Corps embraced the Browning-designed pistol in 1913. Since then, this Colt-manufactured pistol has served America’s forces through its two World Wars, Korea, and Vietnam. Although in 1985 the US adopted a 9mm pistol for regular issue, the marginal stopping ability of the 9mm ball cartridge proved no more potent than when it was first introduced in 1902. The US Military has returned to the venerable Model 1911 and the .45 ACP to arm their special operations troops. It is with this 1911 that Delta Force Master Sergeant Gary Gordon—immortalized in Black Hawk Down—fights to his death protecting wounded helicopter pilots. The Wilson Combat Model 1911 handgun has a phenomenal guaranteed accuracy of 1-inch groups at 25 yards… and it sure looks pretty. Today the 1911 design remains the world-wide standard for competition pistols. In this PC world a man’s home is also a woman’s castle—as doctrine has it. So, in my house I am the Queen of Green and my 1911 Wilson CQB is King…sorry Jerry! 23
Outdoors
Deer Camp
Up and Away By Jerry & Roberta Curreri
“
Y
ou just have to outflank them,” Uncle Warren laughed and slapped his knee. “That’s how your cousin Nathan got that orchard buck. Heck, he just outflanked him.” It was deer camp 1969, my first deer camp and my first story. My older cousin Nathan was away at college that year, college that would take him beyond medical school to a distinguished career as an emergency room doctor—but that was all in the future. Now it was just good that Nate had gotten home in one piece from a tour in Vietnam as a medic, following in the footsteps of his father, my Uncle Joe. The “orchard buck,” I learned that year, was first seen in the summer of 1964. Every evening just at dusk he would come out in the south corner of the old orchard that separated our place from the Aumick farm. He would be seen browsing on the apple tree tips and then ghost off into a thick swamp that lined the orchard. All summer long and into autumn you could see him in that corner eating apples right up until about a week before rifle season. Then he’d just disappear. In ’64 he was a big 8pointer and by the summer of ’67 he sported 12 points high on his head—one tip broken back just a bit to add character. “So that buck,” Uncle Warren continued, “he was a crafty son of a gun. That swamp was split by three deep runs you couldn’t see, unless you crossed the creek, busted through a hundred yards of squishy cattail, and pushed through a hammock of scrub pine. Nathan figured that all out during the summer. He spent days in that swamp before he even glimpsed the buck, routing it from its bed one afternoon and following its tracks to the junction of the three runs. And that was the problem. That buck, if pushed, had three
escape routes and a single hunter couldn’t get in front of the buck without figuring which one he went down. And you had to be fast enough and strong enough to get ahead of the deer. If he didn’t show up in a couple of minutes, you had to bust through to the next run and wait. Sure enough that buck, hearing us all pushing through the orchard, happened right into Nathan who had outflanked him on the second run. Now that buck sits up there on the wall next to Nate’s picture and we can all take a moment to think of poor old Nate, trapped all the way out in California studying to become a doctor.” It seems outflanking became Nate’s specialty. He left home through the back door, maneuvered his way from combat first aid on the front line to Physician-in-Chief of emergency room medicine, and he even managed to bring home a beauty of a wife by heading her off at the pass.
He would be seen browsing on the apple tree tips and then ghost off into a thick swamp that lined the orchard. 24
Now, years later, with Uncle Warren gone and Nate doctoring in California, I remember another story Nate’s brother Stanley told me, about Nate winning the Silver Star in Vietnam. It was in ’68 near Hue, South Vietnam, and Nate was still a young buck then himself. His platoon had gotten pinned down on a jungle hilltop, with some wounded buddies needing more help than he could provide. They had lost communication with the base and the rescue company was having trouble finding them. Someone needed to get through to relay their location, so Nate volunteered to go down while his platoon crept upwards. Several ravines of swampy jungle creek beds sloped downhill, and the VC were beating their way up through the dense foliage and elephant grass. Nate knew he had to stay in front of the enemy. If he could just keep moving down and over fast enough, he could maneuver around them. He was crafty, he was strong, and the VC couldn’t hunt him down. No sir, that was the year Nate got away. I leaned back in Warren’s rocker, and could hear him say, “Sometimes you just have to outflank them, By God you just have to outflank ’em.”
Outdoors
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Outdoors
Reading Nature
Living Deliberately By Tom Murphy
I
was digging my desk out from under its sedimentary layers of books and papers and came upon an issue of Orion magazine from last January (so you can see how far down into the desk’s history I was) with an article on fracking by Dr. Sandra Steingraber, who is currently a scholar in residence in Ithaca College. I wondered if she had written anything since then, so I looked through more recent issues of Orion (you can see also why desk excavations take a while). She had not, but when I looked at her Web site, I was reminded of her work and what a great resource she is. She is a scientist who makes things personal. At twenty she discovered that she had bladder cancer. When the cancer went into remission, she began to study biology and produced her first book, Living Downstream: An Ecologist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment. She tells people that bladder cancer runs in her family—the surprise is that she is adopted: you see, cancer is not just a matter of genetics. In her next book, Having Faith: An Ecologist’s Journey to Motherhood, she looks at herself both as an environment for another being and as a being in an environment she cannot completely shield from the life developing inside her. Her latest book, Raising Elijah: Protecting Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis, is about the challenges of parenting today. She explains big scientific issues in personal ways. Science seems so abstract. When it speaks in statistics, we are often unimpressed. According to the Centers for Disease Control, smoking increases 26
the chance for coronary heart disease by two to four times. What does that mean? It means that between two people whose other risk factors give them a twenty percent chance of heart disease, the one who smokes has a forty to eighty percent chance. In 2009, 44.4 million adults in the United States still smoked—one in five of all adults. Everyone can point to an Uncle Zeke, who smoked from the age of twelve and hacked his way to eighty-five. All those smokers must think they are Uncle Zekes, exceptions. I quit smoking when my father, a life-long smoker, died of a heart attack at fiftysix. We make decisions to change when it becomes personal. In the Twin Tiers we have been learning about geology and ecology. We see lots of statistics about the gas industry, but the experience is personal. The hard part is to not be misled by statistics into accepting what does not make sense, and at the same time not to be misled by our wishes and prejudices into rejecting reliable science. Ultimately, science does not make decisions for us. We must make the decisions based on the probabilities that science gives us. That means we must be informed and careful. In her work Steingraber illustrates how she uses science to make decisions for herself and her family: it is handy that she lives nearby—we might keep an ear out.
Tom Murphy teaches nature writing at Mansfield University. You can contact him at readingnature@ mountainhomemag.com.
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L i fe Miracle in the Making Getting Better by Degrees By Roberta Curreri
I
t was evening, around 6 p.m., and we were on our way to Pine Creek Valley United Methodist Church, on Route 6, where my husband, Dave is minister. We were going to the children’s Christmas program practice. My son and daughter were both in the play.” Then, Jean Schultz says, she doesn’t know what happened—but by the end of this ride, her daughter Lisa would be staged in an operating room. About a mile from the church, their car went down an embankment and hit trees on both sides. Jean and her son Chad, in the front seats, were saved by the airbags, but Lisa, though she was wearing a seatbelt, was far less fortunate. “Because we were close to the church, we knew people nearby. My son crawled out, went to a house, and phoned for help.” Next, he called his father. Chad, sixteen at the time, had been driving. “He talks a little bit, but not much, about it,” says Jean. “He always had faith that she would make it.” Lisa was extricated from the vehicle and life-flighted to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville. “I’m a nurse,” Jean explains, “so I pretty much had a good idea—I didn’t know if it was or wasn’t brain injury—I kind of assumed so. I held pressure on her forehead, although I couldn’t see where all the blood was coming from. She wasn’t breathing too well.” Lisa’s traumatic brain injury required removing a portion of skull to relieve pressure on her brain and inserting a bolt to measure brain swelling. When she really became conscious is hard to pinpoint: for about two weeks she was on a ventilator and had multiple surgeries. All of her facial bones, her collar bone, and a rib were broken. The extent of brain damage and how much brain function could be regained was unknown. She barely responded to pain or questioning. By month’s end, Lisa opened her eyes, but did not follow directions. “Being a nurse was calming in one way
“
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Lisa Schultz, with her parents and brother, at her high school graduation.
because I knew what could be done, what was possible—but it was still my daughter.” Like Lisa, Jean went into survival mode. “People told me what to do, when to eat. My husband took over paying the bills. I was really scared. I didn’t know if I could deal with a physically injured child. At Geisinger, I looked at Christmas presents donated for kids and told Dave that I’d like to get her a game. I remember wondering what level she would be physically and mentally, but I ended up getting her the Concentration card game. I always said, ‘if only I had a crystal ball so I could know the outcome.’ Of course, we never do. I knew only that she was going to be alive—she’d beaten the odds of life and death.” Jean took an emotional step up one month after the accident, when it was determined that Lisa should go to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) for rehabilitation. At CHOP, before Lisa’s tracheotomy tube was removed, the occupational therapist
asked her to draw a straight line on the board. “She drew a vertical line and I thought, well okay. It’s up and down, not across, but it’s a line. Then she drew a horizontal line. And another vertical. Then she printed the rest of her name. I started crying. I’m not much of a crier—since the accident, I’ve cried enough for a lifetime. Our communities were so caring: the school community in Wellsboro, our church community in Gaines and Galeton, the community of my parents near Morris. Letters, e-mail, gifts, and phone calls came from local churches, fire and ambulance departments, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, school friends, community choir, hospital employees, the Green Home employees. Chad posted Lisa’s story on a Web site. We even had worldwide praying: Dawn Pletcher, who does ‘Goodies for Our Troops,’ put prayer requests into the packages she sent to soldiers. Not knowing the outcome, we prayed for the best for Lisa. Lisa has her strong faith in God, and
God was generous in healing her. It’s a miracle that she was able to be brought back. She was basically reborn,” Jean explains, “I remember walking into her room at CHOP one day and the side rails on her bed had all gotten padded, and I asked, ‘What’s going on?’ They said, ‘She started rolling over,’ and that’s when it hit me. She couldn’t do the first thing.” On January 24th, Jean finally knew how much Lisa was still with her when Lisa’s trach was removed: “she called her Dad and said, ‘I love you,’ and then she called Aunt Sue, my sister, and said ‘Happy Birthday.’” Lisa began to relearn things we take for granted: sitting up, eating, counting, saying the ABCs, writing, talking, walking—and then math, grammar, and vocabulary. For her entire stay at CHOP visiting aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins played games that would help Lisa redevelop her brain. “Sometimes I thought she chose things that were too difficult to master,” says Jean, “but Chad would say, ‘She can do it!’ He’s a senior at Susquehanna University now majoring in Physics. He pushes himself, and he pushed her too.” Four and a half months after the accident,
Lisa was discharged from CHOP, but continued therapies. Jean pays credit to Lisa’s therapists—speech, occupational, physical—and school. “They would say, ‘It’s all in the job,’ but many went above and beyond the job.” She praises the Wellsboro Area School System as “terrific in accommodating Lisa’s needs.” After two weeks home, Lisa began two-hour school days. To protect her skull where Lisa Schultz playing Uno with the family. bone was missing, she wore a helmet. Navigating in the halls and carrying in Lock Haven with a combination major her lunch tray proved difficult. Yet, before in biology and chemistry, a pre-veterinarian summer vacation, Lisa progressed to a six- course of study. “We expressed our concerns hour day. Eventually, she returned to regular about the difficulty,” says Jean, “but we don’t classes and prepared for a career in college. want to squash her enthusiasm. She opted to “She made the honor roll after the accident,” try for this rather than being a vet tech. The Jean says smiling. “She did well, not as well as story of Lisa’s hard work and hard times does not end here. Lisa will pursue new dreams. she might have, but she did very well.” “All parents question what is in the future She is just beginning another new chapter in for their children—college, marriage, a family her life, full of aspirations—ones I have great of their own—but with Lisa, it’s a little more faith she will achieve.” of a question mark.” She is starting college
Wellsboro High School, 225 Nichols St. Wellsboro
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Body & soul
The Better World
Play Like A Champ!
