Exploring Coudersport, PA

Potter County Courthouse

Nestled among the tree-laden hills of Potter County, Coudersport is a quaint town that makes you feel as if it is twenty years ago. There is no megastores and there are very few national chain retailers, other than the ubiquitous McDonalds that permeates small town America.  The town survives in spite of the economic downturn and the mechanization of the lumber industry. While there we had dinner at a small, locally owned, restaurant where the menu was limited but the food was simple and good. It was a place where locals went for a dinner out, but the dinner selection was like going to a friend’s house: you ate what they had.

North Main Street

The buildings in town are neat and well kept. Most of the buildings date from the 1880s and 1890s, the boom days of the lumber industry. The Masonic Building on North Main Street still has the remnants of advertising for a local confectionery on its side. Inside the post office, built during the Great Depression, there is a frieze dedicated to the lumber industry that hangs next to a display containing the first letter mailed from the new post office in 1938. 

The Allegheny River, which makes its way through town, has its headwaters approximately ten miles from Coudersport (near Cobb Hill). The river briefly goes north, into New York, before joining the Monongalia in Pittsburgh to form the Ohio River.

Cherry Springs State Park is located approximately 15 miles away. The park is designated a dark sky area, which means that the park is protected from ambient light sources. With the reduction of light pollution, observing the night sky (stars, constellations, planets and the Milky Way) much better. People travel from across the eastern half of the United States to stargaze at Cherry Springs because it is considered to be the best location on the East Coast.

Cherry Hill State Park at Sunset

Although the night we were there was not optimal observation conditions, there were high clouds and a very bright moon, one still got a sense about what most of us miss on a nightly basis. An extremely bright meteor, that streak seemingly half way across the sky, was the highlight of the evening. As the sun sank into the west, and the orange glow faded to black, those who were there competed in hushed tones to point out each new star as it appeared in the sky. The observation area is very user friendly with comfortable benches whose basks are reclined at a sixty degree angles to facilitate looking up. The benches are pointed toward the east to aid in adjusting the viewers’ eyes to the dark as the sun sets.

The light clouds and the bright moon adumbrated the Milky Way. Enough so that once again I contemplated in the dark what these faint points of light meant. It has been several years since I took and astronomy class, and even longer since I was first mesmerized by Carl Sagan’s Cosmos. We live in a time and a society that emphasizes us as individuals. Our lives, replete with electronics and artificial light, prevent us from seeing the stars. Many of us engage in solipsistic habits that emphasize our own importance. There are billions and billions of stars, as Sagan would say, in the sky. Each of those stars represents a sun, potentially encircled by planets, at distances so vast it is difficult to contemplate. Many of the stars we see in the sky are so far away that it took scores, hundreds, even thousands of years for the light to reach earth. In the face of such overwhelming number and distances, sitting in the dark, quietly, it is difficult not to feel insignificant.

I was reminded of a prayer I read while in Dublin at the Church of Adam and Eve. At the Shrine to St. Clare of Assisi (1193-1253) a reflection begins, “Place your mind before the mirror of eternity!”