Better reception planned for Discovery Expedition

Investor’s Business Dailey July 2008

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BETTER RECEPTION PLANNED FOR DISCOVERY EXPEDITION

By Bob Bauder, Times Staff 03/31/2002

BEAVER - The Lewis and Clark Expedition, which passed through Beaver County on the first leg of its historic journey 200 years ago, was less than pleased with the way it was received by the local inhabitants.

The people "live much by the distressed situation of traveller(s), are generally lazy, charge extravagantly when they are called on for assistance and have no filantrophy or (conscience)," Meriwether Lewis wrote in his journal, which included numerous misspellings.

Beaver County, however, is planning a much better reception this time around.

The Discovery Expedition of St. Charles, Mo., a group of volunteers that will retrace the path of the original Corps of Discovery, is scheduled to kick off its three-year journey on Aug. 31, 2003.

It will stop overnight in Beaver County over Labor Day weekend next year (Sept. 1 and 2), and the county is planning a two-day festival at the Rochester Riverfront Park.

The St. Charles group camped in the county two years ago during a trial run of the routes it will be taking, and the county was so hospitable, the group wanted to do it again, according to Sam Kovolenko, who is chairing a committee that will organize the 2003 festival.

Festivities will include a musical program by the 307th U.S. Army Band, numerous living-history programs, and crafts and educational displays, among other things.

Kovolenko, who chairs Beaver County's Lewis and Clark Eastern Legacy Project, said the event should attract national attention. Kovolenko of Ambridge, who works as Beaver County purchasing director, chaired the county's bicentennial celebration in 2000.

"We're trying to capture the whole spirit of the Lewis and Clark Expedition," he said Friday. "We want people to gain an understanding of what the expedition went through and encountered traveling down the Ohio River 200 years ago."

The National Park Service and the Army Corps of Engineers is marking the bicentennial of the expedition, which lasted from 1803-06, with a series of events across the nation. Kovolenko said the Beaver County event will be one of them.

"We want to make this a national signature event," he said. "It's going to be promoted nationally by the Army Corps of Engineers, and we hope it will bring in people from all over the area and other states."

Kovolenko is now looking for volunteers to help with the festival and sponsors to help fund it. People interested in helping can call him at home at (724) 266-3193 or volunteer through the Beaver County Historical Research and Landmarks Foundation at (724) 775-1848.

President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the Corps of Discovery to map a water route across the continent for purposes of commerce and United States expansion, according to a brochure published by the Army Corps of Engineers.

Jefferson also instructed the members to collect information about natural resources and American Indian cultures along the way.

The expedition was the first noncombat mission of the U.S. Army.

Lewis and William Clark were commissioned officers, and all of the expedition's members, with the exception of guides, were enlisted soldiers.

The first leg of the journey from Elizabeth in Allegheny County to St. Louis, Mo., began on Aug. 31, 1803. On board two boats built in Elizabeth were Lewis and 11 crew members. Clark, who spent the winter of 1792 at Legion Ville in Harmony Township with Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne, joined the expedition in Louisville, Ky.

The journey concluded three years later at the Pacific Ocean in Oregon.

Bob Bauder can be reached online at bbauder@timesonline.com.

©Beaver County Times/Allegheny Times

HISTORY BUFFS JOURNEY BACK IN TIME, TRIBUTE TO PAST SOLDIERS

By April Johnston - Times Staff 05/20/2002

Practicing musket drills at Pioneer Days Sunday at Raccoon Creek State Park are, left, privates James Janicki of Georgetown, Mike Mongelli of Pittsburgh and Bill Byrd of Akron, Ohio. Times Photo By Kevin Lorenzi

HANOVER TWP. - Some 5-year-olds beg to go to the park and coast down twisting slides.

Other 5-year-olds plead to stop for ice cream that will leave their hands sticky and their tummies full.

Not David Montgomery.

He likes to go to war re-enactments.

His parents, David and Jan Montgomery of Monaca, have been taking him since he was 1 year old. On Sunday afternoon the trio made a stop at Raccoon Creek State Park for the 12th annual Pioneer and Soldier Days, where re-enactors offered demonstrations to educate, entertain and pay tribute to past soldiers.

Little David covered his ears when the cannons fired with a reverberating blast, and he shied away from strangers dressed in wool uniforms, but he couldn't take his eyes off the model that Andy Janicki had built from paper and toothbrush bristles.

