Flight 93, Quecreek turned Somerset into 'America's county'
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Eight years ago, when an underground deluge trapped nine men in the Quecreek Mine, just a half-hour's drive from the scene of Flight 93's crash 10 months earlier, Somerset County residents feared they had taken a one-two punch.
"The folks in this area did think, when the mine disaster happened, 'Oh, my, what are we going to be known as for the rest of our lives? The place of disasters?' " said U.S. Rep. Mark Critz, as he stood a short walk from the site at which he worked his cell phone, carried pipe, and had a wrench dropped on his head during the 2002 rescue when he was the late Congressman John Murtha's aide.
When rescuers hauled the ninth miner back to the surface in a narrow yellow capsule, though, the story line changed.
"I guess the saving of the nine miners was reaffirming that we're in this together, and when we pull together, great things can happen," Mr. Critz said.
That was the interpretation of history offered by neighbors, volunteers and organizers Saturday, as the National Park Service and the Quecreek Mine Rescue Foundation held back-to-back events at the scenes of the Sept. 11, 2001, plane crash in Stonycreek and the subterranean drama eight years ago this weekend. Both sites are the subjects of efforts to attract money and volunteers, as work to memorialize the events proceeds into pivotal stages.
At the Dormel Farm in Lincoln, near Somerset, a few score people heard dairy farmer-turned-foundation President Bill Arnold describe the mix of fundraising and volunteerism that had allowed his family and many other hands to build the shell of a visitors education center near the 240-foot shaft through which the nine miners were pulled to safety.
First Published July 25, 2010 12:17 am
