Browns Farm - Early Spring

Nothing beats Browns in the early Spring. This is not a crick - but the road heading to the farm. It's wet because years ago - in order to try to protect the site - old Nick (One Eye - "how you doing there") Fratrick who was married to one of Elmer's daughters - popped alot of the springs along the way. This road is always wet - even when we have dry summers.

Location of where the log cabin was.

Heading towards the cemetery and pond.

Looking back towards the cabin area. Those big pines were planted by the state as a wind breaker.

Remnants of Harshberger's Grove - old Lizzie's beauitful apple trees.

The pond where all the Morrellville boys used to spend their summers. Elmer and wife Annie (Bowser) always had a very welcoming home.

Road along side the pond - leading to the other side of the farm.

Looking back towards the log cabin and springhouse area.

And another shot of the same general area.

Looking towards the cemetery - with the wooden fence we helped the state with last year when we did a survey of the cemetery. I'd like to eventually - when I get a couple of extra bucks - to get a proper plaque to put up there - so that the kids that go up there to drink and party realize that they are indeed on sacred ground - not party central.

The grave of poor old John Smith - he was sort of on the slow side - not sure if he was born that way - or suffered some type of injury in the Civil War. And his wife Maria (Mariah Dorman) Smith did not help matters - she had her fair share of trouble with the law - she was known as a very friendly girl....

And here is the grave of John Brown - Elmer's dad - John was not the nicest of people nor the most responsible - now a days - he would have been considered a dead beat dad. When he did work - he was a barber - but he spent most of his time - getting in and out of trouble.

Another shot of the cemetery from the opposite side.

Just past the pond road and heading towards the other side of the farm.

Another shot from the same area.

Heading towards the middle of the area.

Years ago - I found this cast iron wheel laying on the ground and propped it against this tree.

That's my 7 year old nephew - and this is his first trip up to the mountain.

Heading up the hill towards the top of the site. I said outloud when we got there - "Browns meet RJ and RJ meet the Browns".

If you go left - up to the top - if you go right - heading back to the log cabin area.

Heading up towards the Dry Hollow Area.

But first one of the large Native American (cairn) rock mounds up there.

The cairn was built with a hollow.

A smaller (cairn) rock mound next to it.

This is the top of the Cambria/Westmoreland County Line - to your left is the Dry Hollow Area.

Walking this old road to go to back down towards Browns - I always find Native American nutting stones - they are just laying all around - when we passed this way - I spotted a small one - all you have to do - is simply look down - didn't say anything to RJ - didn't he see it and pick it up - which pleases me to no end - because I now know that he also has an eye for these kind of things. Down below by the farm - I kicked up a small arrowhead - which was very cool - since I don't usually go looking for these things.

Top - left goes to New Florence - Route 711 - straight - towards where some of the George Gates family lived and to the right - back down to Browns.

This large puddle is a big frog area in the Spring and early Summer.

Old dirt road heading back down.

RJ taking in the scenery.

Even though it's hard to tell from this shot - in person you can see parts of Johnstown off in the distance. In the old days - since most of the area was clear-cut you could see even more. To help you get your barings - the log cabin would have been right behind that clump of pines.