View Full Version : Hertlein Campsite (PA)
Here's a thread about the spot with a swimming/fishing hole, waterfall, boulder field and spiffy overlook. Apparently it also has some history we can discuss.
An article about Blue Mountain Electric Company appeared in Historical Review of Berks County many years ago. Someone with an interest in AT history might obtain a copy and write an article for AT Journeys. I once accumulated a thick folder of probably more than 100 pages of information intending to do precisely that.
There are a number of articles in Historical Review related to the AT in Berks. These sources indicate Applebee and Hertlein cabins were built in 1930. Rentschler followed in 1933. All were 3-sided, but they were referred to as cabins in all the references I have seen.
An article entitled "The Blue Mountain Eagle Climbing Club" by Allan Goldman appeared in the Summer 1959 Historical Review. A photo of Hertlein Cabin appears on page 72. Unusual in that it was constructed on a concrete pad which still remains in its original location AFIK, this early AT shelter was built with funds provided by Hertlein's widow near where the blue-blazed trail from Boy Scout Camp Shikellamy once met the AT.
If someone had time and permission, it sure would be interesting to have such information scanned in and linked from (say) the BMECC web site.
I was trying to capture some of that type of information on SATC's site. I just couldn't justify the time to scan in every page of 50+ years of newsletters single page by single page at home so currently there is only a sampling. And SATC is easy compared to all the possible history that could be posted of BMECC.
If someone had time and permission, it sure would be interesting to have such information scanned in and linked from (say) the BMECC web site.
You are not the only person who thinks a certain club could improve it's website nor are you the 1st to say so.
It's easy to generate content when someone knows what to seek. Just click on Shikellamy Summit (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=32805) and Geology Trivia (http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=33225) for starters.
There's plenty more to link should someone feel so inclined. So what's keeping you?
If BMECC had a newsletter, they might call it The Blue Mountain Eagle.
I don't know if ATC would object to posting a *.pdf of an ATN article, but the article about Dick Kimmel called "Iron Man of the Track" or something similiar to that title would be a prime candidate.
Maybe there should be a link from a Kimmel Lookout thread to BMECC's site where this ATN.pdf could be located so people other than club members might learn about the man for whom it's named.
shelterbuilder
06-06-2008, 21:33
BMECC's "newsletter" is contained within the quarterly hike schedule - usually a few pages that I'm not certain that anyone really reads.
Kimmel Lookout will always be disrespected by the locals, who know it only as "White Rocks", and who have been using it for years as a party spot. SOG, you know this only too well, having helped to clean it up more than once.
BMECC's website COULD be improved - SOG, why don't you serve on the committee and try to force the changes yourself? You know as well as I do that bitchin' here won't make it better over there. I'm sure that, if you wrote up some short items for the website, Steve and Michelle would put them up. The "Old Guard" isn't getting any younger, and when they're gone, a lot of that historical info may go with them. Rita F. just took over the archives from Don (Don had a stroke back in January) and she's a writer and very interested in history - you two could collaborate on some stuff (maybe some for the website and some for the schedule??). Did you know that we have Dr. Rentschler's ORIGINAL notebook from the early days when the AT route was being opened and first blazed? Man, what a good writer could do with THOSE notes! C'mon, man, get involved!!!
We have thumbnail sketches of BMECC's "first generation" shelters (their locations and dates) in one of the old "new member packets" from the 70's and 80's, but I haven't seen that stuff in years. (One copy used to be at the club's Lundgren Cabin; I'll have to look for it the next time I'm up there.) Dick Kimmel used to use Lundgren as a base camp sometimes when he would go out to maintain trail. Did you know that he used to singlehandedly maintain over 15 miles of trail?
But this is off-topic - sorry. Last month, BMECC and XL Insurance partnered on a multiple-site project for the AT, and one site was the dam at Schubert's Gap. We finished the cosmetic repairs to the dam breast that were started last year (no structural repairs - it didn't need any, which is good, because we would have needed to consult with a structural engineer and DCNR for that kind of work). All of the stones that had fallen out of the buttresses were replaced, the cement was re-faced, and all of the debris on the spillway and small trees that were growing out of the dam breast on the downhill side were removed. (Years ago, the dam's rotten cement cap was removed by an MATC crew from Boiling Springs. That was the first step to saving the dam.) So the dam is now officially considered to be "restored". It is not as it was back in the pre-WWI era, but it should last for many decades to come. And man, is that water cold!!! :eek:
Land ownership in that area is a patchwork affair. Some is owned by NPS, some by DCNR, some by BMECC, and some land down below this area is under private ownership.
Did you know that we have Dr. Rentschler's ORIGINAL notebook from the early days when the AT route was being opened and first blazed?
It think PL called it to my attention and I looked it over when I visited him at his place of business many years ago. There was much to see, only so much time and I was primarily interested in other things.
I wish Rita well. She is the custodian of a treasure known only to a few which should be shared with others. "The Oak Tree Festival" might be another item for her to consider publishing to the web.
The hydro dam and boulderfield is a good place to spend the middle part of a summer's day. A wise SOBO will take note and remember this tip.
fiddlehead
06-06-2008, 23:29
I've camped many times at Herleim campsite. We used to go winter camping up there often. It is a nice hike in (from 183) and i did it this past Dec too in the snow.
Swam a lot in the pond below the campsite on the south side too.
I have a question for your historians that is a bit off topic but has been bothering me for a long time: What was the name of the double shelters (with dirt floors) that was halfway between 183 and Port Clinton back in the 60's and early 70's? Our boy scout troop used to go up there a lot and i remember getting very wet in those dirt floor shelters because after a rain, they collected water and turned into a mud puddle but we didn't have tents so just slept in there anyway. It was just above (north of) the small town called Jefferson between Summit Station and Auburn on the Schuylkill county side.
Thanks in advance as i have faith in you guys remembering the name of those twin shelters (they were about a mile further north on the AT than the existing Eagles Nest shelter)