July 1902. the day it rained Indian Head Pennies in Granville Summit, PA

jeff of pa

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The Scranton tribune. (Scranton, Pa.), 11 July 1902.

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The Scranton tribune. (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, July 11, 1902, Page 5, Image 5 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress

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Possible Location
Catch Site above X
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station site ?
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Office/Catch station ? Very Close if Not the same

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NICE MAYBE i WILL CHECK IT OUT!
 

Cool story once again from the reaearch guru. Do you plan on hunting for them Jeff?
 

Cool story once again from the reaearch guru. Do you plan on hunting for them Jeff?

nope. My gift to someone closer 8-) All I would like , is to hear about the adventure :thumbsup:


Distance as the Crow Flies : 78.071 miles

Distance by Land Transport :119.309 miles

This road journey would take me 2 hours 24 mins.
long long way on speculation, of getting permission.
 

nope. My gift to someone closer 8-) All I would like , is to hear about the adventure :thumbsup:


Distance as the Crow Flies : 78.071 miles

Distance by Land Transport :119.309 miles

This road journey would take me 2 hours 24 mins.
long long way on speculation, of getting permission.

Cool thanks for sharing, hope someone tries.
 

I delivered the mail there to the PO for several years in the 70-80s. The PO was in that general store. The station was gone but would have been just as the newspaper shows it. I would go up and over the RR tracks, pull to the left and then backed right up to that front door between the 2 posts. One might want to know which direction the train was traveling. Seems to me they woud be scattered in that direction. To the right would to Troy.
 

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I delivered the mail there to the PO for several years in the 70-80s. The PO was in that general store. The station was gone but would have been just as the newspaper shows it. I would go up and over the RR tracks, pull to the left and then backed right up to that front door between the 2 posts. One might want to know which direction the train was traveling. Seems to me they woud be scattered in that direction. To the right would to Troy.

yes that's the only thing I kept thinking,
but I'm not sure who would have the old train schedules,
to find out where the train was heading.
with allot of Luck ....Historical Society would maybe help.

Other option search both directions & hope to find 3 indians
along the track on one side of the store.
That would give you odds.

I would guess the ones they didn't find were the ones
that flew farther out from the tracks though.
as they probably concentrated in the railroad track gravel
from the grabber hook in.

If it was heading south they may have Bounced off The RR Station & some under the Porch.
If the train was heading North & the hook was in front of the Store/P.O. some may have flown into the yard (Gravel Drive way? now & across the road ?
 

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general Idea of the Catch

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To me this is simple. The cash was heading to Scranton and one would be able to determine which side of the tracks to search by this as they almost always picked mail up on the right side because more tracks were often on the left side.
 

To me this is simple. The cash was heading to Scranton and one would be able to determine which side of the tracks to search by this as they almost always picked mail up on the right side because more tracks were often on the left side.

Not sure why my Brain didn't lock on the Scranton Direction thing.
Good Catch :coffee2:

as for the Double Tracks ...

That I'm not so sure.

We are Talking Pennsylvania boonies 19th./20th. century.
I'm not so sure there were double tracks back then.

Still single tracks here

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They would've standardized it because the same trains go through both rural and urban areas with and without multiple tracks, but it wouldn't hurt to ask someone in the railroads profession if this is so just to be sure.

edit to add- After researching i found that they had hooks on both sides of the mail cars so they either knew which side to grab or deployed both sides when in doubt. Back to square 1 on which side the coins fell to.
 

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They would've standardized it because the same trains go through both rural and urban areas with and without multiple tracks, but it wouldn't hurt to ask someone in the railroads profession if this is so just to be sure.

I would agree it would be a Standard,
and if your Confident they would be on the Outside,
I can't argue on what I don't know :coffee2:

I just took for granted they would be hung within their Sight but :dontknow:
 

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Super cool story and some awesome leads:thumbsup:
 

possible scatter Path Then

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Jeff, it looks like that would be my best guess too as I am assuming that is the direction they took to Scranton. I agree with this because they most likely placed the mail pickup between the P.O. and the tracks. Looks a tad overgrown there. What if the mail pickup was more behind the building though? Possibly, but I lean with your location.
 

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pick-up would definitely been in the Front of the Post Office,
because the track runs past the front.
and the reason for the scatter was the train was traveling at a high rate of speed for the time period.
and the Catch bar slammed into the bag of pennies.

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& if your Correct on the hanger & bar being to the Right , which makes sense.

then some may be under the Blacktop but most would have landed in the inside of the Red area.

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it appears the Post office may be unoccupied or at least was when Google drove by last

no Trespassing sign on front & allot of High weeds were you would enter the House

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not sure who owns the land south of the old track, but,
I can't see anyone complaining about a weed wacker being run through the area between the track and the road. it's probably half twp/half road property anyway.
& open to what the closest property owner thinks

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That would be fun to explore, but is too far for me to go to look. I hope if anyone does go that they update us on any finds and where they found it.
 

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