Tying the Knot By John & Lynne Diamond-Nigh
Your Champion Team ~
specializing in orthopedics, sports medicine, spinal care/surgery, and physical medicine & rehabilitation
Chad Jackson, PA-C Dr. Bradley Giannotti • Dr. Andrew Gottschalk • Todd Rudy, PA-C Dr. Terry Foust • Dr. Kalliopi Nestor Kevin George, PA-C 1001 E. Second St. Coudersport
814/274-0900
3132 Route 417 Olean
716/372-3212
www.charlescolehospital.com
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A
s youngsters we both imagined a place—the upper limb of an apple tree, some hollow in a field of oats—where we could go and ask a question and an oracle would answer. Not, as oracles often do, in riddles. Just the plain, no-two-waysabout-it truth. It never worked. Perhaps Long Island and Ontario are deficient in deities (very possible) or our pagan earnestness was just not up to snuff or, most likely, truth just doesn’t work that way anymore. This summer we attended a wedding on the very same farm where some of those childish musings arose. The ceremony was held beneath an ancient willow tree. Violins played. The bride was clad in wild daisies that we had harvested that morning from the very same fields where, long ago, I hoped my lordly oracle would appear. Had it finally come? In parts. At the reception we found ourselves seated beside Father Christmas himself— a long white beard, a twinkling eye, an eloquent river of wisdom—that peculiarly Nordic picture of a sage. What delight. Not that everyone else wasn’t charming. Weddings are like that—Victorian tableaux of courtesy and charm. During the wedding itself I was startled to see the wilted rag of an old rope still tied around the willow tree—the remains, as it happened, of another quixotic boyish hope. I had tied a rope around the tree, fixing the other end to the tractor and backing the tractor away until the rope was as tight as a violin string. Taking a long pole in my hands, I had tried to walk along the rope. Over and over that summer I tried. Once I made it halfway. But always I fell—usually
pretty hard. The glory of Philippe Petit would never be mine. As Father Christmas talked and our wine glasses were refilled, it struck me that my wistfully-dreamed voice-from-on-high had come. In parts: in four strings, like the strings of a violin. In courtesy: in which the Irish poet William Butler Yeats thought our finest, richest humanity was founded. In beauty: more old-fashioned, even, than courtesy, but a principle that will not die. As
any artist knows, even the ugliest art, given a generation or two, turns strangely beautiful. Picasso might be nonplussed at just how beautiful his paintings have become. In wisdom: perhaps right now felt more in its absence than its presence, but an inversion that makes it no less real. And, in a good fall: Judaism points to Eve’s transgression as the true start of our humanity. These are dark times, but we will rise, our ankle bruised, our pride undone, but years hence able to smile when we see that fragment of rope still tied to a tree. John writes about art and design. Lynne’s Web site, aciviltongue.com, is dedicated to civility studies.
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w w w. S u s q u e h a n n a H e a l t h . o r g 31
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Special advertiSing Section
EmErgEncy SErvicES mEdical dirEctor Soldiers + Sailors memorial Hospital
D
onald Shaw, DO has been treating patients in Tioga County since 1981 when he and his wife, Debbie, first moved here from Philadelphia. “I had a scholarship from the US Public Health Service when I was in medical school, which carried a two-year obligation to practice in the area. Thirty years later, we’re still here and loving it,” he says. Eventually changing roles from family practice to emergency medicine, Dr. Shaw stepped into the role of Emergency Services Medical Director at Soldiers + Sailors Memorial Hospital in Wellsboro. When discussions began several years ago about the need for a new, expanded Emergency Department at Soldiers + Sailors, Dr. Shaw was one of the strongest proponents. As the completion of the project approaches, Dr. Shaw talks about why the expansion is so vital and what to expect in the new facility.
Donald Shaw, DO mEdical ScHool Philadelphia college of osteopathic medicine rESidEncy northeastern Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Board cErtification american Board of Emergency medicine american Board of family Practice PracticE medical director for Emergency Services Soldiers + Sailors memorial Hospital 32-36 central avenue Wellsboro, Pa 16901
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Q
: Why is this expansion so important for Soldiers + Sailors Memorial Hospital?
: Hospitals in small communities have experienced a sharp rise in patient volumes in their emergency departments (ED), and our current ED has surpassed its originally designed treatment capacity. We didn’t have additional room to house new technology within the emergency department itself, and our waiting room is inadequate for the number of patients we now see. Analysts have predicted that the volume of our ED visits will continue to increase. To ensure that we continue to provide excellent services to the very best of our ability, we knew that designing a new emergency department was necessary.
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Q
: What are the biggest benefits in the new design?
: The biggest benefits are improved patient privacy and comfort. In the new design, the mission control station maintains visibility of all rooms at once; the use of glass doors on the front of each patient room allows staff to monitor all rooms from a central location. Each room is also equipped with curtains to provide additional privacy whenever appropriate. All of the new rooms will be larger than our present rooms. There will be a significant reduction in noise level and more space for storing the electronic medical record and new equipment, including new or upgraded bariatric, isolation, and decontamination equipment. A conference room has been added for meetings, educational classes, and to serve as the command center in the event of a disaster. Families and loved ones will have an expanded, comfortable waiting room. We are moving from nine available seats in the waiting room to approximately 42 available seats. The new waiting room will also feature vending machines and a children’s play area. Families will have their own personal space, food, and entertainment for younger visitors. Our new addition will also provide an expanded working environment for the staff, increasing available work space, office space, and storage lockers. There will be separate break areas and rooms where attending physicians can perform dictation. Currently, there is one office that serves as the nurse mailroom, break room, dictation area, and the work desk for all physicians and the ER nurse manager. Ultimately, the new facility will provide an even better environment for our patients, their families, and our dedicated staff! 33
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PHySical tHEraPiStS
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Chris D. Jones, PT, DPT, OCS, SCS E d uca t io n masters degree in Physical therapy university of delaware doctor of Physical therapy arcadia university rE S id Enc y Sports Physical therapy university of delaware cE rt if ica t i o n Board Certified by the American Board of Physical therapy Specialists as a Specialist in Sports Physical Therapy; Board Certified by the american Board of Physical therapy Specialists as a Specialist in orthopedic Physical therapy
Marc Riley, PT, OCS, ATC, CSCS E d uca t io n masters degree in Physical therapy ganin university cE rt if ica t i o n Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, national Strength and conditioning association; Board Certified by the American Board of Physical therapy Specialists as a Specialist in orthopedic Physical Therapy; Level 2 Medical Certification through the titleist Performance institute
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Q
: Can I participate in Aquatic Physical Therapy if I don’t swim?
: One of the greatest misconceptions about aquatic physical therapy is that it is only for swimmers. Aquatic Physical therapy is physical therapy in the water. This consists of exercises for strength and endurance, balance training, and manual therapy. The specialized aquatic therapy pool at Elite Therapy, PC in Mansfield, PA is 4 feet 6 inches deep in the entire therapy area. For many patients, their feet stay on the bottom of the pool during the entire treatment. Aquatic Therapy has been available at Elite Therapy, PC since November of 2009. We have had patients participate at varying levels of comfort in the water. Some were prior competitive swimmers, and some had never been able to swim in their lives. A few patients even needed to buy a bathing suit specifically for participation in Aquatic therapy. Our aquatic therapy specialist, Tina Wilston, PTA, is able to give the necessary supervision and program design based on the physical therapy needs of the patient as well as their level of comfort and confidence in the water. She has used different floatation devices and varying levels of supervision, including being in the water with the patient during the physical therapy session, to make even those patients who cannot swim comfortable during their aquatic therapy sessions. The Aquadynamics program at Elite Therapy, PC uses the unique properties of water to assist in the delivery of physical therapy to achieve the best possible outcomes for patients where traditional land-based physical therapy programs may not be successful or optimal for the patient. There are some contraindications to aquatic physical therapy; for example, seizure disorders, uncontrolled hypertension, incontinence etc. A review of precautions/contraindications for physical therapy is done at the initial physical therapy evaluation, and any concerns should be discussed with your primary care physician.
aquatic physical therapy is physical therapy in the water. this consists of exercises for strength and endurance, balance training, and manual therapy.
o ffic E: 285 South main Street Mansfield, PA 16933 (570) 662-1400
Special advertiSing Section
urologiSt
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Q
: When should I get screened for prostate cancer?
: September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. Men should be counseled regarding the risks and benefits of prostatic cancer screening. I recommend that men with a history of cancer in their family and African American men start getting regular screenings by an urologist at the age of forty. Other men should start their regular screenings at age fifty. The screenings should include a blood test and a physical exam.
Dr. Ahmed Fawzy mEdical ScHool ain Shams university Hospital intErnSHiP ain Shams university Hospital rESidEnciES mcgill university; ain Shams university Hospital fElloWSHiP georgetown university medical center ProfESSional mEmBErSHiPS american urological association cErtification Board Certified by the american Board of urology fellow of american college of Surgeons officE guthrie clinic one guthrie Square Sayre, Pa 18840 1 (570) 887-2400
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Q
: What new technology is available when operating to remove the prostate becomes necessary and what is its benefit?
: The most common question asked by patients when they are facing the removal of their prostate is “Will my body function normally after surgery?” By that they are usually referring to results in sexual function and continence. Traditional open urological surgery to remove the prostate and surrounding cancerous tissue uses large incisions to access the pelvic organs and has several drawbacks, including significant post-surgical pain and a long recovery. Laparoscopic surgery, with its smaller incisions, is better, but now I utilize a system that improves on both. It’s called the da Vinci Surgical System. Eighty-six percent of urologists in the United States are using the da Vinci system when a radical prostatectomy (removal of the prostate because of cancer) is necessary. The system uses a robot called a da Vinci Robot, which assists as a tool during the operation. The robot doesn’t move unless the surgeon maneuvers it, but the robot allows doctors to do four things that improve on traditional or Left to right: Robert Douenias, MD, Jennifer Hatch, CRNA, laparoscopic surgery. First, it Ahmed Fawzy, MD and Ann Lomontagne, RNFA. uses small incisions. Second, it allows doctors to see three-dimensionally. Traditional and laparoscopic surgery only allows doctors to see two-dimensionally. Next, it allows doctors to move at certain angles that the human hand cannot. And lastly, it takes away any degree of tremor (how the human hand naturally shakes). Even with a steady professional hand, very slight shaking can occur, and it could make a difference. All of these factors make a big difference in the outcome of surgery for patients. The patients experience faster recovery times, shorter hospital stays, and faster returns to normal activity than with traditional open surgery. They have less pain and discomfort and less blood loss. And using the da Vinci Surgical System provides equal success in cancer control (getting the prostate and other cancerous tissue out of the body), and equal or slightly higher success in the areas of continence and sexual function than with traditional open surgery. Not only is the da Vinci Surgical System being used for prostates, but I am also using it successfully in my practice for treatment of kidney cancer by removing kidneys or parts of kidneys. It’s a wonderful option for anyone facing prostate surgery or other urological surgeries. 35
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oPtomEtriSt
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grandparent can shape your life and heart more than anyone else. “My grandmother, Esther Phillips, was like that,” says Dr. Nikki Rook, an optometrist who owns Endless Mountains Eye Care in Canton. “She was a great cook, a great storyteller, played cards with us—and even got in trouble with us occasionally,” Dr. Rook adds with a smile. Tears gather in her eyes quickly as she remembers receiving her grandmother’s supportive letters in college and her making some of Dr. Rook’s childhood favorites, like rice pudding and pizza.
