Tragedy: The 1937 New London School Natural Gas Explosion

Monument to a tragedy

The official marker

sumajman & Mr. Davidson

The high school building that was built over the same ground

It happened 76 years ago tomorrow! Possibly the touring highlight of our trip to east Texas was our rainy day visit to the New London Memorial and Museum commemorating the deaths of many children and teachers on 18 March 1937 when the school exploded because of a natural gas leak. On our way from Houston to Carthage with our friends we asked about the region. That is when I heard about this tragic event some 76 years ago. When our friend offered to take us there we were quick to accept. A few days passed while we attended to other business. Finally the day to tour with our friend came. We arrived just before lunch. Pastor Ken Hylan of the New London Baptist Church and his lovely wife came to meet us at the small community restaurant that sits in front of the museum. We enjoyed a meal together before we were taken on a guided tour of the museum by docent John Davidson. According to the report after the investigation it appears that a natural gas leak (cause not certain) filled the crawl space below the floor of the new, modern school. Just a few minutes before school was to let out an electric sander was powered up. It sparked, setting off a terrible explosion. There was very little fire involved. The concussion wave and flying debri did the worse damage. Very few of the children and teachers survived. They know that 293 have been officially counted among the dead but are certain that there are more whose bodies were carried away by their grieving parents after the accident. The town was an oil town, thriving off the wealth that came from the production of natural gas and oil in the area. This part of Texas is oil field country. Many of the children belonged to the families of oil workers. Most had come in from outside the area in search of jobs. With the death of their children many were said to have taken their children's bodies and left the area for good. Many of the children are buried in a nearby cemetery. The museum tells the whole story. It includes old footage of the children practicing for a special dance just hours before the explosion that killed many of them. What moved me the most was our guide. Mr. Davidson's 14 year old sister was killed that day. His parents only planned to have one child. They had him after the tragedy. He wishes he could have known his sister but is assured that one day he will meet her in heaven. This is, after all, our greatest hope in Christ. We enjoyed learning about this day that has so marked this small town, even so many years later. Just across the street stands the newer school building. It was built soon after the explosion and was said to be the safest school building in America. In the median between the school and the museum/restaurant stands a memorial to those killed. It bears the names of each person. Nearby it is hidden a geocache entitled,  March 18, 1937 (GC34BCZ).

When we came out of the museum/restaurant the rain had stopped. We crossed to the median and tracked to the micro. It was sumajhuarmi who made the find while I was looking in all the wrong places. We signed the log and replaced the cache. We are thankful that caching and friends have brought this place to our attention. What a tragedy it was and what a good thing it is to remember those who suffered so much in this great loss.

Southside Virginia Geocachers Gathering 3/2/2013

Sumajman & El Novio

Door prize time!!!!

sumajhuarmi & El Novio making a find

What a place for a cool cache!!!!

Cool cache whatchamacallit thingy

It all started when I met Spring1 at a geocaching event in Randolph County, NC several weeks back. They indicated that they were having a Spring get together near Danville, Va. Then my daughter called from Lynchburg begging us to attend a very special honor ceremony at her school the same night. She said she would like to see us earlier in the day but couldn't as she had too much homework. Would we come later. You betcha!!! This gave us time to cache our way up and make it to the event: Spring Meet and Greet (GC45RG). We picked up our daughter's fiancee about 9 a.m. and headed north up Highway 29 out of the High Point/Greensboro area. All the way Arturo was practicing for a debate in English. He is studying at UNC-Greensboro in an intensive English-language program. We helped him with pronunciation and grammer so he could get the opening statement down just right.  We thought it would be a chance for him to learn something about a subset of our culture: geocaching and geocachers. We stopped and grabbed a hand full of caches in Angler Park in Danville. It is loaded and we'll have to come back to Danville specifically to hunt for caches in this great park. We continued our cache hunt right up until the 11 a.m. time for the meet and greet. When we got to the GZ the cars were already all around the quaint little Mom and Pop Country Style Cooking place called "The Corner Cafe". We made our way in past the Southside Virginia Geocacher Organization sign. We signed the event log and listed where we were from. Arturo isn't a geocacher but was loving the hunt on the way up. We quickly gave him a name (though not registered at geocaching.com). He became El Novio, meaning "the fiancee" in Spanish. They gave us door prize tickets. From there we visited around, making new friends and seeing a few from North Carolina who had also traveled up this way. The owners of the Corner Cafe are geocachers as well so the environment was very geocacher-friendly. After a great meal and conversation with other geocachers the drawing for prizes began. El Novio won the door prize for having come the longest distance. He came from Mexico City. Then sumajhuarmi won a t-shirt from the cafe. I was the big winner in the end because the t-shirt was too big for sumajhuarmi and the El Novio gave me the nametag!

