This album contains photos from my childhood growing up at Hundred Springs, a magical place that was a small part of my life in years but so much larger in shaping who I became.
Hundred Springs was once a popular park whose springs and bubbling brooks offered welcome respite from the summer heat. The park was described in a chapter in the 1897 book, "Tyrone of Today", which I have transcribed HERE.
It is hard to imagine that the old stone structure that was our house (really one of 3 apartments) was once a bustling mill that produced dozens of barrels of flour daily for the surrounding area. The operations of the Hundred Springs Mill was described in an article from the Tyrone Daily Herald printed June 23, 1896 that I have reproduced HERE.
Although these articles are less than a year apart, it seems that the management of both the park and the mill changed hands in the intervening months.
Color photos are scans from 35mm slides using a Nikon Coolscan V scanner. The square Black and white photos were taken by my old Brownie Hawkeye camera. They're not the best quality, but it's what I've got. I scanned them in from 3X3 prints on a flatbed scanner at 1200 DPI resolution. Rectangular B&W photos were scanned from 35mm prints.
The descriptions under the photo thumbnails in the album sometimes contain links to maps or additional information. These are identified by "Blue” text for links. I've also inserted links to Google Maps to show where certain photos in the album were taken or to locate features shown in the photos. Click on the link, close the sidebar, then you can then zoom in and out using the mouse wheel or drag the map by clicking and holding.
-Cascade Bill Mooseker
Album by Cascade Bill. 1 - 37 of 37 Total. 566 Visits.
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To enlarge photos, click on the thumbnail - the photo will pop up enlarged to 1024 pixels max (height or width). To view at Original size (best for maps, etc.), Ctrl-Click on the Photo, and finally a 3rd click to enlarge to the original resolution. Click again to reduce back to fit the screen again.
If you want to save photos to your computer, click the box under the thumbnails of all the photos you want to download (or check the "select all" box at the bottom of the album). Then click the "Download" button at the top of the album. Pick the size you'd like to download (Original is best)and the photos will be downloaded as a zip file to the folder of your choice.
enlarge 329KB, 1024x644 2 Hundred Springs 01
Points of interest around Hundred Springs - Refer back to this map to locate these when described in the photo descriptions. Location of Hundred Springs in Google Maps can be found HERE. Similarly Google Street View is HERE.
enlarge 269KB, 1024x704 3 s-53-0551 Elaine, Mark, & Bill - I think that this was at Easter.
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Our Dog Kimmie (or I should say my Mom's dog). The little house was our old playhouse that used to be located in front of our house (see 1951 and 1952 photos).
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Mark & Elaine - I took this with my Brownie Hawkeye camera. The road behind them lead's up to Barr's home. I think Kimmie was moved to the old chicken yard. You can see her dog house (the white square above Mark's head)
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I took a photo of Kimmie as well. That's the last photo of Kimmie that I could find so we didn't have her much longer)
enlarge 161KB, 1024x696 7 09-12-23-1953-001
In Pennsylvania at that time, April 15 was not known as "Tax Day" but as the Opening of Trout season. Dad had a great haul as they heavily stocked the streams.
If you look closely, we had upgraded to a 1952 Chevy - it looks much the same as the 1951 we had, but you can see the extra chrome on the back fender. (compare to our 1951 model HERE).
enlarge 181KB, 1024x690 8 09-12-23-1953-002 "Dad, You're going to need a bigger basket!"
I still have that basket hanging on my downstairs fireplace.
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Mike and Bill in their baseball uniforms. I can still feel that scratchy wool on my skin! I don't remember that dog. It could be Scratch (our first dog, Skippy's brother) who was pound for pound the meanest dog ever.
enlarge 203KB, 1024x684 10 09-19-23-1953-006 Elaine on Lady
Lady was owned by the Barrs, who lived in a beautiful log cabin up a dirt road beyond the barn.
Lady was a very nice Golden Palamino. You can see the pumping station, the coal sheds, and the old chicken coops. The one in front was for Butch's beagles and the one in back was one of his "secret sanctums" or a "man cave" as it would be called today. He also had one in the pumping station.
enlarge 211KB, 1024x698 12 09-19-23-1953-007a "Hopalong Casserole" taking his turn Note his holster and that he needs about 2 more feet of leg to reach the stirrups.
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You can see that Mark is really enjoying this. In the background you can see Kimmie's new dog house.
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Man, he has two pistols!! You can see that our old playhouse has been moved up by the barn. You can see that the hill above was grassy with some low shrubs back then. Now trees have completely covered the hill as seen in Google Maps Satellite view: HERE
enlarge 208KB, 1152x705 15 09-19-23-1953-011 Dad & Mark near the top of the hill above Hundred Springs
This was about the time we got our first TV. Our house was down in the valley so there was no reception. Dad decided that instead of a conventional TV antenna, he would build a "Rhombic" antenna on the top of this hill. I think that these photos were taken on a scouting trip to find the best spot to construct the antenna. (continued in next photo description)
enlarge 170KB, 1024x682 16 09-19-23-1953-012 Mom & Mark
We built the antenna just beyond here. We strung wire up in the trees in a rhombus shape (acute parallelogram) and then ran 2-wire TV cable down to the house.