Dr. Nikki Rook mEdical ScHool Pennsylvania college of optometry ProfESSional mEmBErSHiPS american optometric association; Pennsylvania optometric association; current President of northern Pennsylvania optometric Society officE Endless mountains Eye care 327 Springbrook drive canton, Pa 17724 (570) 673-8390
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It was this “spit-fire” of a woman who also changed the course of Dr. Rook’s career. “When I was younger, I wanted to be a dental hygienist, but in 1983 my grandmother had a brain aneurysm which left her blind in one eye. At first, I was intrigued by the biology of it: how did something happen in her brain that immediately affected her eye. Then I was touched by how heroic my grandmother was with adjusting to her new condition. I didn’t just want to help her, but I wanted to help others who struggled with sight problems.” Dr. Rook graduated from the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in 1996 and moved to Cogan Station. She opened her office in Canton in 2006. Unfortunately, her grandmother had already passed away, but “I know she was looking down on me and smiling.” Dr. Rook offers comprehensive family eye care, in which she treats glaucoma, cataracts, dry eye, macular degeneration, diabetic eye disease, and eye injuries. She provides contact lenses for astigmatism and bifocals, prescription safety glasses, a large selection of sunglasses and custom-made eyeglasses, and Lasik evaluations. New patients are welcome, and she accepts most major insurances. Dr. Rook’s warmth is matched by the natural warmth and style of her 2,400 square foot medical eye care facility with state-of-the-art equipment. Outside it looks like a fashionable log cabin, and the inside is laden with the warmth of beautiful woodwork throughout, and stylish eyeglass frames fill the display boards. She and her husband, Kevin Young, designed it, and Kevin also helped build it. Included in the state-of-the-art equipment used in the office are an iZon Abberometer, which measures aberrations of the cornea and lens of the eye, allowing her to make custommade eyeglass lenses that provide sharper vision with less glare, and the Cirrus OCT, which allows her to scan the eye for earlier detection of eye diseases, such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, and other retinal problems. More evidence of her wide interest and empathy for other people can be found in her membership in the Lions Club, the Canton Chamber of Commerce, and the Parent Teacher Organization, which she enjoys because of her eight-year-old son, Brett. She also participates in the “Infantsee Program,” in which she checks infants between the ages of nine and twelve months free of charge for vision defects and lazy eye. Besides the unique and warm atmosphere, patients are very impressed with the thorough, unhurried eye care they receive from Dr. Rook and her helpful, caring staff, who make sure every patient’s needs are met. The empathy that her grandmother taught Dr. Rook—and inspired in her—lives on, and can be enjoyed by all of her patients.
“i was touched by how heroic my grandmother was with adjusting to her new condition. i didn’t just want to help her, but i wanted to help others who struggled with sight problems.”
Special advertiSing Section
Oral a n d Maxil lOf a c i a l S u rgeOn
A
Q
: What are dental implants?
: A dental implant is an artificial tooth root that replaces a missing tooth.The jawbone fuses with the implant to provide a secure platform for artificial teeth. In other words, when you are missing teeth you can anchor new artificial teeth to your jaw.
Dr. Richard F. Black educatiOn Harvard college, cambridge, Ma Harvard School of dental Medicine, Boston, Ma Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Ma reSidency Mount Sinai Medical center, new york, ny aPPOintMentS Medical Staff of Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hospital PrO feSSiOnal MeMBerSHi PS american association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, international Society of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, executive Board of Pennsylvania Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
A
Q
: Am I a candidate for dental implants?
: Most people with one or more missing teeth are candidates for dental implants. The best way to find out is to have an evaluation by an oral surgeon. There are several factors that determine if you are a candidate for implants. The first thing is to make sure that you have a solid foundation for implants. X-ray imaging of the jawbone is an important step during the initial consultation in evaluating whether the bone is able to support implants. If there is adequate bone and soft tissue support for implants, then they can be placed right away. If there is not enough healthy bone or gum tissue in your mouth, then grafts may be recommended prior to implant placement to achieve the ideal results. I have been placing implants successfully since 1984. During my 27 years of implant experience there have been revolutionary improvements in implant technology, which I have been able to bring to my patients. I’ve seen great results with so many people. They can chew gum, eat an apple, and are confident laughing, smiling, and speaking in public. These are some of the things that people miss when they lose their own teeth. Dental implants give people their smile back.
to determine whether you’re a candidate for dental implants, you need to contact an oral surgeon.
certificatiOn Board Certified in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Office 15 Meade Street Wellsboro, Pa 16901 (570) 724-2141
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A rts & L e i sure
38
Here’s Looking at You…
The Eyes of the World Are Upon Us
Y
Story and Photos by Ann Kamzelski
ou may not need to consult a medium to see into another world: it may be merely a matter of adjusting your lens. Macro photography allows you to get in touch, up close and personal, with creatures in another world: in the realm of insects are some of the most fantastic eyes imaginable. The insect eye is built quite differently from the human eye. Arthropod (insect) eyes are called compound eyes because they are made up of repeating units, the ommatidia, each of which functions as a separate visual receptor or lens. There may be thousands of ommatidia in a compound eye with their facets spread over most of the surface of a globe resembling a honeycomb. Each tiny lens collects information from a small area and the composite of all their responses makes a mosaic image. Grasshopper eyes, with relatively few ommatidia see a coarse, grainy image, while the honeybee and dragonfly have many more ommatidia and a corresponding improvement in their ability to discriminate detail. Even so, the resolving ability of the honeybee eye is poor in comparison with that of most vertebrate eyes and only 1/60th as good as that of the human eye. In art as in life, some of us look at the big picture, while others focus on the details. On any given subject, we may not all see eye-to-eye, but at least here we all can agree—the eyes have it! 39
arts & leisure
All the World’s a Stage
Listen Up! By Thomas Putnam
I Something for everyone Can’t agree on where to go for a quick, fresh meal? Come to our Market Café. Our variety of freshly made foods ranges from quick grabs like pizza, subs, and Asian classics to comfort-food favorites, salads, and sandwiches. Familyfriendly foods at budget-friendly prices—that’s Wegmans.
Subs (570) 320-0186 Pizza (570) 320-8784 Wokery (570) 320-8785 201 William St Williamsport, PA 17701 (570) 320-8778 • wegmans.com
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t happened again. In the midst of busy-ness and duties and lists and deadlines, I was once again arrested by music. Positively arrested. At a brown bag lunch in the Gallery of the Deane Center whereat the interns for the EMMF played. These kids in their late teens and early twenties played for an hour: solos, duets, ensembles. The concert was primarily for pre-school kids and they had all left within forty minutes. So there we were, about fifteen of us scattered around the two interns who stood on the cement floor with clarinet and string bass. TJ Wissler and Sam Loeck began a few movements from Morton Gould’s “Benny’s Gig.” I sat there for a few moments and entered one of those musing time-less-ness experiences. I was sitting near the outside door, transported, experiencing a clarinet and a string bass making life-changing music. I was vaguely aware of some folks walking by the outside door talking on their cell phones…then the construction began next door…and cars passed; but here, inside, Orpheus descended. A few days later the Wellsboro Growers Market hosted the EMMF interns on the lawn of the First Presbyterian Church in Wellsboro. Five kids played. A busy day at the market and many people passed through. The interns were under a canopy and played through passing traffic sounds. A few handfuls of folk sat and listened for the hour. Others paused and listened for a moment then moved on. I found myself moving closer to the music. “You’re not listening to me, are you?” an acquaintance said, and, after I realized he was speaking to me, had to answer, “No.” Orpheus was descending. Andrei Romanov was playing Bach. How many times I’ve heard that first movement of the G Major Suite for cello, but there… on grass, in jeans, with motorcycles loudly passing and people comfortably chatting as they bought produce and local goods… Andrei opened the door for Orpheus to
descend once again. Well…I don’t know if he needed to descend—Wellsboro being of slightly higher altitude than the Underworld—but if he can descend to hell and mesmerize and charm and affirm and arrest the residents there, he certainly can in Wellsboro…and he did. I meet up with Orpheus fairly often. Kay Galloway opens his door many Sunday mornings at First Presbyterian’s organ. Snowy Tuesday afternoons with the HG kids choir rehearsals. Odd moments when my eleven-year-old sings and doesn’t realize he’s singing. Ellen Murphy’s viola. One of the characteristics of performing arts is this: That moment will never be repeated. These musicians may play the piece again, but never again will that particular life-changing moment happen. Orpheus could coax even rocks and trees into movement, for God’s sake. He charmed the leaders of the underworld; what can he do with us mortals! If indeed all the world is a stage, then conversely is a stage all the world? On that uneven cement floor in the Gallery…or on that worn dry grass in a growers market…on that organ bench.. we witness/experience/embrace the world. The world! Right there in the bow and strings of Andrei…a kid from New Jersey who poured his heart into Bach. In the reed and strings of TJ and Sam who lived in a moment of sheer delight. In pipes and strings and an unchanged voice. Of course, we know what happened to Orpheus. He was killed by some who could not…or would not…hear his music. By some who did not enter into the gigantic power. Those of us who hear are blessed; and we celebrate. Thomas Putnam is the founder and director of Hamilton-Gibson Productions, the community performing arts group in Wellsboro (www.hamiltongibson.org).You can reach him at hamgib@gmail.com.
arts & leisure
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F ood
&
Drink
Just Like Gramma’s
Sticky Business Proves Long-Term for Retired District Justice By Roberta Curreri
E
Photography By Sarah Wagaman
leanor Trask, who will turn ninety years old on September 11, “just thought it would be a nice retirement job” after being the District Justice for Mansfield Area. So in October 1988 she and her sister Margaret Morgan, now deceased, decided “to have a small coffee shop, but didn’t bargain for the large crowds and popularity per se.” Even on a Monday morning at 9 a.m. almost every table is filled at Gramma’s Kitchen and “this is nothing in comparison to the weekend.” The busy breakfast spot serves up some of the most popular dishes; the blueberry pancakes sell very well as does the sausage gravy over biscuits. And while there is not a “most coveted” table, many folks enjoy the well-lit window seats. 42
Food & Drink
If you’re not going to Gramma’s for breakfast, just feast your eyes on the bakery case. It’s filled with absolutely delicious treats that include cookies, muffins, brownies, sticky buns, and breads. Eleanor, many years ago, used to make her own bread and sell it from her house. Today at Gramma’s Kitchen, there are usually at least a dozen varieties of pie to choose from on the dessert board menu, and they use fresh fruit when in season for all of their pies. Strawberry rhubarb crumb and apple pie are their best sellers. Gramma’s is very, very busy on the holidays, generally selling 200 pies on Thanksgiving day. The kitchen commences pie shell making and what they can a month in advance. The bakers also do quite well with pumpkin rolls and other goodies. Their Christmas cookies especially are a holiday favorite. It turns out the shop is aptly named: Eleanor has six grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. When asked if she had anything she wanted readers to know, Eleanor humbly stated, “We appreciate all our customers’ business and the nice folks we have working for us!” Gramma’s Kitchen:1080 South Main Street, Mansfield; 570-662-2350; Mon.-Fri. 7-3, Sat. 7-2, closed Sundays Top: Eleanor Trask, aka Gramma, shows us the kind of peace retirement has brought her—strawberry rhubarb crumb! Middle: Fresh from the oven chocolate chip cookies are temptation on so many levels. Bottom: Through the looking glass: breakfast between friends.