We left the Corner Cafe and headed north once again. We picked up several more caches along the way. One of particular interest was a thingamagit thingy hidden in an old abandon farm site. The hunt was easy and the clues would get a blind man to it. I don't think I'm giving much away here. I found the cache container to be the most interesting. I actually had a hard time getting the lid off. After a while it came off and there was the tiny log.

I love geocaching events. They provide the perfect excuse for driving off to a distant place and then caching your way there and back. By the way, the honors celebration that night was great. We are proud of our daughter for her good work at Liberty University!!

Hatcher's Run Civil War Battlefield near Petersburg, Virginia and a cool cache

Memorial to fallen Confederate General John Pegram

Even in the snow we were able to get out to do a little geocaching and some historical site touring. While visiting with our friends, Don and Carol Poteat near Colonial Heights, Virginia the skies opened up and gave us a snowy, beautiful couple of days. While many of the church services were cancelled, Don felt confident in his ability to drive in the stuff so off we went to visit a historical site with significance to sumajhuarmi. I'd taken Don out and introduced him to geocaching the day before the snow started. He loved it and is already thinking of getting his own GPSr. This particular morning we were off to see the battlefield where sumajhuarmi's great great Grandfather Joseph Edwards, private in Company B, 54th NC Infantry Regiment, lost his life in battle.

sumajhuarmi reading about the battle accompanied by friend Don Poteat

A little history

In the late winter of 1864-1864 the 54th North Carolina Infantry Regiment was under siege along with the rest of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The NC 54th was located in the southern most extremes of the siege defense. On 6 February 1865 the weather changed for the better. It was an unseasonably warm spring-like day. The Union Army moved its cavalry to try to cut the Boydton Plank Road in hopes of cutting off any resupply efforts that might be taking place there. At the same time they hoped to gain a little more ground in their effort to tighten up the siege line around Richmond and Petersburg so they moved several infantry divisions further west. In response to the Union moves General Pegram's Confederate Division was order to counter them. As a result the two forces met at a small creek called Hatcher's Run. As Pegram's Division, including the 54th NC Infantry, moved forward, they were fiercely attacked by the Union forces. The battle raged as the front lines moved back and forth on the field. The terrain was wooden so much of the fighting was at close quarters. During the afternoon General Pegram fell mortally wounded. At some point in the battle so did Joseph Edwards. Family tradition remained from sumajhuarmi's grandmother that Joseph had been wounded but that they had left him out in the cold and he froze to death. We knew little else. I began my genealogy research some years back with only that information. I found a widow's pension with the state of NC filled in the 1890's which told me what unit he fought with. From there I was able to find out about this battle. It lines up. He was most likely among the wounded that fell that day. The records indicate that during the afternoon the weather abruptly changed to rain, the freezing rain and that many of the wounded died of exposure. We think that Joesph was buried in the mass grave to NC troops in Petersburg's Old Blandford Church cemetery. We don't really know. We appreciate Don and Carol taking us to see this site. It has great meaning to our family. It is hard to imagine what life was like for Mary Sullivan Edwards with five boys when here husband didn't come home from the war. God was good and protected them through the years. That's another story for another time.