Janicki, who lives in Georgetown, built a model of Legion Ville - the site in Ambridge where Maj. Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne trained the Legion of the United States in 1792. The glass-encased model, made from scratch and by hand, was on display under a white tent, and David stood on his toes to peer at the miniscule soldiers and tiny barracks.

"I have toy army mans," he said pointing into the case.

Janicki used topographic maps and a sketch of the camp made by one of Wayne's sergeants to build the model. He was terribly concerned with getting it right; building it to scale and dressing the tiny soldiers - barely as thick as a toothpick or as tall as a fingernail - in the correct uniforms.

"If you look down by the river I even have two skinny-dipping, naked soldiers," Janicki said with a grin.

Last year when the finger of a curious child broke one of the skinny-dippers, Janicki wrapped it in toilet paper and handed it to his wife to hold.

When she unwrapped the soldier to show it to Regina Riley it fell into the grass. The two women got on their hands and knees to search for the soldier.

"People asked, 'what are you looking for?' and they said, 'a naked soldier,' " Janicki remembered with a laugh.

This year Riley has stopped looking for naked soldiers and has started sewing a red, white and blue striped flag like the one Wayne presented to the Indians. She's taking her time, leisurely embroidering the general's name in the left hand corner.

Meanwhile Riley's son, Pat, can't afford to be leisurely. He's a member of the Legion Ville Historical Society and the Air National Guard. He was called to North Carolina in January but took a couple days off for the re-enactment. On Friday he made two stops along the highway on his drive to the airport, one to pick up special tent stakes and another to pick up custom-made sword belts.

On Saturday and Sunday he wore his sword belt as he overlooked a batch of raw recruits learning the 15 steps to loading their weapons. Today, he'll fly back to North Carolina.

"I wouldn't miss this," said Riley, standing near his legion on the wet grass of the park, dressed in a Revolutionary War-era uniform with a green plume springing from his hat. "I wear one uniform when I'm working, and I wear another uniform on my off days."

April Johnston can be reached online at ajohnston@timesonline.com.

©Beaver County Times/Allegheny Times 2004

HARMONY - Harmony Museum's Dankfest on Aug. 24 and 25 will celebrate the history of the community founded in 1804 by German separatists and resettled in 1815 by Mennonites.

This year, Dankfest will also focus on Legion Ville, the Beaver County site in Harmony Township where Major General "Mad Anthony" Wayne's Army, known as The Legion of the United States, camped during the winter of 1792-93.

A Legion Ville Historical Society reenactment group will demonstrate the ways of daily soldier life.

As always, Dankfest will feature pioneer crafts, historical exhibits and tours, family entertainment, food with a German touch, walking tours, a farmers' market and food booths, children's crafts and antiques. An antique and classic car show is planned for both days.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 24 and noon to 6 p.m. Aug. 25. Admission is free.

For more information, call (724) 452-7341, (888) 821-4822 or visit www.harmonymuseum.org.

RE-ENACTORS OF EXPEDITION TO DEPART FROM PITTSBURGH ON LABOR DAY

By Sandra Fischione Donovan, Times Correspondent 01/20/2003

Because Meriwether Lewis began his journey in Pennsylvania, the Bicentennial Commemoration of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery will include celebrations during the re-enactors' stops in Allegheny and Beaver counties.

The Pittsburgh celebration is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 30 through Sept. 1 at Point State Park. It will focus on Lewis' boat-building start and will include a re-creation of 1803 Pittsburgh, with period settlers, music, dancing, crafts and dramas. A Thomas Jefferson re-enactor, canoe races, keelboat demonstrations and other entertainment also are planned.

The re-enactors are scheduled to leave Pittsburgh on Labor Day and proceed down the Ohio to Rochester.

The Beaver County Lewis and Clark Eastern Legacy Project celebration will take place Aug. 31 through Sept. 3 at the Rochester riverfront. On Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, the committee plans a festival with historical re-enactments, educational programs, military and other exhibits, crafters, buggy rides and storytellers. Musical programs will include a band from the 99th U.S. Army Reserve Command in Moon Township, as well as period musicians.

Because both Lewis and Clark served under Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne, the committee also is hoping Legion Ville re-enactors will participate in the celebration.

The re-enactors will arrive on Labor Day. The following day, programs for students will continue at the riverfront. The re-enactors will leave Rochester Sept. 3 and stop in Georgetown.

