Dreaming a future vision for Nanty Glo

                                                     This page added on September 29, 2011

Wouldn't that be a nice place to live?

A little photographic sleight of hand produces an "artist's conception" of my new dream for Nanty Glo: a scenic and historic view of the borough nestled below Allegheny highlands, seen from the top of Pergrim Hill just east of state highway 271. The photo of midtown including the row of trees in the foreground is real (the trees may have grown some since 2004), but the informational podiums and the cement floor they are anchored in are superimposed from a picture of a similar overlook at the Eliza Furnace in Vintondale.

The information under the podium glass, as I envision it, consists of pictures showing Nanty Glo as Cambria County's main twentieth-century coalmining boom town. The text accompanying the pictures refers visitors to the Liberty Museum in town for more details and it also describes the latest special exhibit there.

And while I'm dreaming, since a good place to live has things to do, I also envision a hiking and cross-country ski trail (routed roughly along the lines of the white line added to the satellite picture inset) beginning just to the right of the overlook and descending easterly to the bottom of Pergrim Hill, northerly across the Blacklick Creek, the Ghost Town Trail, and Beulah Road, then on through the woods to the Nanty Glo Park and Pool in Lincoln.

I know nothing about what all this would entail, beginning with who the owners of the properties involved might be. But it seems to be such a win-win / win-win proposition that it should be worth considerable effort to find all that out and move ahead. Nanty Glo real estate values would be shored up, local business could take another breath in the hope the downward spiral of local population counts might slow down. The Historical Society, the Ghost Town Trail, and the Park and Pool would all get boosts. Cambria County, Allegheny Mountain regional, and even state tourism would get another site to list in their literature.

I'm too old to consider moving there, but it's certainly a place I'd love to visit and explore.

— Jon Kennedy

Free screensaver

A larger version of the photo above is available as a free screen saver that will enable you to put a beautiful photo from the Allegheny highlands and Blacklick Valley on your computer desktop and/or smart phone. (The photo at right shows how it appears on my PC desktop.) Just send an email saying "please send free screensaver" and we will send it by return email, along with instructions on how to install it on a Windows PC or Android smart phone. (Sorry, we lack information on how to install on non-Windows computers or non-Android phones. If anyone wants to experiment on an alternate platform, request the photo and proceed on your own; and if anyone provides the steps involved, we will forward them when available.) Send email to webmaster.