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Food & Drink
Mother Earth
It’s Just the Berries Gayle Morrow
P
link, plink, plink is the sound of the first blueberries you drop into the bottom of your berry bucket. It seems to be forever until the sound changes to more of a soft little thunk, signaling that the bottom is covered and you’re well on your way to enough for a pie or a batch of jam. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries—in north-central Pennsylvania, you can celebrate the growing season’s stages by the berry crops. Nothing says “Summer’s here!” like the first strawberries. By mid to late June, the sweet but tiny wild ones are ripe and the U-Pick places are geared up. If the weather cooperates, you can enjoy two or three weeks of strawberries dipped in chocolate, strawberries and champagne, strawberry pie—well, you get the picture. Heavenly. The blueberry season is longer. The first wild berries are usually starting to ripen by the 4th of July, followed by their tame, high-bush cousins. Debbie and Charlie Murphy, owners and operators of Murphy’s Blueberry Farm on Mulberry Hill in Mansfield, have a six-to eight-week season and close to twenty varieties of berries on an eightacre patch, plus bushes to sell. They’ve been open since 1999 and are having a blast. “It’s fun to do something that’s good for people, and there’s nothing better than blueberries,” Debbie says, adding her personal favorite is “blueberries in my oatmeal.” Raspberries start ripening in earlyto mid-July as well. Julie Weaver, who 44
has been tending her raspberry patch at her home near The Yellow Basket Shop for twenty-three years, says what raspberries need most is pruning. She prunes all the canes to midriff-height in February and recommends that, “during the growing season you take a stroll through the patch once a month and prune what’s dead.” A second berry set in the fall usually gets frosted, but last year her fall crop was “fabulous.” Julie has a blackberry patch, too, loaded by mid-August. “They came on their own,” she says, “and thrived after escaping the brushhog for a few seasons.” She characterizes them both as “transition crops”—they grow in the wild in clearcuts and at the edges of the mowed strips along power lines and gas lines— that don’t care much about good soil.” “They’re the easiest crop to grow,” she continues. “They require very little maintenance except for pruning and picking. Not much bothers them except Japanese beetles.” By September there is still plenty of bounty out there, but the berries and brambles have run their course. It’s closer to cider and grape jelly than to strawberry shortcake, closer to Roma tomatoes than to raspberry pie, closer to school starting than to summer vacation. It is, as always, an ending and a beginning. Gayle Morrow, former editor of The Wellsboro Gazette, supplies the eggs from a local farm to the West End Market Café which, full disclosure, also buys lettuce from Northern Tier Greens.
Food & Drink
Restaurants Enjoy the region’s comprehensive restaurant listings. From our Finger Lakes wineries to Williamsport’s good eats to the fertile Pennsylvania heartland in between, we’re famous for our regional specialties and love to eat. For listing information please email Dawn Bilder at dawnb@mountainhomemag.com or call (570) 724-3838. Also look for restaurant listings at www.mountainhomemag.com. Bon appetit!
Pennsylvania Bradford County Canton KELLEY’S CREEK SIDE RESTAURANT Kelley’s offers $4 breakfast and $6 lunch specials every day, and they are open for dinner Wed-Sun. They specialize in home-style cooking like their prime rib and serve homemade desserts like chocolate peanut butter pie and muffins. (570) 673-4545, 1026 Springbrook Dr, www.urbanspoon.com
Lycoming County Trout Run BITTNER’S GENERAL STORE Hot and cold 18” subs, specialties are Italian and cheese steak. Pizzas, homemade salads, pastas, and hot foods. Fresh meats, cold cuts, and our own lean ground hamburger. Camping supplies and propane. (570) 998-8500, located at the junction of Rt. 14 and Rt. 15 in Trout Run, PA, bittnersinc@aol.com. FRY BROS. TURKEY RANCH Original turkey dinners & complete menu. Established business since 1886. Restaurant and convenience store. At the top of Steam Valley Mountain, elevation 1,704 ft. Open daily for breakfast, lunch, & dinner. Gifts and souvenirs. 27 Rt. 184 Hwy, (570) 998-9400. STEAM VALLEY RESTAURANT Steam Valley offers good home cooking and daily specials. It’s open 7 days of the week. Gas, diesel, and convenience store coming soon! (570) 998-2559, 169 Rt. 14 Hwy, P.O. Box 157, Junction Route 14 & 15.
Williamsport WEGMAN’S Wegman’s Market Café features freshly-made foods ranging from quick grabs like pizza, subs, and Asian classics to comfortfood favorites, salads, and sandwiches. Come try our family-friendly foods at budget-friendly prices. 201 William St, (570) 320-8778, wegmans.com.
To advertise in the food section call
570-724-3838
570-724-3311 Open 7 Days a Week 17 Pearl St., Wellsboro, PA 16901 Full Service On Site Catering Available
Largest Black Angus Burgers in town! Full Salad Bar 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. All Homemade Desserts
Open at 5 a.m., we serve Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner all day until 9 p.m.!
The first upscale steak and seafood restaurant in Corning, New York’s Gafford District
• A fine selection of wines • All our steaks are prime and choice cuts • Offers lobster tails and crab legs, along with Italian favorites 2-6 East Market Street, Corning, NY 14830 607.937.9277• www.tonyrssteakandseafood.com 45
Food & Drink
My Favorite Things
On a Wing and a
There is the astronomical way of marking summer, which begins with the Summer Solstice and ends with the Autumnal Equinox. And then there is the gastronomical way, which begins with the Fly-In Breakfast on Memorial Day weekend and ends with the Fly-In Breakfast on Labor Day weekend. And this way, my favorite way, of measuring the golden months involves stack upon fluffy stack of buckwheat pancakes served up at the Wellsboro Johnston Airport. “We have the best pancakes in Pennsylvania,” boasts airport manager Wes McKinney. “The airport is open. People are welcome to drive in, fly in, or walk in.” The Canyon Pilots Association and the Canyon Country Ultralight Club, with a group of faithful volunteers, are at the controls of coffeepots and griddles all Sunday morning. Pilots soar into the broad valley that holds the airport for all-you-caneat heaps of buckwheat pancakes, eggs, and ham, and bottomless pots of coffee and orange juice. Proceeds benefit the associations and the airport, and last year a significant amount went to the Richard C. Johnston Memorial Scholarship Fund, which provides scholarships to second-year college students schooling as pilots or aviation mechanics. This is a rain or shine event, as breakfast is served in a big hangar off the tarmac. But hope for sunny weather, because there’s no better show than watching the planes land and take off into the bright blue yonder, and no more glorious way to say farewell to summer. ~Teresa Banik Capuzzo Wellsboro Johnston Airport Fly-in Breakfast. 112 Runway Road, Wellsboro; 570-724-3746. Sunday, September 4, 8 a.m.-Noon; $6, children under 12, $3.
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Food & Drink
Restaurants ,cont. Tioga County Blossburg MOMMA’S Momma’s offers a full menu and specializes in homestyle cooking. They have daily specials and the area’s best baby back ribs on Saturdays. Steak Night is on Thursdays. They also cater to rigs. (570) 638-0270, 102 Granger St.
Gold GOLD GENERAL STORE Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pizza and subs. Baked goods. Grocery items. (814) 848-9773, 2760 State Rt. 49W.
Liberty BLOCKHOUSE CAFÉ Blockhouse Café is open for breakfast and lunch and on Friday nights, serving homemade and home-style meals, including desserts. It’s a unique café with good food, great company, and a place where you always get your money’s worth. (570) 324-2041, 31 Willow St. THE LANDING STRIP FAMILY RESTAURANT The Landing Strip offers home cooked foods, daily specials, homemade desserts, a clean, friendly atmosphere, on or off premises catering, and has a banquet or large party area. Easy on/off Route 15.. (570) 324-2436, Routes 15 & 414 junction.
Mansfield EDDIE’S RESTAURANT Eddie’s offers homestyle cooking with homemade daily specials. Their specialties include hot roast beef sandwiches and chicken & biscuits, both served with real mashed potatoes. They have homemade pies and serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. (570) 662-2972, 2103 S. Main St. LAMBS CREEK FOOD & SPIRITS Lambs Creek offers sophisticated, down-home cooking seven days a week. Every Tuesday there’s an Italian Night speciaI. Beautiful terrace overlooks gorgeous mountains. (570) 662-3222, 200 Gateway Dr, Mansfield, PA 16933, www. lambscreek.com PAPA V’S PIZZERIA & RESTAURANT Papa V’s offers a wide variety of hand tossed New York Style thin-crust pizza, a multitude of hot and cold sandwiches, fresh ½ pound Angus burgers, and delicious homemade Italian dishes for lunch and dinner. 12 N. Main St, (570) 662-2651, www. papavpizzeria.com. WREN’S NEST Wren’s Nest has live music every Wed. night from 6-9. Specialties include crab cakes, steaks, and pastas. They make homemade desserts including lemon meringue ice cream pie and crème brule (sampler). (570) 662-1093, 102 West Wellsboro St, www. wrensnestpa.com. YORKHOLO BREWING CO. Offers a selection of dishes made up of local ingredients paired with Yorkholo’s own fresh brewed beer, including “Pine Creek” Raspberry Wheat, “Summer Love” Summer Ale, “Mountaineer” I.P.A, “Bungy” Blonde
Ale, and 2 rotating selections. (570) 662-0241, 19 N Main St, www.yorkholobrewing.com.
Mansfield Fast Food MCDONALDS (570) 662-7077, 120 N Main St. WENDY’S (570) 662-7511, 1580 S Main St. KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN (570) 662-2558, 1320 S Main St. TACO BELL (570) 662-2558, 1320 S Main St. ARBY’S (570) 662-7626, 1672 S Main St.
Morris BABB’S CREEK INN & PUB Babb’s Creek Inn & Pub specializes in Seafood and Prime Rib, which is available every night, except Tuesdays when the restaurant is closed. Reservations are appreciated for parties of 8 or more. Located at the intersection of Rtes. 287 & 414, (570) 3536881, www.babbscreekinnandpub.com.
Wellsboro CAFÉ 1905 Classic coffee house located in Dunham’s Department Store. Proudly serving Starbucks® coffee, espresso, Frappuccino®, Tazo® tea plus delicious freshly baked pastries, homemade soups, artisan sandwiches and ice cream. Free wi-fi. (570) 724-1905, Inside Dunham’s Department Store, 45 Main St. DUMPLING HOUSE CHINESE RESTAURANT Dumpling House specializes in Hunan, Cantonese, and Szechuan Cuisine. It’s family owned and operated and located on beautiful Main Street in Wellsboro. You may dine in or carry out. (570) 724-4220, 31 Main St. DUNKIN’ DONUTS America Runs on Dunkin’. 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. (570) 7244556, 7 Main St. THE FROG HUT The Frog Hut serves favorites like Texas hots, fried chicken, and Philly cheese steaks. They offer homemade soups and salads, and for dessert, try their soft serve ice cream, Italian ice, sundaes, and other ice cream treats. (570) 724-4450, 132 Tioga St. HARLAND’S FAMILY STYLE RESTAURANT Open seven days a week at 5 a.m., serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner all day until 9 p.m., including the largest Black Angus burgers in town, full salad bar, and all homemade desserts. House-batter-dipped haddock fish fry every Friday. Full service on-site catering available. (570) 724-3311, 17 Pearl St. MARY WELLS ROOM AND PENN WELLS
To advertise in the food section call
570-724-3838
To advertise in the food section call
570-724-3838 47
Food & Drink
Finger Lakes Wine Review
Farmstead and Lakeside Holly Howell
W
Unforgettable wines in an unforgettable setting Taste truly memorable wines in our welcoming tasting room overlooking spectacular Seneca Lake. Visit our website and facebook page for details on our exciting summer events and new releases!!
June 18 Party on the Lawn Rebecca Colleen and the Chore Lads
July 28-31 “Grapehound Tour” Greyhound adoption awareness
July 31, Aug 23, Sep 26 Vine Dining with Chef Samantha Buyskes 5055 Route 414, Burdett, NY 800-331-7323
atwatervineyards.com 48
atwater winery
henever a new winery opens there is a ripple of excitement in the lake air. I couldn’t resist following that ripple last week which led me to discover a fabulous new destination on the west coast of Seneca Lake. The winery is called Magnus Ridge (www.magnusridge. com). In case you aren’t up to speed on your Latin, “magnus” means great, and this winery totally lives up to its name. The building itself is breathtaking, with a landscape that includes five small ponds flowing one into the other. Overlooking the larger pond is a quaint café called Waterlillies, which offers an assortment of tasty gourmet sandwiches and salads. The winery’s wine tasting room is welcoming and expansive, with an ample supply of locally made products to choose from. I was thrilled to find that they carry a selection of fine regional cheeses. Finger Lakes Farmstead Cheese Company (www.fingerlakes-cheese.com) is located near Trumansburg, and I have been enjoying their cheeses for years. Their star cheese is called Schuyler (pronounced SKY-ler), which is the name of the county as well as the name of a prominent early Dutch settler. The Schuyler recipe is similar to that of Dutch Gouda (Boerenkaas), and it is made entirely from the raw milk of their own herd of Holstein cows, which are completely hormone- and antibioticfree. It is simply delicious, and comes in different flavors such as caraway, cumin, and herbes de Provence. Well, I just about jumped out of my shoes when I spotted a new flavor. Finger Lakes Farmstead Stinging Nettle cheese! There it was in the cooler at Magnus Ridge Winery. A brand new cheese flavor at a brand new winery. It must be fate. Home I went with Stinging Nettle Cheese and a bottle of Magnus Ridge Gewürztraminer 2008 to share with friends the next day. The wine was divine, and everything that Gewürztraminer is meant to be.