Sam Kovalenko, chairman of the Beaver County Lewis & Clark Eastern Legacy Project, said a re-enactment could take place in Georgetown as well. The Beaver County Historical Research and Landmarks Foundation, the Beaver River Rails-to-Trails Association and Rochester borough are all project participants. The Beaver County Veterans Affairs office is working on inviting local members of the military to participate.

Kovalenko said the national Lewis and Clark organizers chose Beaver County for stops during the re-enactment because of the programming at a 2000 preview celebration in Rochester and the reception the re-enactors received.

"The last (Lewis and Clark) celebration was a good one, but we're hoping this is even better," Kovalenko said.

©Beaver County Times/Allegheny Times 2004

LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION- RICH LESSON FOR PUPILS

By Sandra Fischione Donovan, Times Correspondent 01/20/2003

SEWICKLEY - Victoria Queri, 12, of Sewickley, showed a map of the Lewis and Clark expedition in class. The United States that existed 200 years ago was colored in green, and the states that had yet to be admitted were in purple. But would the modern-day seventh-grader have liked to go on the 1803 Corps of Discovery?

"I wouldn't do it," she said, drawing laughter from her classmates at St. James School in Sewickley. "I would probably turn around and go back to Pittsburgh."

Queri's teacher Toni Wojtkowski, assigned her and fellow pupils research papers on the expedition so they could learn what most textbooks don't teach: Meriwether Lewis prepared for the trip in Pittsburgh, where he commissioned the building of a boat for the trip.

President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the military expedition to explore and chart the Louisiana Purchase. The expedition, which occurred over three years and covered the distance from Pittsburgh to the Pacific Ocean, built "our entire knowledge of the West," said Anna McTiernan, 13, of Sewickley.

McTiernan and the other St. James pupils will continue their lessons with language arts teacher Lynda Reilsono and science teacher Karen Roche. The three teachers are cooperating on the unit as a result of seminars at the University of Pittsburgh on Lewis and Clark.

Jane Konrad of Sewickley, an education professor and director of the Pittsburgh Regional Center for Science Teachers at Pitt, organized the seminars so teachers can capitalize on the upcoming re-enactment of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery. Konrad also will help create a interactive Web site on Lewis and Clark so that students can follow the re-enactment once it's under way.

Through the teacher seminars, schools could coordinate lessons in science, social studies, mathematics, technology, "even art and music. It is so rich," Konrad said.

Konrad, a former Hopewell Township resident, got the idea to use the expedition for local classroom lessons when she attended a re-enactment preview in Rochester.

Because seventh grade is the one grade level all three of the St. James teachers instruct, they decided to incorporate lessons on Lewis and Clark in all three subjects. Students will learn map skills, journal writing and lessons on plant life.

Wojtkowski said other pupils in the school would benefit, as the seventh-graders would be sharing with their kindergarten "buddies" children's books they will create on Lewis and Clark.

The books and other projects also will be on display in the school for the other students to see and later in a Pittsburgh location to be decided later.

Wojtkowski also is hoping pupils can take a field trip later in the year to the Sen. John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh and to have a historian from the 99th Army Regional Command in Moon Township come in with artifacts to talk about Lewis and Clark. She said she plans to continue the studies on the explorers with the seventh-graders next year, when she will teach them eighth-grade social studies.

Other area school districts are also planning to use Lewis and Clark in classroom instruction:

n Marina Stockdale, a sixth-grade teacher in South Side Area School District, plans to use a collection from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History to study the types of animals Lewis and Clark encountered. Students will study Legionville, the area in Harmony where Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne trained troops.

n Moon Area High School students will plant a pollinator garden, an idea chemistry teacher Bernard Vogler got from the seminars that Konrad organized. The garden, which would foster honeybees, hummingbirds and other natural pollinators, won't be planted until spring and will involve youngsters in environmental and biology classes.

n Kevin Monahan, a special education teacher at Rochester Area High School, will have high school students research plant species the explorers encountered on their expedition. Students will plant a garden in the spring at the Rochester waterfront. The garden should be ready for the Beaver County Lewis and Clark celebration in September.

Both Pittsburgh and Beaver County are planning celebrations to coincide with the three-year re-enactment of the expedition.

Lewis and Clark camped in areas of Allegheny and Beaver counties on their trip down the Ohio. While the original explorers did not camp in Rochester, the re-enactors will stop there because it affords a better location for the public to view the stop.

