Dustin Elder
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Local Historia: The Nittany Lion’s Namesake
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Throughout Pennsylvania, one predator has captured the imagination of generations: the mountain lion. We are enamored by the thought of such an elusive and dangerous animal, whether serving as the mascot of a great university or being reported by the hundreds of hunters who claim to see one stalking the Pennsylvania woodlands each year. Today,…
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Local Historia: Tributes to Central Pa.’s Chief Logan
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Logan Branch, Logan Fire Company, Logan Street, Logan Avenue, Logan Valley. All across central Pennsylvania, the name Logan is almost as familiar a branding as the name of any U.S. Founding Father. Who was this mythical Logan, and what did he accomplish in his lifetime that impacted our area to such an extent that we…
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PSU’s Original Groundskeeper: William G. Waring
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As students hurry through campus on their way to class, it’s easy to miss the natural beauty of Penn State’s grounds. From the Old Main Lawn at University Park, to the pond at Altoona campus, to the Arboretum at Behrend, a tradition of excellence in agriculture, landscaping, and design serves as a point of pride…
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Local Historia: Edison, Electricity and Progress in Centre County
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In October 1879, the world changed forever. From his Menlo Park, New Jersey, laboratory, Thomas Edison finished the first iteration of his newest invention: the incandescent lightbulb. Several inventors at the time were working on this project, each competing to see who could get the most efficient bulb to market first. The genius of Edison’s…
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Local Historia: Mining the Riches of Scotia
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The age of iron was ending. For over a century, the Juniata Iron region of central Pennsylvania had dominated the iron market. The geographic region combined all the essential ingredients for high-quality iron making in one location. Throughout the 1800s, towns would blossom into cities around furnaces and forges, connected by a spider web of…
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Keep the Fires Burning: Eagle Iron Works and Curtin Village
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Combine iron ore, limestone, charcoal, and water power, and you have the ingredients necessary to produce one of the most significant materials of the industrial age: iron. Centre County was part of a unique region in the United States that produced some of the highest quality iron on the market: Juniata Iron. In its prime,…
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Green Gold: ‘The Prince of Loggers,’ Bellefonte’s John Ardell Jr., Was a Keystone of Pennsylvania’s Timber Market
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Covering 90 percent of Pennsylvania’s nearly 30 million acres, forests served as “green gold” to her early colonists. Timber provided stability to Pennsylvania’s economy, just as it did for the structures it built. As America grew, timber fueled progress. The logging boom of the 1800s was at the heart of America’s industrial revolution, and the…
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The Journey of James Potter: A British Officer Ascends Mt. Nittany and Spots a Fertile Valley Below
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This Local Historia column appears in the April 2021 issue of Town&Gown. “My God, Thompson, I have discovered an empire!” From his perch at the peak of McBride’s Gap on Mount Nittany, Captain James Potter marveled at the pristine valley that stretched before his company. The company had been traveling for days searching for suitable…