Fall Foliage Steam Locomotive Trip

Old Dude · Oct 16, 2016

We went on a great train ride today from Port Clinton, Pa to Jim Thorpe, Pa and back. It was a great trip and we both enjoyed it much. The fall colors were really at a peak, but for me, the steam locomotive is what made it memorable. We both really like visiting Jim Thorpe. It is a beautiful little town with much history in coal mining, railroading barons as well as the Olympic athlete it was renamed for ( originally called Mauch Chunk ). Some of you may remember the 1970 film with Sean Connery and Richard Harris called " The Molly Maguires ". It was a historical film about the Irish coal miners and their struggle with the coal companies that practiced " legal " slavery in their treatment of their workers. The old jail in Jim Thorpe was the location of imprisonment and the execution by hanging of several of the Mollies. Today while we visited the jail's cell area, I went up to the upper level while my girl friend looked at the literature below me. While standing over the gallows erected there and trying to take a picture, I was interrupted twice in a row by a pulling sensation on my jacket's right shoulder. I looked behind me after the first and saw no one was anywhere on that end of the second floor. I managed a pic on my third attempt and excitedly went to tell my GF. Thinking she'd laugh at me, she gave me a startled look and said " I was just reading about one of the ladies that works here writing a book because there have been so many people reporting feeling tugs or pushes in the cell area. I can't believe you just skipped reading those reports and felt the tug as I was reading it!". True story ladies and gents. I promise you. If you read this link below, you will see one of the Molly Maguires was witnessed placing his hand in the dust on the floor of his cell and then leaving his hand print on the wall " as a testament to his innocence of the crimes he was accused of ". The print has been scrubbed, painted over and even dug out of the wall and replastered and it KEEPS COMING BACK! Cell 17, bottom floor, right wall above the bed. Plain as day. A scientist from Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre was hired to do analysis of the chips from the wall and concluded it is not grease and should not bleed back through attempts to get rid of it. Anyway, here are a few pics from the day. I really enjoyed this one!

Visit Jim Thorpe Pennsylvania