We all know this website is a haven for stupidity and utter geekdom… among other things. However sometimes one of us have something to say that actually means something to them and might have some importance or relevance to one or two of you out there. Maybe…

To look at me you wouldn’t think something like this particular thing would bother me but it is one of my biggest pet peeves and things that just make me disgusted is the lack of historical preservation in our country when it comes to buildings and architecture.

Welcome to The Lehigh Valley, my local area which consists of 3 cities (Allentown, Bethlehem, and Easton) and countless townships and smaller towns. In the early 1700’s it was inhabited by Lenni Lenape tribes (from Delaware) who used the area most for Hunting, Fishing, and quarried Jasper. William Penn himself spoke of its beauty and richness often in print and German settlers started to be drawn towards the area by the 1730’s. As with most European settlements the Lenni Lenape tribes were swindled. The land became under the ownership of William Penn in what was called the ‘Walking Purchase’. The Lenni Lenape didn’t appreciate it and raided the European settlements from 1750 – 1760 roughly when they gave up and let the European settlers, well… settle there.

When I was younger I lived in a small township in the Lehigh Valley called Moore Township. It was about 30 minutes from anything and I was surrounded by Forest, I lived in a small farm type house that was built in the early 1970’s, but the land itself has had buildings on it dating all the way back to the 1770’s. When I was younger I used to find arrowheads and all sorts of burial mounds and other rock structures throughout the forest land surrounding my home. My pre-teen mind raced with the idea of Native American tribes living and maybe even having battles where I now lived. I would occasionally dig around and find bones and think that I accidentally found a grave… of course now I know they were just animal bones.

Occasionally we would travel to the “city” and go shopping and check out all of the statues and buildings. The city was a Mecca of wonder to me. There was a ‘mall’ that was just a road with shops on it and a nice Awning that covered the entire road – it was an amazing sight to my young mind. The buildings around were all mostly from the 1700’s and 1800’s. Going here was always a treat to me, even if I never bought anything at all, I just liked being in the surroundings of the area. As time moved on the world starts to scar and change a person, myself included. As with all children the feelign of awe and wonderment about the world around you starts to blacken and you become synical. It’s human nature.

In my teen years I became very involved in what is called “Urban Exploration” which basically is just the search for America’s lost buildings, history, and other goodness. I had a group and website called “Project: Abandoned” that I ran for quite a few years. I loved finding lost americana, being from Pennsylvania I had access to tons of weirdness surrounding me in New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, etc. Along with Urban Exploration I am into the scientific side of Ghost Hunting as well. This provided me all kinds of opportunities for fun and to learn more about the world around me… and some of the stuff I saw was fantastic….