Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Frank Lewis, left, and George L. Delaney pause to chat in the center of the tiny village of Bluff Thursday. Mr. Lewis, considered the unofficial mayor of Bluff, grew up in the town; Mr. Delaney says he's a newcomer -- he's lived there only 30 years. Click photo for larger image.

BLUFF, Pa. -- Darren Shuster, a Los Angeles-based public relations officer, has never been to Bluff, Pa., a tiny village tucked into the southern corner of Jackson, Greene County. He had never even heard of it until he typed the word "Bluff" into an Internet map search.

Now Mr. Shuster, who represents an Internet gambling company, is making what he considers a tempting proposition to the people of Bluff: Change the name of your town to Pokershare.com, and we'll give you $100,000.

It's a publicity stunt. But that doesn't mean Mr. Shuster and Pokershare.com aren't serious. They have the money -- poker Web sites are all the rage -- and they're willing to spend it to put their name on the map.

"There are some 250 poker Web sites out there, and it's pretty competitive," he said. "PokerShare.com wants to be in the top 10."

Pokershare.com came across Bluff while searching the Internet for towns with names that double as poker terms. He found seven Bluffs, including ones in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Utah, and tried to make the offer to each of them.

Bluff, Ark., rejected it, reportedly because the mayor finds gambling immoral. Most other towns didn't respond. The one in Utah, with a population of 285, expressed interest. That would work out to $400 a person.

Naturally, there are strings attached. As frivolous as this might seem, Pokershare.com takes it seriously. The town really must change its name and put it on signs, billboards and letterheads. And the money, he said, has to be used for education or job training.

"Something that's going to make a difference."

Mr. Shuster is to fly to Bluff, Utah, to make his pitch in the coming days. The proposal will be discussed at the town council's Nov. 2 meeting.

Bluff, Pa., is still in the game, if the people there want to be, Mr. Shuster said. The company has plenty of money and there's no reason there couldn't be a Pokershare.com in Utah and in Pennsylvania.

But no one in Bluff, Pa., was familiar with the opportunity.

Mr. Shuster said the offer was made to Pam Blaker, the county board of commissioners' administrative assistant.

"We didn't know whether it was legitimate or not," Mrs. Blaker said, "so we asked for it in writing."

	Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette Mount Zion Church rests on a hill in the village of Bluff. Click photo for larger image.

Mr. Shuster said a fax was sent, but no one in the Greene County office saw it.

Commissioner Dave Coder said there wasn't much to Bluff. "There used to be a post office," he said. "There used to be a general store there. There's a hill."

Most maps don't even show Bluff, Pa. Hidden in the hills of the most southwestern reaches of Pennsylvania, it is a rural area near the headwaters of Hargus Creek. Unincorporated, it is just off Route 18, on railroad tracks that run coal out of northern West Virginia.

It is an elevated site on a ridge between two streams. That is believed to be how the area got its name.

Wayne Smith, of Waynesburg, author of a two-volume history of Greene County, has the original post office application submitted in May 1890 by Ananias White, who wanted to call the area Hargus, after Hargus Creek.

Someone with the postal service in Washington, D.C., rejected the name, probably because Hargus was similar to another town name, Mr. Smith said.

"They wanted the names to be unique," he said. "And the names were assigned kind of arbitrarily."

Bluff was born.

The 65-mile drive from Pittsburgh to Bluff is one that winds up and down, back and forth, on backwoods roads, following the caprices of the landscape. There are three ways in and out of Bluff, one of which goes right past the West Greene Middle-Senior High School.

"There are very few people in Bluff," school Superintendent Thelma J. Szarell said. "There are a few houses. We're not even talking about a village.

"There might be a sign. If you blink, you probably miss it. You probably miss the houses."

Still, if the mythical $100,000 were to materialize, there's a good chance it would turn up in Mrs. Szarell's school district, which covers 256 square miles and has only 925 students.

"This is a relatively poverty-stricken area," she said. "It would mean a lot if that should happen. It certainly would have an impact.

"But I wouldn't want to sway anyone into changing the name."

Bluff Ridge Road does, in fact, pass a sign that reads "The Village of Bluff." There are three of them, one on each road.

The three signs are within a half mile of each other, making Bluff no bigger than a small hilltop.

The first house you come to, the white house on the left, is that of Frank and Dora Jane Lewis. Mr. Lewis, 76, has lived there nearly all his life, right next door to the home of his sister and mother. He knows most of the dozen or so people in Bluff by name.

"There was a schoolhouse, but the building's gone," he said. "There used to be more people living here, back when gas wells were big in this part of the country.

"We're halfway between Hundred, W.Va., and Waynesburg. People used to rest their horses here."

There once was a service station and garage, he said. They used to service Model T and Model A cars.

At the top of the hill, at the end of a partially paved road overlooking a rolling valley, is the Mount Zion Church, which is rarely used, and its adjoining cemetery, with tombstones dating back a century and more. There are many more souls buried in Bluff than there are living there.

Turn around and come back down and you find Hilltop Logging, the only business operating in Bluff.

Steve Miller, 49, opened the tiny timber business after buying 5 1/2 acres of woodlands 10 years ago.

"It's a nice, small place," he said of Bluff. "There's an old Indian burial site in the field out there. And the Warrior Trail runs right past here. It's 85 miles long without crossing water."

The Indians used to use the trail to travel between the Ohio Valley and the Mon Valley. Today, it's popular with Boy Scouts and hikers.

And that's the tour of Bluff.

As to changing the name? Well, no one knows exactly how to go about doing it. But Mr. Lewis and Mr. Miller wouldn't have any problem with it.

"It wouldn't make any difference," Mr. Lewis said, noting that they'd still have to use Holbrook as their mailing address. That's where the post office is.

Mr. Miller, who has seen poker on TV, thinks there might be something to it. "It doesn't sound like a bad deal," he said.

Even if no town takes the offer, the publicity generated might already be worth $100,000 to the Internet site. The Salt Lake Tribune and a Utah television station have done stories about it. CNN and other news media outlets have taken it nationwide. And that's before a dime of the $100,000 is even spent.

Back at the Greene County courthouse, government officials find it all amusing. Imagine, someone wants to call Pennsylvania's Bluff Pokershare.com.

"We have a place called Dry Tavern," Mr. Coder said. "If Budweiser is interested, tell them to give us a call."