How Allegheny Trails Council put an entire camp of scouts lives at risk by using an unregulated Natural Gas Well

 A recent Explosion of a unregulated Natural Gas Well in Crescent Twp. Pa which Killed an elderly couple who where getting gas from it which had no odor to it 

https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/private-well-site-deadly-house-explosion-does-not-appear-state-mapping-system/NXNMWLM5CJDPDBVTIIOW7GVZPI/

 

Example of private well

 It brings back memories when I was on Staff at BSA Camp Semiconon  in 1977 in Conequnessing  Butler County on Boy scout Road  as a Rangers Assistant .

We where having problems with the stoves in the kitchen of the large Mess Hall where up to 150 scouts gathered 3 times a day for meals , some times even more when we had Weekend Camporees . They were   having low gas pressure and the ranger asked one of the scout leaders who worked for one of the Natural Gas Company's if he could look at it . 

Which he did and

When he realized Raw Gas with no Odor  was being feed from a private well he raised absolute hell about it and camp was forced to install propane tanks as the well was water logged and would be too expensive to properly fix and put odor.

Now Gas Codes even back in the 1970s forbid using raw gas into structures yet Camp Semiconon somehow skirted the issue. 

Now you think the Council who ran the camp would no better  especially after their  where over 400 children killed in a school in 1937 in New London Texas when no odor gas exploded  But no they could care less as the camp which was around from 50s .

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London_School_explosion

 

All they did was complain the cost of paying for propane . They Could care less scouts lives could have been affected.  

But this is what you have when a council was run and dictated to by big corporate donators .

The well is still there in woods don't know if current owners got fixed or capped it  . 

Pa now has an extensive program to find and cap these private unregulated wells as so many now are well over 100 years old and causing issues.

The worst part I am willing to bet there are still scout and other youth camps in Western Pa still using private unregulated non odor wells

The Eagle Scout Honor Dinner Sponsor Some go above and beyond some you never hear from again

 When I got my Eagle Scout Award that years class of Eagle Scouts  was given a Awards Banquet  at The long Gone Three Rivers Stadium Club

Each of us had a sponsor for the dinner which cost around $50.00 for the sponsor which was matched up to us with our career path.

Of course I later found out Electrician was not deemed as good enough path for an eagle scout  they expected you to be more corporate business or professional career related

Little did they know I would go and open my own business which was y plan all along but everyone just assumed I would be another hunky working in the mill.

My Sponsor was a very nice  gentleman from Alcoa unfortunately i can not remember his name it has been to many years. 

I met him at his office we talked about career choices then we went by his car over to 

the Stadium which was a big deal .

Unfortunately I got to see out big corporations business leaders at work and  disagreed with several of them during dinner conversation something an eagle was not suppose to do sorry i don't kiss anyone's ass when it comes to degrading our country and its technology at the time .

The dinner program went well even Earl Schriber was there with a real live Eagle  .

I thanked my sponsor sent him a nice thank you card and that was it never to hear from him again 

 

 The big picture of what i heard at that dinner would become clear several years later when i was at an eagle scout luncheon 

and David Roderick laid out the big new world plan which saw the destruction of our country as jobs went overseas .I just wonder all who sat at that dinner table that night realized what they had set in motion.

 I would meet my sponsor in 78 at a Explorer event at now closed Kings Mountain Resort in Fayette County said hello told him how i was getting ready to start a full time  business he congratulated me and last time i ever saw him.

 My Scout Master would ask me often did you hear from your sponsor  No would always be the answer while his sons sponsor was still in contact and helping him. 

When i talked with other eagle scouts it seems many like me never heard again from their sponsors it was a one time deal. That is OK it was very nice of them all to do such a nice thing for us.  

I sponsored an eagle one time who wanted to be an electrician  and every time i called he was never home but talked to his father who told me of his progress. I told him to call me if he ever needed help but he never did . Don't know if he ever got a job and stayed in the electrical field last time i tried to contact him number was no longer in service. 

and so it goes. 

Had i known then what i know now things would have been different.

 

 

How to screw up a County Bicentenial Celebration Invite Politicians

The year of our country's Bicentennial in 1976 saw celebrations all across the country.
I got to speak at a one for Allegheny County after our politically connected  Scout Master   was able to get us involved in the county Bicentennial Celebration in the Courthouse Court yard.

What an honor it was to be selected to put on a Flag History display and folding at the ceremony.

How ever it became a total farce and disappointment

Instead of the 10 minute program we had trained and planned for to put on we got cut down to 3 minutes.  

Why well one of the county commissioners Jim Flaugherty introduces his new plan for the coutrt yard which was nothing more than a parking lot 

It was going to be Katie's park and he and the other Commissioners  droned on and on and slapping each other on the back  about this park to point it became boring and people started leaving the celebration.  