The nose exploded with perfumed fruit and fragrant flowers, but the palate was perfectly dry with notes of citrus and spice on the finish. Refreshing and crisp, it left our mouths watering for some good food. Bring on the cheese. Although the name Stinging Nettle may not exactly whet your appetite, this is one of the most surprisingly tasty cheeses I’ve ever found. Made from the plant of the same name, the nettles are soaked in water and cooked to remove the “sting” normally associated with this plant in nature. This cheese is speckled with the green leaf, making it a stunning addition to a cheese platter. The flavor is a wow factor with herbal notes galore and a nice touch of garlic—very aromatic, but not over the top. This is the kind of cheese that you just can’t stop eating after one bite. And we didn’t… The wine and cheese seemed made for one another. The acidity of the wine brought out the unique flavor of the wild nettles in the cheese, and the richness of the cheese nicely rounded out the texture of the wine, making it fuller and more complex. My only regret was that I hadn’t bought more of both. Kudos to the creative artisans at Finger Lakes Farmstead Cheese, and a warm welcome to the new folks at Magnus Ridge Winery! Holly is a Certified Specialist of Wine (by the Society of Wine Educators) and a Certified Sommelier (by the Master Court of Sommeliers in England); email her at wineanddine @mountainhomemag.com.
Food & Drink
Restaurants ,cont. LOUNGE Located in historic Penn Wells Hotel, full service restaurant and lounge feature an extensive menu of fine steaks, seafood, pasta, gourmet sandwiches, fresh burgers, desserts. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch. (570) 724-2111, 62 Main St, www.pennwells.com. THE NATIVE BAGEL The Native Bagel offers bagels made fresh daily, gourmet coffee, deli sandwiches, soups and salads, and homemade desserts. Bagels are mixed, kneaded, rolled, boiled, and baked onsite. All soups, breads, and baked items are “made from scratch.” 1 Central Ave, (570) 724-0900, www.nativebagel.com. PAG-O-MAR Pag-O-Mar offers subs, salads, and deli sandwiches at the head of the Wellsboro Junction Rail Trail, across from the Tioga Central tour train station. They also offer soft custard and Hershey’s hard ice cream. And there’s a farmer’s market in season. (570) 724-3333, 222 Butler Rd. (just past junction of Rts. 6 & 287). SUBWAY “Eat Fresh.” (570) 724-1424, 63 Main St, www.acornmarkets.com. THE STEAK HOUSE The Steak House has been serving the finest steaks and seafood since 1957. Whether you want a black angus hamburger or a cold water lobster tail, there’s something for the whole family in a true Wellsboro atmosphere. 29 Main St, (570) 7249092, www.thesteakhouse.com. TERRY’S HOAGIES Terry’s Hoagies makes the best hoagies in town. They specialize in both hot and cold hoagies, and bake their bread and potato, macaroni, and pasta salads fresh daily. Hoagie trays and meat & cheese platters available. (570) 724-7532, 7 Charleston St, www.terryshoagies.com.
570.662.0241
19 N. Main Street
Mansfield, PA 16933
Offers a selection of dishes made up of local ingredients paired with their fresh brewed beer: • • • • •
“Pine Creek” Raspberry Wheat “Summer Love” Summer Ale “Mountaineer” I.P.A “Bungy” Blonde Ale Plus two other rotating selections
www.yorkholobrewing.com Sun: 10 a.m. - 9 p.m.; Mon - Thurs: 11 a.m. - 11 p.m. or later; Fri, Sat: 11 a.m. - 12 a.m. or later
TIOGA CENTRAL RAILROAD All aboard Tioga Central Railroad! Take a scenic ride while enjoying dinner on Saturday night or Sunday brunch. Wine and beer available. See website for menu selection. (570) 724-0990, 11 Muck Rd, www.tiogacentral.com. TONY’S ITALIAN CUISINE Come to Tony’s for homemade cooking and family recipes, fresh dough and homemade bread made daily, pasta dishes, and special pizzas like steak pizza, Sicilian pizza, and their 3-cheese pizza. It’s family-owned and run, and they offer lunch and dinner specials. (570) 724-2090, 3 Main St. WELLSBORO DINER Wellsboro Diner, a famous Wellsboro landmark, serves sumptuous home cooked meals, fresh baked pies, cookies and cakes, and the very best prime rib on Saturday nights. They offer more than ample portions to all hungry guests. (570) 724-3992, 19 Main St, Wellsboro, PA 16901
To advertise in the food section call
570-724-3838 49
Food & Drink
Restaurants ,cont. WEST END MARKET CAFÉ “Globally inspired, locally sourced.” A place of nourishment and respite, celebrating local food & creativity. We feature fresh, locally sourced ingredients whenever possible & Fair Trade coffee products. Monday-Friday 7:30 a.m. To 3 p.m. Saturday 8 a.m. To 3 p.m. (570) 605-0123, 152 Main St, www. westendmarketcafe.wordpress.com.
Wellsboro Fast Food
Frozen Drinks Milkshakes and Floats Craft Beers on Tap 54 Brands of Beers in the Fridge is ad for Mention th
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If Our Ribs Ever Fall Off the Bone... Send ‘Em Back! 54 W. Market St. • Corning, NY 14830 607.377.5500 • www.why54.com
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MCDONALDS (570) 724-2151, 9 Charleston St.
Westfield ACORN #10 FEATURING SUBWAY “Eat Fresh.” (814) 367-2610, 465 E Main St, www. acornmarkets.com.
Potter County Galeton ACORN #25 FEATURING SUBWAY “Eat Fresh.” (814) 435-6626, 3 West St, www. acornmarkets.com. THE OX YOKE INN The Ox Yoke Inn is a motel, restaurant, and bar serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner with daily specials. They offer char-broiled burgers, homemade soups, steaks, seafood, and pasta. (814) 435-2515, 29 Route 6 West, www.ox-yokeinn.com. TUTORS RESTAURANT Tutors Restaurant offers delicious home-cooked meals 7 days a week. Breakfast on Sat and Sun. Tues˜Italian. Wed˜Seafood. Thur˜Wings. Fri˜Fish Fry. Sun˜Brunch Buffet. (814) 4353550, 75 Germania St.
Germaina GERMANIA HOTEL The best burgers around. Wings, pizza, steaks, and seafood. Thursday Rib Night. Friday Broiled or Fried Haddock. Salad bar Thurs, Fri, Sat. Serving food 7 days a week, 12pm to12am. Legal beverages, rooms available, find us on Facebook “Germaniahotel Germania.” (814) 435-8851, Rt. 44 (Seven Miles South of Galeton).
Gold GOLD GENERAL STORE Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Pizza and subs. Baked goods. Grocery items. (814) 848-9773, 2760 State Rt. 49W.
The Murder room The Heirs of Sherlock Holmes Gather to Solve the World’s Most Perplexing Cold Cases by Michael capuzzo
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To advertise in the food section call
570-724-3838
New York Steuben County Addison ACORN #11 FEATURING SUBWAY “Eat Fresh.” (607) 359-2603, 121 Front St, www. acornmarkets.com.
Corning HOLMES PLATE RESTAURANT Holmes Plate offers Rustic Semi-Al Fresco casual dining, specializing in the area’s largest selection of craft & micro-brewery beers. We prepare every dish fresh to order with the highest quality ingredients. (607) 377-5500, 54 West Market St, www. holmesplate.com. RADISSON HOTEL CORNING Grill 1-2-5 serves creative regional specialties: small plates, grilled sandwiches, and tender filet mignon. The Steuben Bar offers appetizers, light meals, your favorite beverages, and is known for the best martini in the city! 125 Denison Parkway East, (607) 962-5000, www.radisson.com/corningny. THALI OF INDIA Thali of India is the only Indian restaurant in the area. They serve exotic cuisine. They have a lunch buffet 7 days a week, and a dinner buffet on Monday nights. They also offer a very large menu and prepare special breads. (607) 936-1900, 28 East Market St, www.thaliofindia.com TONY R’S Tony R’s is the first upscale steak and seafood restaurant in Corning, New York’s Gaffer District. They serve the finest cuisine in the area and also offer a tremendous selection of the finest wines that you will not want to miss. (607) 9379277, 2-6 East Market Street, www. tonyrssteakandseafood.com.
Wayland ACORN #16 FEATURING SUBWAY “Eat Fresh.” (585) 728-3840, 2341 Rt. 63, www. acornmarkets.com.
Finger Lakes Hammondsport MALONEY’S PUB Maloney’s Pub offers live music year round. Come show your talent or view other local talent at their open mics on Thursdays, or lounge around and play pool at their pool table. They also have pub merchandise available. (607) 569-2264, 57 Pulteney St, www.maloneyspub.com.
Watkins Glen CAPTAIN BILL’S Discover the beauty of Seneca Lake. Dine afloat aboard the Seneca Legacy or on the waterfront at Seneca Harbor Station. Saturday night dinner cruises sail from 6-9 p.m. Open 7 days. (607) 535-4541, 1 N Franklin St, www.senecaharborstation.com.
Food & Drink
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Home & G arden
Boom Where You Are Planted Growers Markets Blossom in Marcellus Shale Pay Dirt Story and Photos By Roberta Curreri 52
Home & Real Estate
I
t sounds crazy—“going local”—how can one go anywhere and at the same time stay put? But that’s just what’s happening. In near places like Mansfield, Wellsboro, and Troy and in neighboring New York towns such as Elmira and Ithaca, farmers markets are sprouting up all over the Twin Tiers. Folks are flocking there to purchase chemical-free, organically fertilized fruit and produce; allnatural milk, butter, cheese, yogurt and smoothies; products made from grass-fed dairy cows; organic eggs from free-range chickens; and pasture-raised cattle, lambs and pigs and rabbits. To vendors and spenders alike, the big sell is all about being organic. If you decide to dig a little deeper—that’s right, look below the surface—you may hear under the hum of combine collecting the groan of horizontal fracking. Just perk up your own ears. Never mind that the tractor itself runs on a petroleum product. A field combine is slim pickins next to a drill rig. For many farmers the dream of growing a living had all but died. Now, in a miracle not unlike Moses squeezing water from a rock to save his family, many once struggling farms are producing green again. Ironically, their wells are spouting “natural” gas—not water, and it is pipelines—as well as produce—planted in their pastures. Money is growing out of many a local farmer’s field, just below those organic and non-organic hooves and husks, and isn’t it just the berries! “To market to market…” “I’ve been involved since the beginning,” says Lilace Guignard, one of the general managers and founders of the Mansfield Growers Market. “Actually this church, St. James Episcopal Church, had a book group that was studying Animal, Vegetable, Miracle—A Year of Food Life (by Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L. Hopp and Camille Kingsolver), and instead of finishing the book, they decided they had to find out what it means to “live local.” “Having just community people,
non-farmers, is the way to go. We do it as a church mission—we are under the umbrella of the church—but we are a separate entity.” She and her husband Jimmy began a blog, Greetings from Pipeline Road 7 Chronicling Life in Our Little Slice of Marcellus Shale. It explains, “We are avid outdoor recreationalists with two wonderfully wild children and are striving to live local sustainable lives. We find ourselves doing so in rural Pennsylvania where the Marcellus Shale natural gas boom is changing the landscape of home, literally and figuratively. We are collaborating on this blog, and will sign each post so you know whose words they are.” Her August 12, 2011 entry titled I Believe in Signs… begins “…signs from God, signs of the times, signs of things to come. I look for them, inwardly and outwardly, but am also cautious about jumping to interpret everything as a sign. Normally, I have no trouble trusting my instincts. But living in Marcellus Shale-land, I feel like my radar has become jammed. I love this place, and the stakes are unbearably high.” And there is so much to love about this place. “The people who organize this market are the nicest, friendliest people,” says Liz McLelland of Mansfield, as she knits behind the table that displays both the tasty and tasteful wares under the tent. “I sold See Boom on page 60
Top: Graham Mallory of Spring Meadow Farms also sells at the Elmira market. In his second year of selling at the Mansfield Growers Market he concludes, “This is a really great market—as good of one as is anywhere.” Middle and Bottom: Soaps, creams, and cloves—all scent-ual delights from the Always Somethin’ Farm, “a forty acre place with a half acre garden” of Mike and Chris Chester and their nineteen year old daughter Hillary. “My daughter has a goat herd. She started raising goats at eight. Last year her Nubian’s placed first at the Tioga County Fair,” Mike says with obvious pride and then, grinning, he adds, “My wife Chris uses the milk to make the soap, and I use what comes out the backend for the garden.”
