Along the Youghiogheny

 

Not the most exciting postcard in the world, but I grew up in western Pennsylvania, and while the Yough wasn't that close to me, I did some walking along the river.  The river actually starts in West Virginia, flows through Maryland before entering Pennsylvania.  It was damned in 1944, just north of the Pennsylvania border, but apart from that reservoir, it's mostly free-flowing.  I don't know exactly where this photograph was taken, so it could be in any of the three states, but it was published by "The Union News Company, New York and Pittsburgh" so I have a feeling that the location is near Unionville, PA.  Ohiopyle State Park in Pennsylvania was somewhere I liked to visit from time to time.  The Youghiogheny meets the Monongahela at McKeesport, PA.  The Mon meets the Allegheny in downtown Pittsburgh and forms the Ohio. 

Fort Howard

And so we continue with the men in uniform series, today going a bit back in time from the last post, to the World War 1 era.  Written on the back, "Baltimore, Maryland, Fort Howard."  Fort Howard started out as an unnamed coast artillery battery, built in 1896,  at North Point, in Baltimore County.  One would think that in 1896 the United States would have little fear from a naval attack, but we had just gone through a crisis with the nation of Chili.  And no, it's not as silly as it sounds.  In the 1890s, Chili had the largest navy in the Pacific and was thought  a formidable threat to our security.  More so on the west coast, but still, the Chesapeake is the gateway to Washington, D.C.  In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of War, Elihu Root renamed the battery, Fort Howard, after Revolutionary War general, John Edgar Howard.  In 1940, Fort Howard was closed and the property was turned over to The Veteran's Administration.  In 1975, the portions of the property that contained the original battery was turned over to Baltimore County for use as a park.  The rest of the property is still owned and used by The Department of Veteran's Affairs.  And if anyone cares about our dispute with Chili, I'd suggest looking up the Baltimore incident, which had nothing to do with the city of Baltimore.