We finally got to do our cut down program 

We  showed how to properly Fold the flag I pointed out the flags hanging and gave their names and no history to them and that was that all the rest of the programs scheduled cut back or did not do them .

What a total disappointment our commissioners where that day.

However after the program we got to ride the Restored Wooden Orange Painted Trolley around town which was running for the bicentenial 

This action by the commisioners  along with many other stunts and inaction's and missteps by the commisioners over the next couple decades saw to their eleimanation and a County Commision with a county Manager put in their place. 

what a dam shame

How a Power Company Honoring one of its Retired Employees ended up dissing his BSA affiliation and ultimately embarrassing him.

 Arthur Evans  who everyone called Art  was one of those rare gems of a gentleman and caring person you run across. a life long bachelor

I meet him in early 70s  while on the path to Eagle Scout as he was a Merit Badge Councilor for Citizenship in the Community Badge .

 

 

 

 

My Mom dropped me off at his home in Whitehall and we connected right off . I loved learning about old things and Art had many old items around his home  which has since been  sold off and his old home fully remolded

We went over the whole badge requirements and I learned he 

was also our troops 383#  Scout Master at one time. I also believe he received the Silver Beaver scouting award

He was also Big Time into Little league baseball and had many Awards and Thank Yous on his wall which we talked about.

Now in today's society you might think it weird or unsafe dropping your son off at a strangers home but Art was a well loved and trusted scout leader despite fact he had no children of his own .In-fact he had no living relatives

There where many such men who served in scouting back then.

I would see Art from time to time at scouting events and always stop and say hello and talk to him for a few minutes  and this is why he asked me to be in an article that was to be done on his behalf 

with the Power Company he had retired from Magazine . Art had run the Emergency Board at the Operations center for many years helping to keep the lights on in Allegheny county and City of Pittsburgh .

I had just received my Eagle scout Award  and he had received the prestigious  Dapper Dan Award 

https://old.post-gazette.com/dapperdan/history.asp

For all his hard work promoting sports. He wanted me in the article to represent his other  love of Scouting as well. 

It was a large silver tray he was awarded and he was in seventh heaven. People thought that much about him.

I meet him at his home in my Scout Uniform and he also had a Young man who was in his Baseball Uniform  . We where both interviewed and photographed with Art  by the photographer reporter for the power company magazine .

However Arts Joy would soon sour. 

Several months after the photo session he walked up to me he seemed very saddened and embarrassed

He apologized to me that  there was no mention of me or my picture in the magazine article in fact there was less than a sentence on his scouting efforts it was focused solely on  the baseball player and Arts sports activity's.

I consoled him and told him it was OK but I know it stayed with Art till his passing how his scouting efforts where overlooked in the article.

Why was all his scouting and me overlooked  ? One can speculate  but it has been suggested to me it was because my last name sounding Jewish.

I would hate to think it was any such possibility  and it was more they only had so much publishing room for the article.  

 Having been in many publications over the years I think it very unlikely it had to do with my last name  . But Pittsburgh has always had a very racist makeup and i have seen and heard it .

If that was the reason it would have broken Arts Heart.

I really miss him to this day and wish things would have went better for him but it is what it is as they say. 

I am sure there is no one left in today's scouting program even remembers him  as well as all the great men who made scouting in 50s thru 80s. 

 

So what did the Boy Scouts of Allegheny now Laurel Highlands Council do with the Log Cabin Forsythe Home from East Liberty they where Gifted?

 Well the more I dig into the history of Boy Scouts of America activities in Pittsburgh regarding camps and properties they once owned in area the worse it gets with Hum Buggery .

Originally known as Allegheny Council then Allegheny Trails Council and now Laurel Highlands Council 

Back during the Allegheny Council days of 1950s. There was the Hubbard Boy Scout Reservation in Allison Park which was donated to the council and was a former country club  which they sold to university of Pittsburgh in 1955  and is now known once again as Wildwood Country club.

Council claimed they where running out of room and civilization was getting too close  and they would buy property in Butler county to replace it . But I am sure The Original Clubs owners  wanted the Club back after the new homes started sprouting out there and a few dollars changed hands  .

Yes that property they bought in Butler County  would be the now closed and sold Camp Semiconon  which they lied about  Just like Tionesta .Which they never built the promised lake  for Semiconon in the article.

That's where the name Hubbard comes from for the fancy place they built out in Farmington.

So now we have another mystery which no one wants to talk about. The Missing Forsythe Log cabin which once sat in East Liberty and was donated to the Council

The cabin itself has a long and interesting history itself.

https://archive.theincline.com/2019/01/29/what-happened-to-the-long-lost-forsythe-log-house-an-east-liberty-landmark/

 Starting out in Wilkinsburg and changing many hands and being moved to East Liberty.