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Real estate
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Cozy Home In Small Town! Take a look at this cozy affordable home in Knoxville. This 3 bedroom home has spacious rooms, high ceilings with ceiling fans, formal dining room and an eat-in kitchen. The outside has an above ground pool with decking, garage, storage shed, and stone patio! REF#10372...$72,000
Mountain Cabin! This 1.5 story cabin sits on 3.84 acres, nestled in the woods on Armenia Mountain surrounded by State Game Lands! sit on your front porch or your back screened porch and relax. There is a master bedroom on the first floor and a huge loft! There is also a carport and steel garage. REF#10374 . . .$143,000
Great Getaway! 10+ acres in Potter County. This is a secluded piece of property perfect for your home. There is an older mobile with an addition on site, that needs work but is livable and would be a great camp or hunting lodge! There are meadows and woods with wildlife in the yard! REF#10375 . . .$79,000
Lovely Family Home! Nice double wide on nearly 5 acres in a quit country setting! This move in ready home has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths,an open floor plan w/ vaulted ceilings and a spacious kitchen! There is a huge deck off the dining room so you can enjoy your back yard and apple orchard! REF#10376 . . .$125,000
Newer Mobile Home! This is a newer Mobile home on a rented lot in Buffards Riverside Estates! This 2007 home has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths and has been meticulously maintained! There is also storage shed for all your storage needs. This an affordable home for you! Call us today! REF#10377 . . . $52,000
Large Farm Property! Over 129acres,stocked pond,great views,open/wooded acreage, orchards, garden plots, and excellent hunting WITH 100%of the OGM’s! A NEW, insulated barn/building with a poured cement pad and running spring water & a farmhouse with 3bds.& 1.5 baths. REF#10381 . . . $875,000
Secluded Log Home or Camp! Secluded log home in move-in condition! Used as a getaway, but this can be a year round residence right now! Kitchen w/stainless appliances, huge living room & rec room w/wood stove, and 2 covered decks. 50% OGM’s transfer to new owner. REF#10382 . . .$379,900
Log Home on Stocked Lake! This Log Home sits on 3.98 acres with access to Lake Lloyd, a 55 acre lake. The home offers 3 bedrooms 1.75 baths,and a deck that over looks the lake. There’s a 2 bay garage with a work area. A John Deer lawn tractor and furniture go with property! REF#10383 . . .$179,900
Real estate
www.pennoakrealty.com
65 Main Street, Wellsboro, PA 16901 l (570) 724-8000 PA Certified WBE We proudly support and contribute to “Goodies For Our Troops”
Ordinary People Providing Extraordinary Service!
Take advantage of the current market with this multi-family opportunity, consisting of a 1 BR home and 2 BR apartment over a 3 car garage, all sitting on 23.22 mostly open acres of land. OGM’s have been leased, but rights transfer to buyer. MTH 120968 $380,000
Minutes from Route 6, Charles Cole Hospital, golf course, restaurants and State Land. Recently remodeled 5 BR, 3 bath home on 29 acres, large deck w/hot tub overlooks entire acreage, new metal roof on large barn, pool, large “eat-in” kitchen w/island, office, sun room off kitchen, walk-out full basement. Ideal business location. OGMs not included but are negotiable. MTH 119844 $269,000
Great secluded camp with drilled well and in-ground septic in place. Propane heat plus a woodstove, furnished and ready for immediate occupancy. Level landscaped clearing includes a 22x12 storage building, plus a shed for firewood. Private road in the Dugan’s Bull Run Subdivision. Snowmobile, 4-wheel, hunt - this area has it all on 4.5 acres! MTH 121320 $159,900
Hard to find spacious 5 BR house situated on a large, shaded in-town lot. Features include: 1st floor BR w/master bath, large kitchen and dinette area, separate dining room, 1/2 acre shaded lot; walking distance to town conveniences. MTH 121302 $132,000
A comfortable 3 BR in-town home w/ beautifully landscaped back yard, 1 car garage w/heated attached workshop and pleasant porch - convenient to town and the neighborhood park. Features large full bath, nicely remodeled half bath, sizable BR’s and spacious attic with additional living space potential. MTH 121297 $134,900
39+ acres with features of a Gentleman’s Farm or horse property, located within a 10 minute drive from Wellsboro - Middlebury - Mansfield. 4 BR farmhouse w/updates - room for an office, large living room, dining room w/wood stove for supplemental heat. Several out buildings for wood working shop, machine shed-equipment storage, plus an 8 stall horse barn with water, electric & tack room. Fruit trees, pond w/campsite and a wood lot for your supply of firewood; long country views. MTH 121282 $275,000
Spacious 3-4 BR, 2-1/2 bath home in downtown Coudersport w/open design, 24x16 family room, fireplace, family size kitchen w/breakfast nook, sizeable master suite w/whirlpool garden tub, large laundry room, large foyer, attached heated 2 car garage, paved driveway - nicely landscaped near parks, town pool, hospital, library and schools; extra large unfinished basement additional living space. MTH 120818 $239,000
Newer move-in condition 3 BR ranch on 5.49 acres, between Wellsboro & Mansfield and easy access to Route 6. Features hardwood & ceramic tile floors, walk-in closet in master BR, a 39x13 finished family room in the basement, which is plumbed for another bath and BR. Tankless water heater & flat screen TV’s remain with the house. BOUNUS 96’x40’ warehouse-type steel building, heated office, multiple possibilities and opportunities. Pleasant view and surroundings. MTH 121403 $299,500
Spacious ranch located on the edge of Wellsboro overlooks a very private backyard. 3 - 4 BRs, 2 baths, large kitchen, hardwood floors, additional living space in full mostly finished basement w/ground level walkout. 2 car attached garage and large peaceful deck off the back with views across the valley. MTH 120671 $183,000
Updated 2 story home with frontage on the Tioga State Forest, approximate 10 minute drive from town and easy access to Routes 6 and 287. Features large rooms, wood flooring, pellet stove, detached 3 car garage with fully finished recreational living space on the second story. Large level yard area and if you enjoy walking, hiking and biking, hunting and trapping - located close to trails and State Land. MTH 120388 $170,000
Midway between Wellsboro & Mansfield on US Rte 6, property has commercial potential. C-1 Zoning w/various permitted uses. Large farmhouse w/ample square footage, ideal for home office. Moderate sized barn (stables) w/concrete floor, electric & water; accessory outbuildings & fencing. Acreage on Rte 6 w/ long road frontage, access on Bullock Rd could have development possibilities. Dwelling has an outdoor wood boiler that preheats all domestic water - system also fully operational on natural gas. Convenient location. MTH 121161 $625,000 55
Call the office at 570-723-8484 114 Tioga Street (Rt. 6 across from Pizza Hut) Wellsboro, Pa. 16901
www.mountainvalleyrealtyllc.com Come hunt, fish, play, live ...
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100% OMGs- YOUR PRIVATE CASTLE ON 65 AC - Indescribable detail in this custom home w/unique post & beam design,open floorplan, cathedral ceilings,lg windows & double glass doors throughout.Access the lg deck from 4 rooms. Custom amenities including lavish master bathroom.65+/- acs offer future timber potential & 100% OGM rights. $749,000.
IDEAL COUNTRY SETTING CLOSE TO WELLSBORO - Seeking large family! This spacious home with formal fireplace and open floor plan offers 4-6 bedrooms and 3 baths. Portion of home used as apartment. Substantial outbldgs. for farmette or self employed. OGM’s transfer to buyer. 15.19 +/- acs just 3 miles to Wellsboro, Pa.$355,000. #120342
GRAND ESTATE ON 102 ACRES! This spectacular 7500 sqft classic is a timeless treasure! Rich architecture, exquisite details and luxurious ammenities, this 4+ bdrm estate offers uncompromising quality and style. 102+ acres with negotiable OGM’s. Also a 4000 sqft building, w/a 2bdrm, apt/inlaw suite on prop. $2,950,000 #121184
SUBSTANTIAL INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY... with this 124+ gently rolling acres very close to Borough of Wellsboro. Property offers 2 homes, a pond, a stream, phenomenal views and sits in a quality country setting. 100% Oil, Gas & Mineral Rights will convey to the buyer. This is the heart of the Marcellus Shale Gas Exploration! $1,500,000
Land with Commerical Opportunity! 38.64 acres located near Y of Rt 6/660 with Commercial potential! This property currently has a 4608 sq ft barn, well, 200 amp electric and public sewer available. Excellent location. EZ access to Rt 15, Mansfied, Wellsboro in the heart of Marcellus Shale Country. $625,000. #121356
2 HOMES ON A 53 ACRES! 53+ acre farm with 100% OGMs! Property has 2 homes, 2 barns, a 3 acre pond, peaceful tranquility, and privacy! Newer home features 4 bdrms,3 full baths, sun porch, and is like brand new! Hurry..priced to sell and won’t last long! $519,000.#120682
Beautiful 2 Story home outside Wellsboro! Excellent floor plan, large kitchen area is open to the family room, lots of closet space, and offers attached 2 car garage. Quaint porch to admire the beautiful landscaping and enjoy the large open backyard from the deck. OGM’s transfer to buyer. $225,000. #121354
30.25 AC NEWER HOME CLOSE TO WELLSBORO - Lg stocked pond, 2-car garage, 2-story barn & 30.25 beautiful ac. Custom features! Breakfast nook w/built-in seating, bay window in dining room, & fireplace in living room. Backup generator, whole-house fan, & choice of coal or propane heat. $399,000 #119992
Ranch home in move in condition! Looking for that 3 bedroom home that you can move right into? Here it is! This 1 level home sits in a private location in Wellsboro Schools, and is handicap accessible. Home features new paint, flooring, carpet, roof, sits on a full basement etc. $99,500 #121335
60 acres and a CLASSIC HOME - The 17 x 25 eat-in kitchen has lots of cabinet space and opens out to the back deck, great space for family gatherings and entertaining. Beautiful woodwork and hardwood flrs. have been preserved in the home. Two large bdrms on the second floor share a full bath. Plenty of fencing. $275,000 #121318
Very Private Retreat or Permanent Home! This log home features a 2 sided wood burnung stone fireplace cherry steps to the second floor loft which also has 2 bedrooms and bath. The first floor has a 25’x30’ opened ceiling great room with a wood stove. Slate floors throughout the first floor, except mstr. suite. $469,900. #121313
Home in Hills Creek Estates - 3 bedroom family home with motivated sellers in Hills Creek area! This home sits in a picturesque setting on 2 acres, is in great condition, has a nice floor plan, garages,sheds, wooded lot etc. Owner’s relocating and looking for an offer. #121251 $239,000.
