David Kline works around his Red Lion-area Family Heir-Loom Weavers. He will demonstrate the use of old looms to OLLI Brown-Bag Lunch participants on Oct. 27, one of several such sessions that are part of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute classes this fall. Background posts: York County's landscape, buildings, landmarks can serve as a classroom,
OLLI's theme song: 'Don't stop thinking about learning' and Iron-mine-turned-into-party-spot turned into York County park.

That machinery has produced costumes for actors in the films "Amistad," "Gods and Generals," "Gettysburg" and "Cold Mountain."

His Family Heir-Loom Weavers have produced items for nine presidential homes. That resume includes carpets at Abraham Lincoln's home in Springfield, Ill., and George Washington's Mount Vernon home.

But he'll leave the big machinery behind in a Brown Bag Lunch and Learn program in October, part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute fall lineup... ... .

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Tommy Kono, Coach Tommy Kono at work. The location is unclear but those are York Barbells waiting to go airborne. Background posts: Olympian/lawyer Whitney Metzler comes home to York County, Who were most prominent 20th-century sports heroes in York and Adams counties? and York Barbell blog category.

Who was the greatest weightlifter in York's storied past?

Many believe it was three-time Olympian Tommy Kono.

And make that the greatest in America's past ... .

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This panel, part of the Murals of York series, shows the Central Market, one of at least three murals that celebrates York County's agricultural prowess. The murals can be used as an effective tool to teach county history. Free walking tours of the murals, courtesy of the York County Heritage Trust, are scheduled at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. every Tuesday through Saturday until Aug. 30. The tours start at the gift shop behind the Colonial Courthouse, West Market Street, York. Background posts: Don't know much about York County history? Part I, Part II, and Civil rights heros stand out at Bradley exhibit.

The Murals of York can served as a classroom teaching tool.

That's what I told teachers recently in a continuing education course on York County history, offered through Millersville University.

I then provided an overview of county history using the murals, as described in the following York Sunday News column, to be published on July 25: ...

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The Murals of York can be used as artifacts to tell a story about the York area. Pictured here is the York Fair mural on the side of the East Market Street parking garage across from the Yorktowne Hotel. There's a certain irony of this particular mural as a celebration of agriculture being located on the side of the garage, overlooking a parking lot. For the last 25 years, York County farmland has been gobbled up to provide housing for commuters from Maryland and elsewhere. Background posts: 20 questions and answers to prove your York County WWII smarts, Resources for York/Adams history junkies increasingly posted on Web, 20 questions and answers to prove your York County smarts, Part III.

When about 20 York County teachers became my students in a recent Millersville University summer continuing education class, I cast about for tools make local history come alive.

I put together a true/false quiz designed to summarize some of the themes of my two-hour primer. (I used it more as a mental execise than a test.)

See how you do, and don't be surprised if my answers resemble sound bytes. Follow the links to go deeper:

Posted in American Revolution Black history Civil War Events Explanations/controversy Farms & fields For photo fans Genealogy/research Local journalism & Web Made in York Quizzes & (fun) tests War Wheels of York Women's history York Town Square

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This 1917 Pullman light delivery truck, owned by the Laugerman family and restored by Paul Vaughn, won Best in Class among York-built cars in a past Concours D'Elegance, an annual vintage car show that serves as a York County Heritage Trust fundraiser. Background posts: Mechanical museum intrigues newcomers, Where do you go for one-stop shopping on York County history? and When a Pullman automobile became a seesaw.

Was York the "Detroit of the East" or did it just miss becoming "Detroit of America"?

That prospect was raised again in the program for the annual high-end car show Concours D'Elegance held just this past weekend at York College.

The program "Ford and fins" reprinted a short item about York auto industry penned by William H. Shank, the late York resident and noted transportation writer.

"Under slightly different circumstances, York might have become 'Detroit' of America," Shank wrote... .

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On the evening of Aug. 14, 1945, York County residents joined a massive national V-J celebration, marking the war's end. The largest county assembly occurred in York's Continental Square. Here, holding a special V-J edition are, from left, L. Allen Wolfgang, Richard E. Wolfgang and Lloyd E. (Pud) Wolfgang. Paul S. Wolfgang, who provided this photo, is at far left. Background posts: The first in (World) War (II), Perhaps the last in (World) War (II), 20 questions and answers to prove your York County smarts, Part III

The World War II Battle of Okinawa ended 63 years ago on Saturday.

