I look at Jack's island every day from where I work. Frequenly floods over in winter. If you look across the river you'll see a bunch of big, ugly orange Vac trucks.....that's where I work.
Lots of turtles here that swimover from the island and sun on the slag. Eastern spineys, on the watch list so illegal to hunt but a growing population.
Problem with islands like this, flooding removes and redeposits silt. I got pictures from a few years back when you could barely see the tree tops from flooding.
Before they developed it, I detected Brunot's (sp) Island down 28. Used to have slaughter houses and a couple old passenger train cars. Found silverware...lots of silverware...not silver but they used garbage from restaurants to feed the pigs. Now there are condos and a skulling club there.
I've also detected along the Allegheny just below the Kiski river. Silt was almost a foot deep from flooding and this area is probably 15 feet or so above the river.
This area is very important historically so don't get discouraged. Early settlers lived here, traded here, the famous indian massacre right near Jack's Island...I can go on and on....
And one interesting note...the valley that runs up the hill on your side of the river by Jack's Island...if you hike up there, there is a naturals gas line running up it with some bad leaks in it...but what is important, once you reach the pump you'll see puddles of natural oil that seeps up out of the ground that the indians used for paint I think...
Like I said...lots of very interesting history in the area.
Good luck,
Al
