Home of the Little League World Series, and So Much More! The road to Williamsport is heavily traveled, despite the fact that this small city in northcentral Pennsylvania is home to only 29,000 people. That's because Williamsport is home to the annual Little League Baseball World Series, which attracts more than 40,000 people to its [...]
Janice Ogurcak is the Director of Public Programming and Outreach at the World of Little League Museum. This museum is to Little League what the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is to Major League Baseball. It's filled with significant artifacts that range from serious to frivolous. There is a piece torn from [...]
Spring is supposed to be here, but I live in northcentral Pennsylvania, and it's slow coming. We've had several snowstorms in the past few weeks, but the ground is too warm for it to stick around. Then we endured rain and high winds. I believe the temperatures are rising next week to the 60s, [...]
Kathy Kolb is the (former) publisher of NorthcentralPA.com, a news outlet that’s been online since 2009, which she steadily grew by personally connecting with her readers. I know, this sounds impossible — how do you connect with thousands of people? She accomplished this by building an amazingly loyal Facebook following, which total tops out [...]
Wendy Butler Dean is the owner of The Omnibus Publishing, a boutique publishing company that specializes in children’s books, Young Adult novels, and some non-fiction. The Omnibus is a hybrid company, combining a unique blend of older, traditional book publishing and new, digital publishing. She produces ebooks and print on demand paperbacks. Wendy’s a [...]
Today I try out a new software platform for recording podcasts, Anchor, and experiment with recording smaller audio clips, transitions, and putting together a show on the fly. I also discuss an amazing book, "How to Be Alone," by Sara Maitland, a handbook on solitude and why it's important for people, particularly those individuals [...]
Today I chatted with my good friend Tom “Tank” Baird about his passion for archaeology, and how he's become a local expert on the topic of prehistory and Native American cultures. I met Tank in 2005 when he rolled up to my dig site in Muncy on his Harley Davidson, with his beautiful, blonde [...]
Steve Altier is the author of the books for young people and is best known for his children’s books, the Gabby and Maddox adventure series. Not content with lessons for little ones, he’s written a Young Adult novel, “Lizardville, the Ghost Story,” and he’ll soon release a sequel. Steve grew up in Mill Hall, [...]
I tried to imagine an early morning drive with poet Marjorie Maddox, whose creative suitcase is crammed with metaphors. I was enveloped in fog, which occluded my vision, on this particular day. My surroundings became the murky sea, and my auto a submarine. The tall, stark silver maples along the roadway became the kelp [...]
Mary Woods is an artist, a poet, and the author of "The Heart of the Matter,” which guides the reader to becoming wholeheartedly happy. I know Mary through her service work with Beloved Community Council and Heart of Williamsport. We've worked on the HoW project for three years, and it's amazing to see the change [...]
Dave Bellomo is a fitness expert, personal trainer, and author of two fitness manuals on Kettlebells. I met Dave when he worked as a personal trainer and worked with Dave after he opened his own gym, Maximum Fitness, and his manufacturing company, Cardiobells Incorporated, which he owned and operated for eight years.
Joseph W. Smith is a teacher, speaker, film critic, journalist and author living in Northcentral Pennsylvania, with his wife. The son of a professional journalist, Joe wrote his first book when he was 12, "... an ambitious and profusely illustrated sci-fi opus called Project Jupiter." Then, 37 years later, he wrote "The Psycho File.”
Tonya Anderson is a mindfulness counselor, inspirational speaker and the founder of An Exquisite Life. She helps people using mindfulness and sacred therapies to resolve stress/trauma in their lives, and frees them to live a life with renewed joy, love and passion for life. Tonya’s expertise is drawn from her life experience, clinical mental health counseling education and spiritual teachings.
On occasion, I share historic news reports and here's one of interest, in honor of Women's History Month. People don't often think of Suffrage as a community effort, but without commitment on the local level, the 19th Amendment would never have passed. Thanks to the dedication of women in smalltown America, as well as the [...]
Hands-on Heritage: Keeler Company Hands-on Heritage: Keeler Company The E. Keeler Company, manufacturers of boilers, etc., conduct Quo of the old industries of the city. The business was established in 1864 by J. Heathcote & Company, who conducted it until 1877, when it was incorporated with a paid-up capital of $50,000, the executive [...]
Hands-on Heritage: Market Square This 1875 photograph shows the southwest corner of Market Square in downtown Williamsport. Bustling with downtown traffic despite the muddy thoroughfares, Williamsport's booming lumber trade summoned entrepreneurs eager to capitalize on the region's wealth and new construction. The block featured a ticket office for the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad Company, a [...]
Williamsport: Boomtown on the Susquehanna (Robin Van Auken and Louis E. Hunsinger, Jr., Arcadia, 2003) This book relates the history of Williamsport, as well as many towns and boroughs of Lycoming County. Williamsport, a struggling frontier village that grew into a town with a taste for success, eventually molded itself into a magnetic and vibrant [...]
Lycoming County's Industrial Heritage (Robin Van Auken and Louis E. Hunsinger, Jr., Arcadia, 2005) This book reviews Northcentral Pennsylvania’s rich industrial history, first in lumber and then in manufacturing. After the Lumber Boom, many company towns collapsed. Boards of trade were created to entice manufacturers to the region. During the first half of the twentieth [...]
This postcard gallery is from the collection of Richard and Miriam Mix, authors of "A Bicentennial Postcard History of Williamsport." "A Bicentennial Postcard History of Williamsport" is available as a paperback book from Otto's Bookstore in downtown Williamsport.
Allegheny Airlines Flight 371 crash site One man's quest to memorialize the victims of the worst airline disaster in Lycoming County history, the crash of Allegheny Airlines Flight 371 on Bald Eagle Mountain, is coming to an end. The crash site has received designation from the Commonwealth as an official archaeological site. In [...]