Camp on 32 acres close to State Land! Great camp close to state game lands and Hills Creek Lake. Wooded with lots of hunting opportunity in the area. There is a small apple orchard at the top of the hill as well as some existing four wheeler trails. $169,000. #120906
CAMP IN EXCELLENT CONDITION! 1 Share in Club approx 5000 acres owned or leased by the Brookland Club to hunt, fish, snowmobile, four wheel or just relax on porch. This camp is fully furnished and has forced hot air heat and gas stove. Brookland club dues are $250.00 per year per share. Awesome getaway or hunting property. $79,900. #121188
4-5 BDRM HOME-15 AC-100% OGMS convey Charming and attractive older remodeled farm house offers spacious country kitchen, lg laundry/utility room w/pantry,formal din rm, liv rm, office, and 4 plus bdrms ideal for growing family. All this on 15 ac conveying 100% OGM’s with lease in place. An easy drive to Wellsboro, Pa. #120930 $249,000.
Diamond in the Rough! Solid two story home offers land on both sides of road. Walk to all town amenities from this 4 bdrm, 2 bath home. Cosmetic repairs and foresight needed. Seeking offer! $36,900.
ELEGANT HISTORIC WELLSBORO HOME IS TURNKEY B&B - Make an offer on this! Offering successful client list to the buyer this B&B would also make a lovely home for a larger family. 6 bdrms and offers Innkeeper’s living quarters on premises, 2 plus acres, 2 car garage, parking area ,established landscaping, and a lot of history! $399,000. #120493
22.54 ac-BREATHTAKING MOUNTAIN VIEWS... over the meadows & beyond! Meticulously maintained Lindel cedar log multi-level home. Raised basement for add’l living space. Elegant & rustic w/open flr plan. A/C, Harmon coal stove, lg.new garage, new well & spring, 22.54 ac open & wooded land. Corner property with long frontage. $385,000 #119956
Ranch home, 4.4 ac, beautiful views, and pond! Ranch home with cherry stained maple cabinets, granite counter tops, ceramic tiled floor and stainless steel appliances in the kitchen, 13’ cathedral ceiling in great room,central air and much more. Seller is a licensed real estate agent. $369,500 #120843
Beautiful home in Wellsboro borough! - In-town home close to all amenities. Many updates make this home move-in ready! Hardwood floors thoughout the home, bright bedrooms, 5 walk-in closets provide plenty of storage. Fenced back yard perfect for children and pets. $165,000. #120735
New Construction-2.11 acres - Custom home just about completed. Complete to suit your taste and decor. Home features 3 bedrooms, 2.75 baths, large deck with views of the countryside, 2 car attached garage and many other features. Short drive to Rt. 15/I-99, Mansfield, Williamsport, or Wellsboro. $190,000. #120865
NEWLY RENOVATED IN BLOSSBURG! Efficient and comfortable 3 bedroom, Renovation just completed. Like buying a new home! Offers new roof, windows, siding, kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, etc. EZ short drive to Rt.15/I-99, Mansfield, Williamsport, Wellsboro, or NY State. $109,000. #120966
CAMP NEAR BEECHWOOD LAKE - Sitting on 3.64+/- acres near Beechwood Lake! The perfect secluded spot for the kids to play in the woods or the hunters find that big one! Walk to Beechwood Lake for great fishing. Private setting with long mountain views. Clymer Twp.,Pa. Only $59,900. #120943
POTTER COUNTY HOME-7.59 acres Custom built Cedar sided home with great views located on 7.5 acres. The home has 5 bedrooms, 2 3/4 baths, beautiful stone fireplace in the great room, full finished basement. Two story barn has a shop area, wood stove, and 2 garage doors $346,500. #120732
CAMP/HOME ON PINE CREEK! This camp was totally remodeled 2004, including new forced hot air furnace, central air, new metal roof, electrical system. Large windows in living room to sit and view the beautiful Pine Creek, water fowl,and wildlife.$228,500 #120823
Ranch home on 10 wooded acres! 3 bedroom Ranch home on 10 acres with 100% OGM’s conveying in Delmar Twp! Property sits in a very private wooded setting with a 3bd, 2ba cozy home along with a 3 car garage (being completed), and is in a gas unit. Make offer! $244,500. #120905
Ranch home on 53 acres! New 3 bedroom, 2 bath home is waiting for you! With a private pond and plenty of wildlife, it is nestled into the woods for absolute seclusion but is conveniently located just outside of Mansfield. This home is a must see! $549,900 #120854
Wellsboro Property with many possiblities! Are you looking for an office building or home with office space offering 4 or more bedrooms? Located on Rt. 287 just south of Wellsboro this property offers spacious quarters, attached 2 car garage and room for business! Formerly owner occupied sub shop and gas station! $155,000. #120698
VERY NICE HOME FOR ONLY $49,000... What a steal! This home is in the quaint town of Galeton, is in great condition, and has many nice features. Hardwood floors and open floor plan are just the beginning. Why rent when you can own a nice house like this!?! Galeton Boro, Potter County. $49,900 #118939
ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES FOR THIS 2 UNIT! Endless possibilities for this property-currently set up as a 2 unit with 2 kitchens, 2 baths, 2 hot water heaters and gas meters. Original single family home had 4 bedrooms and a newer roof and windows, 200 amp electrical service. Backs up to Pine Creek. $72,000. #120542
CAMP OR FULL TIME RESIDENCE...in good condition on almost 7+/- acres that are partially wooded. New metal roof on camp. This property would be great for a camp or fulltime residence. Great views for miles! Eulalia Township, Potter County. $75,000 #119026
WATROUS VILLAGE NEAR PINE CREEK 4 bdrm, 1.75 bath 2 story home offers 2 lots Previously used as camp and includes all furnishings if you desire them. Offers 14’x 22’ refurbished garage with upper level. Walk to Pine Creek. Close to State woods and snowmobiling! $69,000. #120205
JUST A SWEET FULL-TIME or SEASONAL HOME, 1.75 AC - and detached oversized 2 car garage. Offering new roof and kitchen, this 3 bdrm. home has hardwood floors throughout! Comfortable, cozy, efficient in a beautiful Country setting, an easy drive to Coudersport in Potter County. $125,000. Motivated seller says make offer! #119270
AWESOME VACATION GETAWAY HOME ON 3.79 AC - close to Kettle Creek State Park & Creek. This newly constructed, log-sided two-story cabin is waiting for you! Enjoy the peaceful tranquility from the deck, nestled on a mountainside in the woods. Call today for details. $184,900. MLS#120482
RUSTIC, UNIQUE, STONE-FACED 3 BEDROOM HOME...on 3.3 ac between Wellsboro & Morris. Very private setting! Make this beautiful home your retreat with roomy floor plan & rustic charm.Features new roof, windows, doors, flooring,2 new QuadraFire stoves, 2 fireplaces, cathedral ceilings,& 36’x41’ pole barn.Unique home! $325,000 #120194
94+/- AC IN BORO OF WELLSBORO - A substantial opportunity for development potential within the Borough of Wellsboro. Further & pertinent info is available. Access to Public sewer and water. $1,500,000 #120040
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Real estate
Rare find! 28 acres w/small cabin and 1,735’ frontage on First Fork of Sinnemahoning River. Can also be purchased with First Fork Lodge, well known B&B, fly fishing/sporting goods shop and fine restaurant for a total of $468,000 (see DLM 120485), or just enjoy your own private haven on the river. DLM 121330 $169,000
3 BR log home on 16+ acres in desirable area w/great snowmobiling, 4-wheeling and hunting - 15 minutes from Cherry Springs Park. Efficient “Rumsford” fireplace in Great Room, large garage/shop, Mahoning wood boiler w/oil backup and 12x50 covered deck off the back. Loft area for additional living space; partially finished walkout lower level with 3/4 bath. DLM 120439 $269,900
Fully equipped turnkey business, on First Fork of Sinnamahoning Creek includes fine restaurant , fly fishing/ gift shops, as well as inventory in stores, sits on almost 1.5 acres in area known for great outdoor activities. Available as unique Victorian single family home for $260,000 or combined with camp (see DLM 121330 for $468,000). DLM 120485 $299,000
Popular Potter County landmark business opportunity in the heart of the “Pennsylvania Wilds.” Successful for over 50 years, well maintained property has excellent highway visibility, offers gifts, clothing, souvenirs, deer park, gem mining for kids. Add sporting goods - ice cream - sandwiches, endless possibilities. Lots of parking, very nice living quarters in lower level (potential rental income). DLM 120986 $598,000
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#101 LARGE TWO STORY HOME RENOVATED TO MODERN STANDARDS – Many newer features, wiring, heating, insulation, drywall, fixtures and baths. 12 x 15 kitchen with appliances. Four bedrooms, 1.75 baths. Detached, heated garage. NEW PRICE $169,900.00
#132 EXCEPTIONAL VIEWS FROM THIS CABIN LOCATION - 3 bedrooms, 1 bath, new interior, large decks. Bordering State Game Lands #204. 39.5 acres, timber and oil, gas and mineral rights included. Listed at $275,000.00
#129 WELL MAINTAINED COLONIAL HOME IN THE BOROUGH OF COUDERSPORT – this approximately 2,200 square foot home has 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, sunroom, newer roof and replacement windows. Laundry room on the first floor, hardwood floors and convenient location near school and town pool. NEW PRICE $109,900.00
#13 UNIQUE POLY-STEEL ONE-STORY HOME ON 176 PRIVATE ACRES WITH POND – The homes interior is unfinished so the new owner can finish to personal taste. Amenities include: floor to ceiling riverstone fireplace, Pella windows with pull down screens, two car attached garage, radiant heat, 36 x 75 pole barn and FREE GAS AND TIMBER VALUE!! $595,000.00
Real estate www.blackcreekent.com
Experience the great outdoors in your very own cabin from Black Creek. Perfect for a relaxing vacation in the mountains or your own rustic retirement home!
Call For Your Free Catalog!
570-324-6503 8028 Rt. 414 Liberty, PA 16930 Located one mile west of Rt.15 along Rt. 414
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Say Cheese
Story and Photos by Roberta Curreri
When she is not hard at making cheese, Jemima Yoder is busy selling it on the green of the Wellsboro Farmers Market at the First Presbyterian Church, Main Street.
J
emima Yoder has been busy this year…very, very busy! Daughter of Joseph and Mary Yoder, she is the cheese maker at their Homestead Heritage farm in Muncy. In this last year she has made 16,000 pounds of cheese in about twenty varieties. “Our cheese is of one hundred percent whole Jersey milk from grass-fed cows,” says Jemima. Their raw milk cheeses have no antibiotics, no hormones, no steroids and no rbST (recombinant bovine somatotropin). It is not pasteurized or homogenized and holds the butterfat that contains vitamins A and D. Although not a cheese maker, her younger brother Noah, “is good at farmers’ markets. He just sells.” She adds that they have seasonal fruit from peach and apples trees, both red and black raspberries, and grapes. Then Jemima beams and says, “My trainer is Eldore Hanni.” Hanni, her eighty-four year old trainer, was born in an apartment above his Swiss father’s cheese barn in Wisconsin. A licensed cheese maker since he turned seventeen, Hanni has managed, owned, sold, designed, and established several cheese factories nationwide. Both he and his father pioneered varieties and sizes in cheese making. Now, a nutritional teacher, he concentrates his efforts in helping the environmentally conscious small dairy farmers to make healthful raw milk cheese, using only milk from grass fed cows. He trains a number of families in making Farmstead Cheese right on their farms. For information, email farmsteadfresh@aol.com. 60
Boom continued from page 53
a felted hat and a felted purse when the weather was 103 degrees.” The sheep of her Yorkshire Meadows on Elk Run provide twenty percent of the wool—also being spun under the tent—in her finished hats, gloves, scarves, shawls, and handbags. The remaining eighty percent commercial yarn is one hundred percent natural fiber. The McLelland mixed-breed sheep are pastured on only ten of their seventy-nine acres, sixty acres of which are in a well unit down Route 549. Besides her bakery goods, she sells wool from her own sheep in the form of new fleeces, process-dyed roving, and spun yarn. “My biggest seller is my lemon curd—an authentic British recipe. It makes cardboard taste good,” Liz chuckles softly and smiles, “and it goes great with my blueberry scones.” If you arrive early enough at the Mansfield Growers Market, the aroma of Shannon England-Fernandes’ “best seller” oatmeal bread will be wafting from the church. “It sells out fast. We have chickens, so I use the farm goods in my baking. We are members of the church. That’s how we got involved in the market,” explains Shannon. “My mom does the Glenfiddich Wool.” Kathleen England’s Glenfiddich Wool farm shop, also located off of 549, is on Dunkleberger Road. Their sheep farm, in Millerton, is run by Kathleen’s husband, Robby England. According to Shannon, they are “in no unit, have no well pad and no pipeline” on their 150 acres. The fifth-generation of the Hillstone Farms, four-and-a-half-month-old Taitt Webster, coos from the arms of vendor Jessica Darrow. She is the significant partner of Todd Webster whose father, Tim Webster, took over the family farm at age eighteen. From under a shady tent at both the Mansfield Growers and Wellsboro Farmers markets, Jessica and Tracy Webster, Todd’s younger sister, sell select cuts of meats. The farm has hogs, free-range chickens, and their cows are rotated through the pasture and barn to maintain enough grassland for feed. Jessica explains that although they are not certified, “Todd says we are beyond organic. We are as natural as we can be. We just don’t have the price tag.” Of the 550-acre farm established in the late nineteen hundreds, Jessica notes, “There is no well pad, yet, but there is a pipeline.”
