Pocono Passage -- Part IV: Over Hill to Honesdale (by Him)

I suggested we linger a bit in Susquehanna to explore more of its hidden history.  This was just a couple dozen miles from my hometown, yet I had never even heard of the place.  But the Admiral was having none of it.  "Let's just go," ordered She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed.  So we headed up the hill and out of town along East Main Street.  Winding our way along a series of country roads through the towns of Thompson and Herrick Center, we found ourselves in the small village of Pleasant Mount (pop. 1357).

Pleasant Mount, PA

This little community in the Lake District of the Poconos also had an oversized history, and featured a surprising number of historical markers.  This was where General Samuel Meredith (1741-1817), appointed by George Washington as first Treasurer of the United States, had lived out the last years of his life.

Monument to Samuel Meredith

Centenarian Sarah Mary Mathews Benjamin, a famed Revolutionary War heroine, had also settled here late in her life.  Born to a family that had moved from northern Pennsylvania during the French and Indian War, her first husband was killed early in the Revolutionary War.  In 1779, she remarried another soldier, whom she accompanied for several years on various deployments, sewing, washing, and baking for the troops and once even standing guard duty in her husband's place.  At the Battle of Yorktown, she famously braved enemy fire to bring food and water to soldiers in frontline positions.

After the war, her second husband deserted her for another woman, and she eventually married a third time, in 1787.  The couple settled in Pleasant Mount in 1822, and she supported them by working as a clothes maker.  She is said to have been extraordinarily talented at spinning wool, and her handmade wool stockings were featured at the World's Fair and even sent to the Queen of England.  In her old age, she regaled people with tales of her adventures during the Revolutionary War (including a story of an intelligence briefing with General Washington).

Aged 115 years.  They just don't make them like that anymore....

A few miles south of Pleasant Mount, we passed a small eatery on the side of the road: The Red Schoolhouse.  We were both surprised by the number of cars in the parking lot on New Year's Day afternoon.  But what caught the Admiral's attention was the lobster on the sign hanging outside.  "Are you kidding me?" she said.  "What kind of lobster can they be serving way out here in West Cuttybumfuck?"  Their online menu features 12-14 ounce (presumably frozen) lobster tails for $33.  I asked the Admiral if she wanted to stop and try some, but she rolled her eyes at me.

The Red Schoolhouse at 1732 Bethany Turnpike: "Fine Dining in a Casual Setting."

Fighting off hunger and fatigue, we pressed south along remarkably straight roads and made our way to Honesdale (pop. 4480), roughly thirty miles east of Scranton.  I'm embarrassed to confess that I had never heard of Honesdale before, either.  Yet it is said to be the birthplace of American railroading.  It was here that the nation's first commercial operation of a steam locomotive, the 'Stourbridge Lion,' took place in 1829 -- a year before the debut of the better-known 'Tom Thumb,' invented by Peter Cooper (whom also created Jello and founded Cooper Union).

Replica of the 'Stourbridge Lion' at the 1939 NYC World's Fair

The seat of Wayne County, Honesdale seemed at first blush rather nondescript.  Median household income here is less than $33,000, and about one-fifth of the population lives below the poverty line.  It only took a minute or two to drive through the small downtown area, but when we reached the end of the main street I told the Admiral that I was going to circle around for a second look.  

Main Street, Honesdale

The town's many Victorian-style old buildings seemed to bespeak a prominent past.  Indeed, as I would later learn, it has a celebrated place in Americana pop culture.  Local notables included Richard Smith, who co-wrote the song, "Winter Wonderland," Morris Wilkins, inventor of the heart-shaped bathtub, and Dwight Schrute of the NBC sitcom, The Office, whose bed-and-breakfast beet farm was supposedly located in Honesdale (you can even check out its reviews on TripAdvisor).

Schrute Farms Bed & Breakfast & Self-Defense

Honesdale has a place on the silver screen, as well.  David Wain's comedy, Wet Hot American Summer (2001) was filmed at Camp Towanda, about six miles north of Honesdale, and the action-thriller, Long Kiss Goodnight (1996), starring Geena Davis and Samuel L. Jackson, was set in (but not filmed in) Honesdale.  It was also here that the magazine Highlights for Children began publication in 1946, and where its editorial offices still remain.

Required reading in my childhood.....

But it had been coal mining that quite literally put Honesdale on the map.  The community lies in the heart of the North Anthracite Field of northeast Pennsylvania's "Coal Region."  The town was created in 1826 as the starting point of the Delaware & Hudson (D&H) Canal, which transported coal to New York City, and was named after Philip Hone, mayor of NYC and President of the D&H Canal Company.

D&H Canal Boat Basin & Gravity Railway Yard in Honesdale

The D&H Canal was a very big deal in its day: the largest private commercial enterprise in the United States.  Laid out by Benjamin Wright (who had engineered the Erie Canal) and his assistant John Jervis, the canal carried coal from the Wurts family mines near (the aptly named) Carbondale, PA, to Kingston, NY, from whence it was ferried down the Hudson River to New York City.  An ingenious narrow gauge gravity railroad hauled coal from the mines over the Moosic Mountains to the head of the canal at Honesdale.

Delaware & Hudson Canal and its Gravity Railroad Extensions

The canal crossed the Delaware River at the confluence of the Lackawaxen, across from Minisink, NY.  Originally, coal barges were pulled across the Delaware via a rope ferry.  But after numerous collisions with timber barges coming down the Delaware, a raised aqueduct was designed by John Roebling (who would later engineer the Brooklyn Bridge). 

Roebling Aqueduct

After the canal was closed in 1898, Roebling Aqueduct was converted to a bridge, and eventually acquired by the National Park Service in 1980.  While the bridge, the oldest existing wire suspension bridge in the country, was restored and reopened in 2011, many locals harbor considerable hostility to the federal government.  Large hand-painted signs line many local roads, calling in bold letters for "NPS GET OUT OF TOWN!"  Folks in these parts are really hoping to make America great again, but I'm not sure how they intend to do that.

Roebling Aqueduct, Restored 2011

The D&H Canal was a marvel of engineering.  But the expansion of railways proved a much faster, safer, and more cost effective means for transporting large bulk commodities such as coal.  By the mid-nineteenth century, the Erie Railroad (remember Susquehanna?) had completed a line through the Delaware Valley, including an 1863 branch to Hawley (our destination).  Today, most of these old canals are all but forgotten, having been abandoned, drained, filled, and paved over.  Although a few sections of some are preserved as parks and historic sites, little remains to explain why so many inland communities bear names such as Port Jervis, Port Crane, or Port Dickenson.

Next Time: Settling In at the Settlers Inn....