The Curious Sojourner: March 2020

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Snow Geese at Middle Creek

Seeing large numbers of anything is impressive. In a time in which much of the ecosystem is imperiled, observing an extraordinarily large number of snow geese wintering in rural Pennsylvania offers hope for the future of birds and animals. Nature is resilient, yet the lake at the Middle Creek Management Area, along the borders of Lancaster and Lebanon counties, were created when a dam was built in the 1970. The geese, which once used the east coast as navigation, have moved further inland as development has reduced feeding areas. The phenomenon of extraordinary numbers of birds gathering in central Pennsylvania is a reaction to human pursuits.

Tundra Swans

In February the snow geese and tundra swans, as well as numerous humans, congregate at the wildlife management area near the small village of Stevens. People who have not walked any distance in quite some time, trudge a three-quarter mile path to see more than 100,000 snow geese occupying the reservoir. Slightly dwarfed by the showcase geese, families of tundra swan that nest in Alaska and northern Canada, gather and rest for a few days of rest on other parts of the reservoir lake. Although there are far more geese, the number of swans can reach an impressive 10,000 birds at a time.

The close proximity to so many birds is humbling. It is almost as if the geese are nearly tame, yet they are not exactly ready to cozy up to people. Even a small toddler, rambunctious and reckless as he is, gets remarkably close to the geese scouring the grass. The geese are not easily spooked but mosey off if humans (or dogs) venture too close.

What photographs, and even videos, cannot capture is the sound of a multitude of birds simultaneously calling. Even from across the lake, the sound ebbs and flows, like a wave that alerts us to the presence of nature. Watching the intricate motions of collective of geese, much like a murmuration of starlings, is compelling. Are eyes deceive us to pay attention to the whole, while missing the actions of the individual.

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Walking on the Great Allegheny Passage

While my focus continues to be on completing the C&O Towpath, it is intriguing to think about other long walks. The Great Allegheny Passage takes the up where the C&O leaves off in Cumberland, Maryland and completes a 150-mile, non-motorized trail, to Pittsburgh. Walking in the trail in the Pittsburgh area is a step back in time, mixing the beauty of the Monongahela River with the remnants of the city’s industrial history.

Homestead Grays Bridge

Approximately seven miles upriver from downtown Pittsburgh, Homestead was once a vibrant working class and immigrant hub. Today, some of the riverfront has been revitalized into commercial ventures but just a few blocks away the poverty of post-industrial blight remains. Walking from the Waterfront, a shopping and entertainment complex built on the site of steel mills and railroad terminals, the walker is at first confronted with the hurly-burly of shoppers and traffic. The Monongahela is tranquil, but the evidence of a turbulent past is all around. The foundations and rusting structures visible evidence of the steel mills that dotted the riverfront; the moorings of docks, rusting and overgrown, no doubt dangerous, are fenced off from those who walk, jog or bike passed.

Birds thrive along the river and many can be seen along the path, even on a late winter day. Frenetic robins have begun their spring mating rituals a little early this year. Mallards and Canada geese gently swim or mosey away if you approach too closely. Songbirds gleefully tweet but use the undergrowth, shorn of foliage, still provide ample cover from potential predators.

Between mile markers 139 and 140, the Pump House was a part of the U.S. Steel Homestead Steel Works and is now an interpretive center for the 1892 Homestead Strike Memorial. The strike was a defining clash between steelworkers and industrial management, pitting the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers (AA) against the Carnegie Steel Company with its local operator, Henry Clay Frick. Company under Frick sought to break the union in Homestead, introducing non-union clauses into the workers contract, leading to a confrontation when the existing collective bargaining contract expired. On 1 July 1892, Frick locked out workers who moved to keep the plant closed through surveillance and picket lines, attempting to deny the company an opportunity to employ replacement workers. The standoff resulted in a pitched battle between the union and Pinkerton agents on 6 July, when Pinkerton agents attempted to land a boat on the grounds of the plant from the Monongahela. Shots erupted and a ten-minute gunfight ensued. The governor of Pennsylvania sent the state militia to restore order. The strike melted away as workers, primary East European immigrants, crossed the picket line. The incident broke the AA; by 1900 not a singled steel plant in Pennsylvania would remain unionized.

One of the interesting things about Pittsburgh is the proliferation of ethnic clubs in the area. In Homestead, the Hungarian Social Club is visible from the trail, but appears to be closed.

Upriver from the commercial sector, the path turns away from the river slightly to circumnavigate businesses that still have property adjacent to the Monongahela. I walk around struggling steel plants and abandoned outbuildings, on East 8th Avenue. The trail leans back to the river where it squeezes between the Monongahela and lightly used railroad tracks. Walking through this area, seemingly a forgotten section of the concrete and trash, there is a temptation to feel vulnerable. A chain link fence ostensibly denies access to the Carrie Furnace Hot Metal Bridge; however, the sizable hole and graffiti on the bridge suggest that it does not do a good job. Constructed in 1900, the bridge has not seen railroad traffic in quite some time.