The bonus for this excursion was a geocache hunt very near the small monument to General Pegram. It was an offset cache known as Hatcher's Run 2 (GC1RV6E). Unfortunately this cache may need the owners attention to verify what we suspect. The cacher ahead of me plus our three pairs of eyes simply could not find it. It being a pretty large regular size cache leads us to believe that it is gone. Maybe it is there and we missed it. If verified we sure will look for an opportunity to go back and look for it again.

I like offset caches because they often bring in a few of those pirate treasure hunting skills to play. You know what I mean. You take so many steps to the east and then so many steps to the north until you see the broken gate post or something like that. We followed the instructions and were 100% sure we were at the right spot but found no cache. It would have been nice to have found the cache but the real joy was the hunt itself and the joy of being able to see a place that was important to our family. Thanks to the cache owner, The Fonz, for placing it. Now to find some more historically significant caches...

The Blowing Rock: highland North Carolina geocaching

Depiction of the legend

sumajhuarmi with grandfather mountain background

The Blowing Rock

sumajman and The Blowing Rock

Park in the town of Blowing Rock

sumajhuarmi in the park

It was great to be able to get away for a time just the two of us to celebrate our 36th wedding anniversary. This year we decided to go back to our college stomping grounds. While there we visited the scenic attraction called Blowing Rock. We enjoyed visiting the little town that gets its name from the large cliff that has the same name. We followed the signs until we arrived at The Blowing Rock. We enjoyed the museum and bookstore for a while, then we paid a few dollars and went out on the rock and into the little park area that is also accessible. The views from here are spectacular. You can see grandfather mountain in the distance. No, it's not because they named a mountain after me. One of my younger friends has his day coming but for now he likes to kid me about my being old enough to be a grandparent. I'm proud of it and love my three grandchildren very much.

Legend is that an Indian brave was in love with a young Indian woman. Being torn by his duty to return to his people and help them in the defense of their territory and that of staying with the young maiden caused him to throw himself off the precipes. The maiden prayed for his return and her prayers were answered. He was blown back up onto the cliff to her. Every since the winds have been said to blow this way. As you stand on the rock you can feel the force of the upward bound wind.

We also took a walk in the city of Blowing Rock. What a beautiful little town. In the park we found a cache entitled The Wind Blows Through Time (GCB2E6). It is a time capsule designed to be opened one hundred years after its placing. I can't say much more without giving too much away. Further down the street we found the Kilwin's Fudge Store. We enjoyed a hot chocolate and fudge to warm us up after the time out in the cold.

You'll want to visit the North Carolina mountains when you can. The Appalachian Mountains are beautiful year round. It was fun to visit just before Christmas time though the wind can be brisk. I hope you'll come see our great state!

Noria: A Mountain Valley Virtual Cache: Southwest Virginia

sumajhuarmi @ Noria

There was a cache nearby

Freezing while feeding my addiction to geocaching

DNFing with sumajhuarmi

While looking over a geocaching.com map of an area where I plan to cache if I see the little ghost symbol for a virtual cache I automatically check it out. Since virtuals are no longer allowed most of the ones I've come across take you to interesting places where a physical cache container cannot be hidden but where something of significance is or has occurred. Noria (GCAE7E) is like that. While traveling from Lebanon, Virginia on our way back to High Point, NC we pulled off Highway 19 into a parking lot where Christmas Trees were for sale. When we got out of the car the salesman for the trees got out of his car where he was keeping warm. I had to tell him we wanted to look at the interesting machine just behind his trees instead of purchasing a tree. What an interesting name. A little research told me that a noria is a machine used for lifting water from one source into an aqueduct, usually for irrigation purposes. We completed the requirements for the cache, took a few pictures and sought shelter from the wind in our car.