Lewis, a secretary to President Jefferson, studied for two years to prepare for the trip, both at Jefferson's Monticello estate in Virginia and in Philadelphia with Benjamin Rush, a physician and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Lewis then made his way west from Philadelphia to the Pittsburgh region, where he had a boat built.

From Pittsburgh, he made his way down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to St. Louis, where he met up with Clark and other members of the expedition.

While the route from Missouri to the Pacific Northwest is well known, the beginnings of the expedition in Pennsylvania are not as well documented.

Lewis had another local connection: He served at Legion Ville in Harmony Township under Gen. Wayne.

Sandra Donovan can be reached online at sandrafdonovan@hotmail.com.

©Beaver County Times/Allegheny Times 2004

LETTER TO THE EDITOR- LOSING HISTORY

05/22/2003

I was visiting your valley recently for a history function and was aghast and shocked to discover your coming loss of the Logstown/Legion Ville site where the British, French and ultimately Americans conferred with the Logstown Indians and from where George Washington began his trip north to confer with the infringing French, which kicked off the long lasting French and Indian War.

You have an extremely valuable heritage there that has amazingly lain free of development - until now. This site has tremendous possibilities for a beautiful and valuable park site, an education center, an interesting tourist center. Yet for the sake of development, you are allowing what belongs to your children and your community to be taken away from them.

I feel deeply for your inability to retain such a treasure. Usually, a strong community has political or corporate leadership within themselves who have the knowledge, intelligence and sensitivity to their own history and the desire to preserve something so precious to the whole community's present and future.

It is interesting one community can find the wherewithal to save and nurture their own heritage while another could care less. I'm sure you would care if you knew what you have. A great deal could be accomplished with the required insight of a powerful person or group within your area to save it.

Do you have that? If not, I am sorry for your loss.

Joan Mancuso

Erie

©Beaver County Times/Allegheny Times 2004

'THERE HE IS!' - FAMILY CHEERS ON AS RE-ENACTORS ARRIVE IN ROCHESTER

April Johnston, Times Staff 09/02/2003

In the 200 years since Meriwether Lewis and his crew made their way down the Ohio River, many things have changed.

The Times / Brian McDermott

ROCHESTER - Down by the river, where raindrops made ripples in the high, muddy water, they waited.

Cindy Reda of Beaver Falls grasped a silver camera. Her three sons - Max, 12; Tony, 10; and Leo, 9 - passed a pair of wallet-sized binoculars into each other's hands.

It wouldn't be long now before they saw Pa Pa rowing into view on his mighty wooden boat, dipping his 16-foot oar into the Ohio River again and again.

"Remember," Reda reminded her sons. "You have to call him John Shields, not Pa Pa."

Because on Monday, on the Rochester riverfront at the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Celebration, that's who Pa Pa, or Herb Hahn, 75, of Center Township, would be: John Shields, a carpenter, blacksmith and gunsmith, and the oldest member of the Corps of Discovery for frontier explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.

"There he is!" the Reda brothers cried one after another as their grandfather's boat rounded a bend under the East Rochester-Monaca Bridge.

Hahn stood proudly among his fellow Corps of Discovery II re-enactors, a canteen strapped across one shoulder, a cloth pouch strapped across the other.

"Do you see him?" Reda asked her sons. "He has a big black hat with one side turned up and a feather in it."

Reda had been waiting for this moment for three years, ever since her father first signed up to portray a member of the Lewis and Clark expedition for the bicentennial celebration.

It seemed so fitting that he take part. Hahn had always been a history buff, letting his children stay up late on Friday nights to watch old war movies and historical documentaries. And he had always loved the water, running canoes deep into the Canadian wilderness.

"Our rivers are high now," Reda told her sons. "When they (the Corps of Discovery) came through originally, it was really low."

She snapped a picture.

"And I bet that bridge wasn't there in 1803," she quipped as the boat sailed under the Rochester-Monaca Bridge.

It started to move quickly then, the rain-swollen Ohio River pushing it toward its dock.

"Let's go!" Reda called.

She started down a paved path along the riverfront, her sons following behind her like a line of ducklings. Past the children's games and the playground they ran, across the Flag Plaza in Riverfront Park and through the Legion Ville encampment toward the lilting music of drums and pipes until finally they reached the dock.

Max Reda stared in amazement at the 55-foot-long boat.

He never thought it would be that big. He had imagined it the size of a canoe or maybe just a little larger. And Pa Pa, he looked so funny in his Corps of Discovery garb, marching straight-backed among the crew, a gun resting steady on his shoulder.

