Lou’s View

The thing about the north end of the county is that, no matter where you look, there’s geology everywhere.

Okay, I realize that’s true no matter where you go. Having attempted to be clever, I am now going to get hate mail from geologists for the next three weeks. But up in northern Clinton County, there’s some fascinating geological facts. In Chapman Township, the fossil of a prehistoric creature was discovered. In Leidy Township,

Dorcie Calhoun found gas even though he’d been repeatedly told there was none. Gold and silver have been discovered up there.

A hundred and forty years ago, the Record was given a report on the whole thing.

The headline on March 1, 1883 was “Renovo Coal Basin.” This began as research into a book—“Past And Present of Clinton County” by J. Milton Furey, published in 1892. Furey wrote the majority of the book, but he knew when to defer to the experts. He included chapters that were beyond his specialty, written by other people who knew the subject. One of these was Isaac A. Harvey, a geologist from Beech Creek who was born in 1850.

In the course of researching the local geology, which runs for twenty or so pages in the book, Harvey compiled quite a bit of information on Leidy and Noyes Townships—Or what’s under them, at least. He submitted a copy of this report to the Record for inclusion, because Harvey clearly had a desire to be published, with which I can sympathize.

“Mr. Isaac A. Harvey, geologist, will please accept the thanks of the Record for a copy of his report on the six tracts of coal land situated in the Renovo Coal Basin, in the townships of Noyes and Leidy,” the Record said.

Harvey’s report indicated that the coal underneath the townships was similar to coal near Houtzdale, Philipsburg, Oceola, and many other southwestern areas of Pennsylvania.

Harvey also noted the areas where the coal had reached the surface, at least enough to mine it: “In speaking of the openings made, he reports a vein near the east branch of Drury’s Run, four feet in thickness; a vein on Shintown Run and one on the Huling Branch of Two-Mile Run of three and a half feet in thickness; one west of the Huling Branch shaft nearly four feet in thickness yielding three and a half feet of coal; also a mine on Shintown Run showing three feet five inches of coal.”

It must have been a slow news day. (Again, I’m not expecting some geological hate mail.) But the Record dutifully ran the article, which concluded by noting that Harvey had also found a bed of clay nearly fifteen feet thick in Shintown Run. He indicated that the clay would be “practically inexhaustible for many years.”

I found this in my files, photocopied on the same page as a shooting I wrote about years ago. I hadn’t noticed it the first time, but it caught my attention this time around for a couple of reasons.

First, Harvey was included in one of the major books about Clinton County history, which is worth noting. Second, his work had to have been more influential than I’d realized.

In the mid-1900s, local resident Dorcie Calhoun insisted that there was gas to be drilled up in Leidy Township. He was discouraged by several professional geologists, who insisted there was no gas up there. Dorcie persevered, however, and ended up discovering gas, proving everyone wrong, including the investor who’d gotten cold feet and pulled out the week before.

Harvey’s work had to have been the basis for the geological research that people were quoting to discourage Dorcie. His report is why the professionals believed there to be no gas there. Granted, it was wrong, but it ties into Clinton County’s history in a fascinating way, and I had to mention it. Let the hate mail from geologists commence!