When he was a young man, shuttling all over the country as a railroad worker, brows furrowed whenever Ray Shepherd said he was from Coulter, Pa.

But when he asked those same people if they'd ever heard of Art Rooney and the Pittsburgh Steelers, their expressions changed. Of course they've heard of them.

"Well," Shepherd would say. "I was born in the same town and baptized in the same church as Art Rooney."

Still, Rooney's roots in the small railroad and mining town on the Youghiogheny River, south of White Oak ---- where Shepherd, now 70, is considered the local historian ---- are mostly overlooked. The Steelers founder and owner has always been more widely associated with the North Side, where he lived from the time he was 8-years-old until his death in 1988.

But with the help of state Rep. Marc J. Gergely, D-White Oak, and local officials, 340 residents of South Versailles -- known locally as Coulter -- took a step toward claiming a chapter of Rooney's life yesterday, dedicating a historical marker that recognizes Coulter as his birthplace.

"Nothing against the North Side," Gergely said, "but that marker belongs here."

About 75 people and a few special guests crowded into the Coulter Volunteer Fire Hall, including Rooney's son, James, and former Steelers defensive backs Mike Wagner and Dwayne Woodruff, to commemorate the occasion and share their memories of Rooney, who was known for having closer personal relationships with his players than most owners.

Within the small, secluded settlement tucked between a hillside and railroad tracks, every road leads to a dead end, except one, Coulterville Road, leading in and out of town. That's the road where the marker will sit ---- in a new state-funded park that's yet to be built.

"You won't be able to miss it," said Gergely.

State and local grants paid for the $1,600 marker. Ron Brown, 53, of South Versailles, applied to have the marker in Coulter in December 2003 and was approved in September 2004.