"I didn't know they had spears," Max told his mother as they followed the marching Corps of Discovery back down the riverfront to the Flag Plaza.

There Meriwether Lewis, or re-enactor Scott Mandrell, spoke to the crowd of hundreds who had turned out to welcome his crew, telling the story of how his boat stopped in Rochester in 1803 and then sailed on to Georgetown, where "I paid the exorbitant price of $1 for a canoe that leaked."

"John Shields!"

"Herb Hahn!"

The Reda family interrupted Lewis' speech with their calls.

"He'll be available for autographs immediately afterward, I'm sure," the Corps commander quipped.

Hahn smiled.

After the ceremonies, Cindy Reda and her sons finally caught up with their re-enacting relative amid the white tents of the Legion Ville encampment.

Hugs were shared, pictures were taken, questions were asked.

"How is it so far?"

"Did you have to row?"

"Do you have a change of clothes?"

It's tricky to get six to eight guys to row 16-foot oars in unison, Hahn told his family. But the re-enactment was well planned, and the equipment first-rate, he said. The worst part is getting up at 6 a.m.; the best part is chow time.

Hahn said he wished he could travel farther than Wheeling, W.Va., where another re-enactor will replace him on Sep. 8.

"Now, if you'll excuse me," Hahn said in his best John Shields persona, clutching his gun and straightening his hat. "I have a tent to build."

April Johnston can be reached online at ajohnston@timesonline.com.

©Beaver County Times/Allegheny Times 2004

CRASH OCCURRED 56 YEARS AGO IN HARMONY TWP., THE PIECES STILL CAN BE FOUND TODAY.

Bill Vidonic, Times Staff 09/07/2003

Joseph Janicki of Hopewell Twp., a Legionville preservationist, holds what he thinks might be a guage from the Navy fighter jet.

HARMONY TWP. - Recently, a Florida man signed on to a Web site devoted to Legionville, the encampment site of Maj. Gen. (Mad) Anthony Wayne in what is now Harmony Township.

The man, according to Legionville preservationist Pat Riley, talked about his memories of growing up around the Beaver County encampment site, hiking through the woods, learning about its historical significance.

And oh, the man said, I also remember the plane crash there.

"I was like, 'What plane crash?' " said Riley, of South Heights.

As it turns out, not too many people recall the events of a frigid February morning 56 years ago in which one of the Navy's then-new fighter jets slammed into the ground in Harmony Township, shattering into hundreds of tiny pieces - some of which are still mingled with the soil today.

The date was Feb. 5, 1947. Beaver County was in the grip of a cold wave that had been unseen around these parts for years, with temperatures plunging below zero.

More than 2,500 workers were laid off from valley mills, which were shut down because of natural gas shortages. Another 1,500 steelworkers were idled at the former Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp. in Aliquippa because of a wildcat strike in the open hearth department. Many schoolchildren also had the day off because of the heating problems.

In the skies above, it was just another day at the office for Lt. Cmdr. William W. Kelly, who was flying a McDonnell FD1 Phantom.

Kelly, then 30, certainly wasn't a stranger behind the controls of the plane. According to an account in the Beaver Falls News-Tribune the day of the crash, Kelly had dazzled a crowd of Floridians at an air show a little more than a month earlier, putting the same plane through several aerobatic maneuvers.

The plane, according to the news reports, topped out at speeds over 550 mph.

The plane was the Navy's first attempt at its own jet airplane, with the design phase beginning during World War II. Riley thinks the plane that Kelly flew was the fourth off the assembly line, basing that guess on the tail number. The planes were renamed as the FH1 Phantom the same year as Kelly's crash, though the design stayed essentially the same.

The planes weren't without their problems at first, which was not unusual for a plane first going into design and production. The first two prototypes crashed, according to military records, because of stability and aileron problems.

And the plane that crashed in Harmony developed problems of its own.

Two pilots, Lt. Melvin Chapman and Kelly, were ordered to fly the plane from St. Louis to Maryland. Chapman was first up, leaving St. Louis on Feb. 1.

Within hours of takeoff, however, he was forced to land in an Indiana wheat field, according to the crash report, because of low fuel. Chapman told flight crews that the fuel gauges weren't working properly, but he and the plane continued on to Dayton, where Kelly then took over.

The problems Chapman faced were nothing compared with what Kelly would experience.

