One that might be interesting, though a little further east, in the
Appalachia's could be the history of "Prince" Gallitzin. As one comes to the
top of the Alleghenies, one passes a spring with his name. He perhaps may
have been a tsar of Russia, but left with his mother to Holland and became
an ordained Catholic priest. He apparently preached up and down the
Alleghenies and said the water at the spring the best he ever tasted. A
nearby artificial lake is named after him, flooded for recreational use, not
far from the infamous events at Johnstown, PA. A Catholic college is also
nearby the spring and the NPS maintains the "Allegheny Portage Railroad
Historic Site" in the Lemon Tavern, built by Irish immigrants it's said,
(the NPS hires someone (or did) to give a speech Charles Dickens once gave
there, every summer) Some of the archaeology done there has been published
by the NPS in "Applied Archaeology" I had the opportunity to help decipher
parts of it's modern modifications as part of an archaeological crew there
one spring, to return it to its historic context. Some of the other
archaeology may be published elsewhere as canal boats were hauled up
inclined planes to the top of the mountain there (good thing coal was found
near the surface nearby!) on tilted rails held with limestone blocks a
locust peg insert for the rail spike in the rail bed. Small steam engines
pulled the rope, then cable attached to the flatcars holding the canal
boats, where once at the Lemon Tavern, they continued on to Pittsburg, PA.
before the great "Horseshoe Bend" was built for the railroad nearby above
Altoona, PA.

Anyway, it seems "Prince" Gallitzin had big influence on the formative
community IMHO.

George Myers



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