I think these pics of Solomon Creek in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, PA - taken on 05 July 2013 - more than adequately document our dismal performance as caretakers of the environment and the aftermath of the wanton exploitation of our natural resources ( coal ) in Pennsylvania.
As a youth, I fished the headwaters of this creek for many years. It was loaded with beautiful native brook trout. That can't be said for the same creek once it leaves the mountains and enters the Wyoming Valley.
I hope everyone is enjoying the long 4th of July weekend. I will be back in a few with some pics and comments from my three day stay in the Wyoming Valley, including some rare photos from within one of the oldest structures still standing.
My Q? of the Day: Is it haunted?
Stay tuned.
The Battle of Wyoming Monument
Wyoming & Susquehanna Avenues
Wyoming, PA
All of my life, that has been known as the "Shit Crick", because it looks - and smells - like an open sewer. I didn't realize there was a time in living memory when Solomon's Creek wasn't poisoned with acid and leached-out sulfur and iron from the mines. (Twenty years ago on a cold Sunday afternoon a friend's car lost traction on the icy Sans Souci parkway. We spun off and stopped just short of landing upside-down in the creek.)
ReplyDeleteD.B.: There still are ( in 2013 ) plenty of trout reproducing in the headwaters of this creek and its tributaries...but definitely not in the section pictured in this post, which is below the Wilkes-Barre borehole.
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