What was the extremely Loud Noise we heard while camping with Boyscouts as a teenager in early 1970's in Very Rural Butler County

 An old memory of mine was recently brought back when listening to Stan Gorden  a famous Pa. Ufologist when he gave  a speech at Hill View manor Hill Con as he described a noise residents who witnessed a UFO landing described

When I belonged to Troop 224 In Carrick we where very fortunate Harry Bishop a Business Executive for a paper manufacturer  and Scout Commissioner  who owned some acreage in very rural Butler County in Boyer Pa.  allowed us to camp on his property some where off a side road  of grub road .

We had  permanent camp sites where  we spent the weekend at several times a year .
One fall weekend in 72-73 was like no other it was mid Saturday afternoon when all of a sudden an extremely loud noise was heard thru out the valley the camp was situated in. It sounded  like some one taking a piece of sheet metal and bending it back and forth very fast but so loud we had to cover our ears. It lasted for almost 3 solid minutes and was intense. Some one suggested it sounded like one of those UFO  in a sci-fi movie . We looked all around even hiked up to top of valley where a previous strip mine operated  and was reclaimed but found nothing , however there was a discolored circle of rock and dirt in the strip mine but it did not appear to be burned. Plus the circle could have been site of an old water tank.

With the area being so large and so remote what was going on could have been anywhere in the valley which was several miles long and 2-3 miles across and thick with Forrest  and swamp areas

Our leaders kind of fluffed it off  maybe military was flying around caused the sound or coal mining equipment  . Maybe some exotic bird ?  but at this same time unknown to us at the time there where several sightings of UFO's in that area of Butler County.

But back then you did not have cell phones ,internet and social media  so people would call and report it to  the state police who would take a report and that was about it., Some times if it was really interesting they would notify Stan who would send a team to investigate, and the area even to this day is still very rural definite not a place to break down or wander if you do not know it.

Was it a UFO? who knows but I will never forget the sound thats for sure and never heard such a sound again . When I run across old scout friends they to wonder to this day just what was that noise.
some talk about it most do not want to admit they heard it all these years later. 

Butler County has always been a hot bed for Big Foot ,unknown Cryptids and UFO sightings  or was it something natural happening from all the strip  coal mining and reclamation going on ? I guess we will never know .

Its been almost 40 years since I was last at the camp some day I want to relocate it and check it out if it even still exists  as Mr Bishop has passed a while back and troop 224 is no longer as well ,  .

Update:Mr. Bishops cabin and the camp no longer exists was clear cut and bulldozed and now private property :picture below shows where hunting cabin stood and where we parked to go back to camp  bottom picture is country store we use to stop at in W. Sunbury which once had gas pumps and was also a coin laundromat which was few miles from camp.

There was a cabin and lake further down road  on Mr. Bishops side and cabin  was supposedly burned down deliberately after a black family moved in across from Mr Bishop.
Supposedly the family said property would never be used again as long as blacks where allowed to live there . I noticed the property is occupied and structures built so either the black family has either all passed or moved on or same for family who burned down the cabin. I meet the son of the black family that moved into that farm had a son Mike who would come over and visit while we where camping and they where nice people the little we saw of them.

The Strip Mined areas all around the camp area have now completely grown in since being reclaimed and one of them has been turned into a Waste management land fill.

where Mr Bishops cabin stood.

country market in W. Sunbury

Another camping spot is now just a memory . Harry Bishops Hunting camp BSA Troop 224 used is no more and neither is Troop 224

I spent several  weekends in early 70's  as a young boy scout  at a Friend of Troop 224  Hunting Camp owned by Mr.  Harry Bishop along Grub Road in Boyer Twp Pa. Near W. Sunbury.

Mr Bishop a Paper Company Executive and Scout Commissioner allowed the troop to build a permanent camp site on his hunting camp about  100 yards from his Cabin down in a valley  where there was a bunk house, several campsites a small pond which had become orange from coal  mine waste and a camp Fire Circle. an

 It allowed us to do all kind of camping skills but unfortunately most of the scouts in the troop where hooligans and some of the adult leaders where just as bad as their kids in their behavior. Many kids left 224 over the years  and it was not long before I left 224 for good and joined troop 383 which is also no longer in business.

I recently went looking for Mr. Bishops Camp as I have not been back there since 1980 when I stopped and looked around  and wondered what had happened to it since Mr. Bishop and his wife Have both passed and had no children I wondered if it even still  existed.

Sadly the camp is no more all structures are removed and property appears to have been clear cut at some point mostly new growth trees

The old country market in W. Sunbury  is still there but the gas pumps are gone they once sold Quaker State products and the laundromat has been removed in back and store expanded 

Sadly many of the places I once Camped are gone .

Including Camp Alliquipa now a private RV Resort , Tionesta turned back into Forrest land  ,Semiconon  now a private hunting camp .The Scout Cabin in North Park still there but used for other purpose  and homes now occupy where we had a camporee 

in White Hall behind where commissioner Roy Boyce lived

Yes they say time moves on and in 45 years it surely has and unfortunately very few pictures and documentation of these places even exists and Laurel Highlands council is useless when it comes to trying to do any research on any of these places .

All I have now are memory's thats it to share.