Where finally it was sold to a developer who could not get anyone to take it so he donated it to the scouts .

Who moved it out to the Hubbard Reservation and apparently rebuilt it and according to an old caretaker of property  burned to the ground  because of termites which is unverified could have just been spirited off to some  Corporate Pukes Executives private camp property ,and any trace if it was there along with the memorial marker plaque The DAR Daughters of the American Revolution  put on the cabin have disappeared into history. 

Now if it did burn there is a small chance local fire company may have been called to camp to help put it out and there would be a record which is one area to investigate .

Of course this is one of several Log cabins to conveniently disappear around City of  Pittsburgh including the one that was in Phillips Park in Carrick and River-view Park in North Side 

Pittsburgh is real good at destroying and making disappear historic structures and Objects .

Its a dam shame how much of our history has been lost forever.

 

 

 

Its time for the Order of the Arrow to Disapear and be Eliminated and if your Roman catholic why you should not join.

 Although it started out with the best of intentions The Order of The Arrow or OA as its known needs to go.

What I once thought was suppose to be an Honor Organization with in BSA founded by 2 members  who had Deep Masonic Roots

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Arrow

https://oa-bsa.org/

 

 That incorporated elements of masonic Tradition  and  reverence to Native Americans was no such thing and in fact Native Americans objected to many of the supposed Native American Traditions  and see it as Mocking of them .

Terms like Lodge , Secret Brotherhood Handshake  the 3 levels of being an arrow man , Ordeal ,Brotherhood and vigil  which signify the 3 degrees of masonry. 

Being Roman Catholic at the time of induction I would have refused to join now knowing all the similarity's of Masonic Tradition But i am no Longer roman catholic. 

 . But back then I did not even know who masons where. Because it was a sin to be a mason and you where excommunicated .

Today I would not join it not because of the Masonic Traditions now that I understand who masons are  and I had several masons who I was friend  with and  who worked for me over the years. 

 But the fact so called native traditions we where following and taught about where made up and total fraud and greatly upset Native Americans.

Plus in many cases mocked Native Americans.

We had this family put on Indian Dance Rituals they claimed where based on authenticate research well try again they where not once I started doing some research thru a local council of Indians who where upset with them and their little show . No wonder they always rebuffed me and did not want me in OA when they found out I had an ancestor  Rev John Heckewelder who actually interacted with Native Americans and wrote a book on their languages and customs still used to this day. 

Yes its time to close down the OA and replace it with a modern Honor Organization which respects all .

 

How my Uncle and his Uncle helped to save thier Scout Troop during the horrific Snow Storm of 1950 at Camp Guyasuta in Sharpsburg Pa

 As Told by my  Grandmother  and Mother  It was Weekend of November 24 1950. 

My uncle The late  John Hackwelder  Jr.  an Eagle Scout

Was getting ready to go camping with his Boy Scout Troop at BSA Camp Guyasuta they would meet In  Lincoln Larimer Neighborhood and hike the approx 2-3 miles to the camp down to Washington Blvd to Highland Park Bridge  

He got out his leather hiking boots  to put on and was ready to leave when my Grandmother insisted he take his 

pull over Rubber Buckle Boots with him.

Of course he protested no one else would be bringing theirs and besides it was only small amount of snow expected.

But she insisted and was worried his feet would get wet and he would get sick.  Because he and his uncle had both brought rubber boost with them  they ended up saving their troops lives that weekend .

Friday night was uneventful when the snow started falling but little did they know 27 inches of snow was coming to box and trap them in the camp that weekend

It was the biggest snowfall on record at the time to hit that weekend. it was so bad the national guard was activated and people where found frozen in homes and the street.

 Saturday morning The scout leaders where beside themselves seeing how much snow had already fallen and was still coming ,worried  on how they where going to get out of the camp with the troop. Hopefully some one would come rescue them but when ? They decided to take a chance and break out while they still could .

 Luckily because my Uncle and his Uncle brought their rubber boots they where able to borrow some brooms and shovels and started beating a pathway out of the camp to the main street  thru the deep snow as scouts behind with out  rubber boots helped keep path open they did this as they needed the whole 3 miles back to Larimer ave.  had they not been able to clear the path with the brooms they would of all had frozen feet walking in all that deep snow.

Everyone made it home safe before the streets where totally impassable with a story to tell.

Unfortunately My uncle and his Uncle never got the recognition they deserved saving those scouts because there was a group of  Jewish Scouts from Squirrel Hill got all the News's attention that weekend  because they decided to stay behind become trapped and had to  burn cabin furniture to keep warm and had to be rescued. 

I have been looking for and trying to verify this story because it did make the newspapers that weekend but I have not been able to find the article and of course . scout council has no records as usual.