In addition to the Noria cache and just a few miles up Highway 19 near Lebanon, Virginia we also found In the Bushes Along Highway 19 (GC15YF1). It was a fun, simple regular-size cache with easy access for travelers and a little muggle problems. One cache that was either muggled or better hidden than we were prepared for was A Clock in the Falls (GC1284X). Sumajhuarmi and I stopped to look for this one. While the threat of muggles was there, the cold weather seemed to give us the privacy we needed. I checked everywhere, both high and low and around but came up empty. Cache or no cache, the hunt up and down this beautiful valley was fun. As usual we thanked the cache owner in our log for the opportunity to visit this place.

Cache #2000 @ Hanging Rock State Park, NC

sumajhuarmi

Hanging Rock

View to the west

View southwest

Underneath the Hanging Rock

The big day!

We set out from home at 9 a.m. Our track took us north from High Point, NC and northwest past Belews Creek, Walnut Cove and Danbury before arriving at our destination: Hanging Rock State Park. When I left home I had a count of 1998 geocaches so I stopped to grab a "park and grab" micro along the way. We arrived at the park after one hour in the car. The day was a cloudless day with blue skies and sunshine. The temperatures were already climbing into the 50's. We stopped in the visitor center to get a map, get a photo of ourselves in front of the building to satisfy a virtual cache requirement, filled our water bottles and with our walking sticks hit the trail up to the Hanging Rock. The ranger told us it would take an hour to get there. We held a moderate pace.  The trail wound through rhododendron up to a long ridge line heading east to the tall cliff that is Hanging Rock. There was no one on the trail so we had nothing but the birds, the occasional squirrel scurrying through the leaves in the woods and our own conversation to accompany us. The last phase of the hike took to the base of the cliff, circled around the south side of the mountain and in a counter clockwise move we wound our way to the top of the mountain, arriving in 35 minutes. With a bright sun to our back and the wind in our faces we moved out onto the huge grooved rock, some of which hangs over the cliff. Out came the small sign with the numbers 2000 to commemorate my 2000th find. We then took the required photos and recorded the coordinates of the photo shot. We then took some time to snap some great pictures of the valley to the south where sumajhuarmi's pioneer German ancestors settled in the 1780's. The trip down the mountain was quicker. On the last leg of our return we ran into the first hikers of the day, all headed to where we'd been. Hawk 15 (GC56B8) is a great virtual cache. That means it has been a round a while. To claim the cache the main task involves hiking to one of the key terrain features in the park. Since there are ten separate terrain features listed, you can log this cache ten times as long as you send the required photo of you and your GPSr at the location and send the coordinates from where the photo was taken. Today we were able to log two of the ten. Maybe we'll get another chance to come back to Hanging Rock State Park to do the rest. Now to push on for a cache count of 3000!

Soul City: A Social Experiment during the Civil Rights Struggle in North Carolina

Welcome to a dashed dream

Soul City is both interesting and a little sad. While traveling through Warren County, NC I took the opportunity to stop in to find Soul City (GC15HBT). This gave me the chance to look around the actual town of the same name. I learned that this community was the brainchild of Civil Rights Activist and Pastor Floyd B. McKissick. His vision was to create a community in which people from all races could live in harmony. He wanted to intersperse industry with residential areas. Where were the funds to come from? Some donations supported the project but largely government grants supported this endeavor. McKissick broke with most of his activist colleagues in the late 1960's to become a Republican. Some accused him of becoming a Republican in order to gain financial support for his Soul City vision. The community started out with a bang but then, after failing to attract jobs to the area, fell into disrepair. There were also charges of money mismanagement; a charge that was later discovered to be unfounded. The dream was to have a community of 50,000 by the year 2000. Instead the community was in great decline by the end of the 1970's. There are only a few hundred inhabitants of Soul City today. Today the biggest enterprise in Soul City are the county and state correctional facilities. They are surrounded by large areas separated off with barbed wire to keep the prisoners from escaping. McKissick died in 1991. By then the dream was already fading. If you get the chance to look for this cache do so. It's just a short detour off of Interstate 85 at the Manson Exit. Just turn right at the end of the exit ramp. When you reach Highway 1 turn left and proceed until you see the Soul City sign. Turn right and make your way to the cache and the city that was a dream lost.