DISASTER STRIKES

Kelly left Dayton around 4:30 p.m. Feb. 4, but returned just nine minutes later because he was having radio trouble, the crash report indicated.

He departed again at 9:53 a.m. the next day, headed for the former Greater Pittsburgh International Airport. The radio range receiver and fuel gauges were inoperative and the weather was cloudy, keeping visibility low.

About 10 minutes after leaving Dayton, the report indicated, Kelly started having instrument trouble, with problems indicated in the flaps, wheels, compass and other instruments.

Nearly 25 minutes after leaving Dayton, Kelly turned off his left engine, hoping to extend his flight as long as possible using just one engine. Just outside Wheeling, Kelly spotted the Ohio River.

Kelly had grown up in New Castle and was familiar with the Beaver Valley, according to Riley's research, so he changed course to follow the river, hoping it would lead him close to the Pittsburgh airport.

But then the right engine lost power, and Kelly tried to restart the engines, to no avail.

Knowing he could not make a crash landing, according to the crash report, Kelly struggled with the controls as best he could, leveling the plane out so that it would glide.

Then Kelly popped open the plane's canopy and pushed it back toward the tail, the frigid air rushing into the cockpit.

With the howling winds ripping at his body, Kelly, according to the report, carefully climbed out onto the plane's right wing, and then hurled his body away. Once clear of the plane, Kelly pulled a ripcord, and the parachute strapped to his back popped open, slowing his plunge and allowing him to drift to the ground.

For the thousands of people who were hunkered down in their homes against the cold, little did they know that 2,500 feet or so above their heads, 10,000 pounds of aluminum and equipment were hurtling out of control at about 100 mph toward the ground.

Only the grace of God would decide its final destination.

IMPACT

Once Kelly bailed out, the plane glided approximately 5 miles, according to military records and local newspaper clippings, eventually flying over the Ambridge Country Club in Harmony Township.

Sinking lower and lower, the plane finally clipped the tops of several trees around 10:40 a.m., newspaper accounts said, then flipped over and smashed to the ground below, the fuselage wedging between two large trees.

The noise of the plane's impact was so great, a woman living in what was then called Legionville Hollow phoned police and reported that there had been a train wreck, according to the Feb. 5, 1947, edition of the Beaver Valley Times. Police rushed to the area, but found no train wreck.

But Howard Beck knew exactly what that noise had been.

Then just 14 years old, he said he happened to be standing near where the plane went down. He heard a noise, looked up, and saw the jet whoosh overhead before disappearing within the trees.

"It happened so quick," Beck said. "I just heard a big bang. It lasted no more than a split second."

Beck, now 70, said that his late brother-in-law, Johnny Sergeant, ran up to him, shouting, "Where did that plane go?" and then ran to the crash site with another man.

When they got there, they found a large chunk of the fuselage intact, but other parts of the plane were scattered throughout the woods. They were surprised to find that there were no flames, news reports indicated. They were also surprised to see that there were no signs of a pilot.

Kelly, in the meantime, had floated to the ground somewhere in the area of Sohn Road in Hopewell Township, Riley thinks. News reports indicated that once he landed safely, he walked to a nearby farmhouse and called local police and reported what had happened.

Once police found the wreckage, they kept local residents back, and waited for the military to arrive.

In film footage of the crash site shot by a local resident and obtained by Riley, an unidentified man wearing a white hooded parka can been seen climbing through the trees, stumbling a bit as he walked around the wreckage.

"I just remember it was pretty top-secret back then," Beck said.

Newspaper clippings indicated that the wreckage was hauled away the day after the crash. Riley said one resident remembered that the plane was dragged from the woods by a tractor before it was loaded onto a vehicle and driven away.

Riley said that it's likely that since the wreckage was dragged along the cold ground, that's why many pieces were scattered nearby, with pieces falling from the fuselage. Once the wreckage was taken away, it could have been taken to a local military base and then scrapped, or possibly even buried there, he said.

A picture in the Feb. 6, 1947, edition of the Beaver Falls News-Tribune showed a glum-looking Kelly standing at the crash site, looking over the wreckage of the plane. Kelly told a news photographer that an "electrical disturbance" threw the plane off course, and he bailed out knowing he could not reach the Pittsburgh airport.

Yet the crash report points to a simpler cause.

It indicates the plane didn't have enough fuel, possibly because it wasn't fueled correctly, or because some fuel leaked in flight. Also, the report said, the fuel gauges weren't working properly.