And we're somewhere near the midway point between the often forgotten V-E Day - May 8 - and V-J Day - August 14.

So, here are 20 questions to focus us on York County's contributions to the war that spawned the Greatest Generation:

Posted in Black history Books & reading Events Explanations/controversy For photo fans Genealogy/research Local journalism & Web Made in York Nostalgia & memories People Quizzes & (fun) tests Small-town life War Women's history World War II York Town Square Yorkco

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During a drought in 2004, a land bridge, probably an old farm lane, connected the marina at Codorus State Park's Lake Marburg to Long Island, or Long Peninsula at that moment. The island contained the remains of an old farmhouse and bank barn that made way for the lake. Its waters covered the town of Marburg Flats and part of old Route 216. The lake made news in the drought of 2004 for its dwindling water supply, and the drowning of a teen girl this week propelled the 1,275-acre reservoir back into the headlines. Background posts: 18th-century brownfield now parkland, Is it Pigeon Hills or Pidgeon Hills?, Worker saved key historical surveys from Glatfelter pulping machine.

To fill its massive water demands, Glatfelter paper built Lake Lehman in 1942.

It built Lake PahaGaCo (P.H. Glatfelter Co.) in 1955. It supplemented PaHaGaCo's 1.3 billion gallons with water from the Thomasville Stone & Lime Company quarries.

But the severe drought of 1963 proved that more water was needed. That was a moment that communities even resorted to cloud seeding... .

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This photo from the Stewartstown Historical Society might show the result of a 1923 accident on the Stewartstown Railroad, the worst in its history dating back to 1885. With multiple railroads crossing York County, its rail history is filled with accidents (The Great Watermelon train wreck) and near accidents (The unsolved mystery of locomotive No. 1689). Background posts: What was it like aboard the Stewartstown Railroad?, Whatever happened to York County's Hungerford? and Is mystery railroad the old Shrewsbury narrow gauge?

One day in 1923, a car carrying several passengers and crew members becomes uncoupled from a train on the Stewartstown Railroad and drifts down a grade.

A freight train, going at a rapid speed, meets it head on and plows through the passenger coach "telescoping" about two-thirds of the length of the car... .

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A slow-moving tractor tows bales of hay along Grandview Road in Jackson Township in 2007. The township has long been agricultural in nature. "The land of Jackson Township is fertile and productive, and its owners are industrious and prosperous," historian George Prowell wrote in 1907. But the township's location along the turnpike - later the Lincoln Highway and Route 30 - and the Western Maryland Railroad also meant it has played host to its share of industry. Soon, an Arm & Hammer plant is expected to operate there. Background posts: Part of York County's past goes on the auction block, York County railroading: 'Something that gets in your blood' and Old Lincoln Highway pulled 'Americans out of the mud'.

Jackson Township, carved from Paradise Township in 1857, is slated to be home to a new Arm & Hammer laundry detergent plant and distribution center.

Though a longtime farming township with a productive limestone and red shale soil, its position along the former York-Gettysburg Turnpike and the presence of the Western Maryland Railroad meant that businesses have long been operated there... .

Posted in Books & reading Civil War Events Explanations/controversy Famous York visitors Farms & fields For photo fans Local journalism & Web Local landmarks Made in York Presidential stops Small-town life War York Town Square

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Sherry Dunbar is a green-coffee specialist at Starbucks' East Manchester Township roasting plant. She smells unfiltered coffee before sampling it. She is a professional coffee taster, and quality control specialists like Dunbar must approve all beans from around the world before they get the Starbucks stamp. Another Starbucks plant to service the southeast U.S. is expected to open in 2009. Background posts: York County farm vs. factory tension relieved in overnight raid, Images explain changes in York County factories, farms and York County agrarianism vs. industrialization, Part I.

The sign at the Starbucks in Chinatown in Washington, D.C., stated: "Brewed at York Plant, roasted 5/13/08."

You've seen them and probably wondered: What's the "York Plant?" ... .

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