Above: Well heads and cow herds are out to pasture in Tioga County Pennsylvania. Top Right: Linda Kichline and Michael Tasher are doing well with the pipeline returns that paid off their credit and will help pay for a barn’s new roof. Center: The Yorkshire Meadows handmade and home-baked goods of Liz McLelland are both spun and savored. Bottom: Toy Cow Creamery of Williamsport sells homemade root beer and fabulous super thick smoothies made with milk from grass fed, hormone-free cows from their red trailer dairy.
The Welsh Settlement Kichline Farms of Linda Kichline is not certified organic, “but we spray nothing in the garden,” she explains from their produce booth on Main Street at the Wellsboro Farmers Market. “Neighbors plant corn on our place, and it’s Round-up Ready. We plant oats, but we don’t spray that.” She has eighty acres in a well unit and a pipeline on her 250 leased acres. “The pipeline paid off our credit, and we’re going to get a new roof on our barn sometime soon. Our experience with the gas people has been a positive one,” says Linda. They are courteous and friendly. I’m all for them. Look at how many people we know that have jobs now because of this.” Michael Tasher, her son, adds, “As long as they’re responsible, I have no problem with them. They have been honest and upfront with us.” About the road conditions he says, “They fixed our road. I’m terrified of small vehicles. There are a lot of near misses around by big machinery. There is a lack of respect for the big vehicles on the road.” The Wellsboro Farmers Market also hosts Keeny Farms of Middlebury Center, which is not certified organic. Cheryl and Gary Keeny raise about four acres of produce and about seven acres of corn. Their 262 acres are leased and in two well pools, eleven acres on one corner and seventeen on another, but the Keenys have seen no royalties yet, only the lease
money. Also in Middlebury Center, with fifty-five gas-leased acres and an additional eighty acres leased from a neighbor, is the Asaph Maple Farm of Lynn Clark. “There are two sugar bushes that we tap, and we are expanding every year. We made over a thousand gallons this year.” This is Cliff Bruszewski’s first year at the Mansfield’s Growers Market, and he helped the Troy market (near the Farm Museum) get started this year. “Troy has six vendors so far; we are working on a few more. It’s still in its infancy.” The Bruszewski’s thirty-acre Running Bear Farm on Wallace Road in Troy is named after his wife, a Cherokee descendent whose grandfather was a medicine man. Both are transplants from New York—he from Long Island as a retired auto mechanic for NYPD and she from Queens. Their animals, fruit, poultry, eggs, produce, and herbs are hormone, pesticide, and steroid free, and they use only natural fertilizers. The Bruszewski’s “have a well pad four hundred feet from our house,” and all of their acres in a well unit. “It’s money we didn’t have before. It’s helping us out now,” says Cliff, “and it will probably help our children out down the line. I have mixed emotions. I worry about the environmental impact. I don’t like the traffic. My hope is that they’ll get done with what they’re doing and move on.”
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M ar k et P lace
Shop Around the Corner
Imagine That
Story and Photos by Roberta Curreri
I
“Oh, why can’t you remain like this forever!” –J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
magine growing up but never growing old. Imagine being twenty-one and still spending your day in child play. Imagine this: little girls and boys swinging below carnival-colored awnings, windows chock full of toys, and at the purpled door a message on the looking glass that invites shoppers to “Imagine That”—Ginny Coon’s baby, a children’s store she conceived in October of 1990. And, as babies do, this one grew. The original
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Imagine That! Children’s Shop storefront on Hoffman Street in her hometown of Elmira, New York was only 1,000 square feet. “I realized that it had to quit growing or move,” she laughs, “because I was having to take home the lay-aways.” Ginny Coon herself grew up in Elmira and in a retail family. “Eventually I had two children of my own who were invited non-stop to birthday parties, and no place to buy toys for presents. That and my love of children motivated me to open shop. I really didn’t have a clue, so I sat down with one retailer and said, ‘How much inventory would it take to fill a thousand-
foot space?’ I started out focused much more educationally,” notes Ginny, explaining that she had worked as an aide and in the office at Montessori, “but I realized very soon that it’s the birthday presents that pay the bills.” Eventually the shop relocated in downtown Elmira at Main and Gray; but in 1999 the building was taken for the Coach USA Center that opened in 2000. In 2004 it became the First Arena, home to the Elmira Jackals ice hockey team. “I was notified that in six months I would be given six weeks notice to vacate, so I went into storage for six months, not knowing if I was going out of business.
“But Corning rolled out the red carpet. They were so gracious.” In 1999, Ginny chose from among three, her red brick double storefront on 86 Market Street in Corning’s Gaffer District. “We opened here April 1st, 2000, and Corning threw a huge party, dubbed ‘April 2000’ that same month to celebrate their 150th anniversary. So I thought, ‘I love this town!’” she smiles. “Elmira had always been my home. I grew up there, raised my children there, but now this is my home—I love it here. “I do all the buying, all the advertising. I have five on staff including myself. The apparel I stock is determined by customer request. Right now, dance and hats are popular, and at other times it has been Christening and Communion dresses. With the current economy, I have cut back on many boutique and specialty clothing. “Twenty one years ago, the two things that kept me in business for the first two years were Trolls and Slap Bracelets. It was really fun to have something so hot that all the neighborhood kids were crazy for it. Everything else trickled in and trickled out. Now, I try really hard not to be out of the niche items,” says Ginny, as she points to
Shop: Imagine That! Children’s Shop Where: 86 Market Street, Corning, New York 14830 Hours: Mon thru Wed 10-6, Thurs & Fri 10-8, Sat 10-5, Sun 12-4 Info: Call (607) 937-6292, Email infor@imaginethatkids.com
boxes labeled Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride and to a deck of Dutch Blitz. “It’s what makes us special. “We have competition we didn’t have twenty years ago—it’s called the Internet. We had Toys“R”Us, but I was never threatened by them. Now customers come in with a list of toys, things their kids or grandchildren have already seen on the Internet. These new mothers are a very savvy group—they read the blogs, the twitters. They are very well informed. It’s my customers—really, it’s the customers—who come in and keep me up to speed. They know what they want.” It was a lovely day when I stopped in to “Imagine That.” I felt lucky on what looked like a busy day for business with people bustling on the sidewalks and many cars parked on the street, to pull into a spot right
in front of her shop. Ginny told me, “Parking is never an issue. I’m always promoting our parking garage. Corning has done a great job with its ‘Shop Local’ advertising. It’s just getting people to understand what the place would look like if we weren’t here.” Can you imagine that? I, for one, don’t want to.
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Marketplace Distributor continued from page 5
four hundred copies disappear in a day or two. Replenishing isn’t difficult, since the print run for the region is stored in Sue’s warehouse, right next door. “I just love Mountain Home, and the magazine flies out of here,” Sue said. “All the locals read it, and tourists, too. People come in at the beginning of the month and ask, ‘Is Mountain Home here yet. They sit and read it over lunch, carry it up to the counter, and tuck it under their arm when they leave.” The bagel café is perfect for reading—or for playing cards, holding a business meeting, catching up with friends over breakfast or lunch. It’s a cozy space, but somehow spacious too, just right, with sixty seats and stools, local art, community events, and fund-raisers on the green painted brick walls, and sunlight flooding in the big storefront windows with views of the Town Green. Soups, salads, snacks, cakes, brownies, biscotti, coffee, espresso, eighteen types of scratch-made bagels, ten different bagel spreads, sandwiches—especially sandwiches—cross the long wooden counter, where the smiles are wide as the scratch-made bread. “Yesterday, we made twenty-three honey-mustard chicken wraps in a four-hour period,” said Sue. The gift of The Native Bagel is that it feels like your sandwich is the only one. The double-handful specialty sandwiches are named for local landmarks and institutions. Top sellers are the Packer Park “Peppered Turkey Breast, Bacon, Swiss Cheese, Cole Slaw and Russian Dressing served grilled,” and the Hamilton Gibson, “Turkey Breast and Muenster Cheese served grilled with a side of Ranch Dressing.” Sunflower bread is the best-selling loaf. “Be Nice Or Go Away,” says a sign on the counter, near “Never Underestimate the Power of a Hissy Fit.” Hissy fits are few at The Native Bagel. In addition to adopting Mountain Home, Sue serves as president of the Wellsboro Business and Professional Women’s Club, takes collections for Haven of Tioga County—a domestic violence safe house, and is involved in everything from reading programs at the Montessori school to teaching out-of-work moms how to dress and prepare for job interviews. “I love being with people,” says Sue, who zips from sandwich board to dining room to give a greeting, a birthday hug, hold a baby. “I just love it.” Native Bagel has a family feel to it. Sue’s daughter, Kelly Rae, works the counter, and Kelly Rae’s fiancé Joey Boyce helps out in the evening. Daughter Brandi, thirty, who owns her own hairdressing business, has often helped out, and husband Gary, the Tioga township road master, and son Erik, twenty-six, a Pennsylvania State Trooper, are often around. Cummings, a former nurse’s aid, first worked at The Native Bagel when it was opened in 1997 by Sue Vogler, the Tioga County Commissioner, herself a registered nurse. They had worked together in home care. After a couple years, Cummings joined Vogler as a partner in the restaurant. Then on November 1, 2002, she bought out Vogler and another partner. Sue Cummings is approaching her 10th anniversary as Native Bagel owner. Mountain Home has been by the door for much of that time. “Everyone loves Mountain Home,” she said, stopping by the coffee bar during a rare break to ponder why. “It’s the stories—local stories, real people. It’s home.” 64
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courtesy Mansfield University
B ac k of the M ounta i n
Around the World in 1890s Days …Or around Tioga County with a licensed, experienced hot-air balloon pilot lifting you high over Mansfield’s Fabulous 1890s Weekend. The annual festival, September 23-24 this year, celebrates the world’s first night football game, played by Mansfield University in Smythe Park on September 28, 1892—and reenacted by MU lads 8:30 Saturday night. Time travel to an 1890s Parade, 1890s Museum Tent, old-time crafts, food, living history displays, dangerous history displays (football and 19th Century boxing), the Cherry Flats Ridge Pluckers, duck races, square dancing, step right up, grab your partner, all this and more. See www.1890s weekend.com for a $3 Fabulous 1890s button. Note: for 1890s balloon reservations at 2011 prices ($175 for 45 minutes) email dcjewels@ptd.net or sign up at the park office on Friday or Saturday, space and weather permitting.
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