It was an arduous task. Dad tied all the tools, wire, insulators, etc. to an 18-20' ladder, which we had to drag up this steep hill. Since I was his principle Gofer, if anything happened to be missing, I would have to climb back down and retrieve it and then hoof it back up (about a 200' climb). Often we would have to repair it after storms. Eventually, a conventional TV antenna was installed probably very near where Mom and Mark are standing.
Back then we only got 2 channels, WFBG Altoona (channel 10) and WJAC Johnstown (channel 6). You didn't need a remote! For an example of the shows we got, one of my favorites was The Life of Riley". Reception wasn't the greatest.
enlarge 205KB, 1024x695 17 09-19-23-1953-013 Mark
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Looking down the hill, you can see the barn. Lady and another horse are in the yard behind the barn. The Little Juniata River is across the highway. From this photo you can see more clearly that the hill was more grass than trees in 1953.
enlarge 137KB, 1024x671 19 09-19-23-1953-015 Looking to the SE.
If you enlarge the photo, you can vaguely see the outline of the Birmingham Bridge as it crosses the Little Juniata to what used to be called "Irish Flats" a community that was wiped out in the 1936 flood, with only two buildings surviving. These can be seen in the photo. You can read more about "Irish Flats" HERE
In my youth after hearing apocryphal stories about the "Flats", I ventured over and did a little exploring. The only evidence I found of any settlement there was an old fashioned fire hydrant, poking up through the weeds in the middle of nowhere.
enlarge 193KB, 1024x706 20 09-12-23-1952-027 Elaine & I with Margie Strohm. Butch Snyder and Dave Strohm in the background.
Dave Strohm was much older than I so there wasn't much interaction with him. One incident sticks out though. It must have been a 4 or 5 years before this. Dave pilfered one of his dad's cigars and along with myself, Sandy Stoufer, and Jerry Stouffer found a secluded spot on the "Pipe", see HERE, and smoked it where the main stream flowed under the pipe. I never was tempted to smoke anything again.
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Mother had a green thumb. This little plot was next to our front door. Just above it you can see the coal chute (that was later used to fill the oil drum).
One memory of this plot was one day when I got home from school on the bus, she was kneeling down weeding the plot. That day I had found a small garter snake and kept it in my pocket. I dangled it in front of her face and said, "See what I found". She was not happy and I paid for it!
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The Garden - Beautiful flowers. This was Butch and Mary Snyder's side of the garden, so I don't remember if these were their flowers or mothers.
enlarge 262KB, 1024x702 23 s-53-0561 Fall colors
enlarge 181KB, 1024x702 24 s-53-0570 View of the Hundred Springs Dam showing stunning fall colors
enlarge 324KB, 1024x702 25 s-53-0560 1 Mark at the Main Spring in 1953.
The Spring has changed a lot in the ensuing years (60 as I write this). Here is a series of photos of how it has changed through the years: 2003, 2008, 2011, and 2016
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Mother - I think she, dad, and Mark went on a hike thru the Hundred Springs watershed.
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Mother & Mark - This was a long abandoned farm with an old orchard that produced a few puny apples way back when. Now it is completely overgrown with trees.
enlarge 342KB, 1024x695 28 s-53-0581 Mark blowing on a milkweed pod
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Butch Snyder and Sharon Snyder. On Lady, the horse, is (I think) Mary Catherine Grazier (A classmate of Sue's) and her sister.
enlarge 194KB, 1024x704 30 s-53-0591 Mark and Sharon on Lady
enlarge 236KB, 1024x700 31 s-56-1081 Mark, Sharon, Butch, and Mike (and Lady)
enlarge 186KB, 1024x714 32 09-19-23-1953-017 Christmas in 1953 You can see our old Philco TV in front of the door to our "porch".
enlarge 189KB, 1024x689 33 09-19-23-1953-018 Mark with his drum set
Elaine's Dolls and a "Magic Window Color and Wipe Off" book in the presents pile. The "Magic Window" book can be found on Etsy today(Nov 2023) for $15.
If you look over Mark's shoulder, you can see the "ladder" TV wire coming in from the "Rhombic" antenna we built on top of the mountain.
enlarge 191KB, 1024x703 34 09-19-23-1953-019 Bill trying his hand at the drums
enlarge 195KB, 1024x692 35 09-19-23-1953-020 Bill, Elaine, Mother, and Mark
Christmas dinner in our dining nook. Looking at it now, I wonder if my Grandfather (who had a great sense of humor) put on the bow tie to show that he was "Dressing Up" for dinner.