The report criticized Kelly for leaving Dayton with faulty instruments and not turning back in the bad weather, but did not indicate whether he was disciplined.

EXPLORATION

After Riley and another Legionville preservationist, Joseph Janicki of Hopewell Township, learned of the crash site, they went to it last year. They were surprised to find that more than five decades later, dozens upon dozens of twisted and rusted parts still remained there.

Some of the aluminum still bore the plane's original blue paint, while other pieces showed the scrawled markings of serial numbers.

"I expected to find a couple little pieces here and there," Janicki said. "I didn't expect to find hundreds of pieces there."

Riley doesn't want the exact location of the crash site to be revealed because he said he doesn't want souvenir-hunters raiding the pieces that are still left behind. Also, he said, he doesn't want nearby residents disturbed by folks seeking a piece of military history.

"We've picked up so much stuff here, we want to leave some of it here," Riley said as he took a walk through the crash site last month.

Riley also wanted to speak to Kelly about the plane and the crash. But Kelly, who retired from the Navy with the rank of captain in 1967, according to military records, died in 2001.

Riley has done extensive research on the Phantom, the first jet to land on an aircraft carrier, even traveling to New York to see a restored model of one.

"It's just another piece of the Legionville puzzle," Riley said. "It's yet another thing to document here."

Of the plane parts that he and Janicki have collected, Riley said he hopes some can be donated to a military museum, but he hopes some pieces remain behind for good, just like the Indian arrowheads and other items left at the Legionville site.

"We want to treat this as an archaeological site," Riley said. "It's kind of neat to see this. It's all part of the regional history."

Bill Vidonic can be reached online at bvidonic@timesonline.com.

LETTER TO THE EDITOIR- BUSINESS AS USUAL IN HARMONY

12/04/2003

Milton G. Macie's letter to the editor on Nov. 12 ("Candidate should get vacancy") was prophetic.

I arrived at the Harmony Township municipal building at 4 p.m. because you never know when the meeting starts. The meeting started and had the usual veiled references to Legionville. It is now the "property on Logan's Lane" or "Duss Avenue." The county Veterans Day parade didn't start at the Legionville Field; it started at the Byersdale Field.

Maybe if we don't mention the issue, it will go away. Lest I digress, the wheels have been set in motion to rid the county of that thorn (Legionville) forever.

The meeting droned on as the king presided and his court napped. The moment that I had been waiting for arrived - the resignation of the commissioner referred to in Macie's letter.

The commissioner stood up and the farewell speech gushed forth. One would have thought he was resigning from the presidency. The four people in the audience were getting ill and (pardon the pun) I was about to retch. In one of the worst acting scenes I ever witnessed, the resignation was tearfully accepted.

No comments from the audience ensued because most of the citizens arrived as the sideshow ended at 7 p.m., the usual start time for meetings. A latecomer asked who would fill the now-vacant commissioner's seat. The commissioners said they would accept applicants until the next meeting in December.

I'll wager the next commissioner will not be the one who ran in the election and lost by only 31 votes. What puzzles me is how despotism continues to thrive in Harmony Township.

Herbert Sullivan

Economy

LETTER TO THE EDITOR- CORRIDOR SHOULD LINK TO BRIDGE

05/21/2004

I attended the meeting on the new proposed highway corridor from Route 65 in Conway to Freedom Road in Cranberry Township.

Unlike many public meetings of this nature when people are upset (often justifiably) about the proposed right of way, this meeting was downright civilized.

I was glad to see that someday there may be an easy way to get to Cranberry and Interstate 79. The ride now takes about 30-35 minutes from Ambridge. The new highway should cut that time to about 20 minutes. That is a good thing, and, for a change, I think people on the whole agree with this conclusion.

What really puzzled me is that at the Route 65 terminus of the proposed road, the traffic ends on Ohio River Boulevard. I thought that this would be a perfect place for a bridge crossing on the Ohio River and a connector to Routes 51 and 60. This would increase traffic both ways.

As this proposed corridor exits, most of the traffic will go to Cranberry and benefit that community. Wouldn't it be nice for people who live in Cranberry to travel to our towns in Beaver County? Maybe they would like a quiet night at the Beaver Valley Mall or a local restaurant away from the hustle, bustle and endless traffic in Cranberry.

This corridor is a great idea, and I hope someone has enough foresight to see that this is a natural place for a new bridge across the Ohio River.

Patrick Riley

South Heights