Safe Crackers Enjoy Picnic In Rock Springs Park

(left) Rock Springs Park Director Robert L. Hand in front of the office. (Courtesy of Tish Hand)

The following article about a robbery in Rock Springs Park appeared in The Pittsburgh Press on July 7, 1954:

Tired After Fourth of July Rush, Official Neglects to Bank Day's Take

The director of Rock Springs amusement park was so tired after the holiday rush that he went to bed instead of the bank.

While he was sleeping, safe crackers entered the park office and made off with $8000 in Fourth of July receipts.

Chester Police Chief Lloyd H. Lyons said the yeggs broke into the office sometime early yesterday.

They opened the old-fashioned, six-foot double-door safe by knocking off the combination and tapping a drift pin into the spindle.

“It was a professional job,” the chief said. Deputy Sheriff Bert Byers, of New Cumberland, said there are some suspects under surveillance.

The park office is near the dance hall and about two blocks from where Director Robert Hand resides.

Mr. Hand, who normally would have banked the money at the holidays end said about $1000 was in small bills.

Note: a "yegg" is a safe cracker or burglar

Attendance Record at Rock Springs Park

According to the July 11, 1936 edition of The Beaver Daily Times, orchestra leader, George Williams held the all-time attendance record at the Virginia Gardens ballroom:

George Williams, noted WTAM (AM Radio, Cleveland, OH) orchestra leader, will bring his aggregation of musical stars to Rock Springs Park this Tuesday night, July 14th. Williams is well known in the valley, as he holds all time crowd attendance record at Rock Springs Park and several other valley ballrooms.

Williams features lovely Miss Thelma Walters, Guy Mc Comas, and Hal Lippincott. Guy Mc Comas has been heard on coast to coast radio network commercial programs.

Admission to the swing band dance was 40 cents. Other orchestras book for appearances at Rock Springs Park in 1936 were Charley James, Sammy Kaye, Tommy Tucker, George Luker and his 11 Arcadians and Ina Ray and her Melodears.


Give a listen to Tommy Tucker.

Tommy Tucker & His Orchestra - Hiawatha's Lullaby
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Captain Jack Dallas

The following article about the flight of Captain Jack Dallas appeared in the Beaver Daily Times in the summer of 1910:

Thousands of people witnessed the daily flights of Captain Jack Dallas in his wonderful airship at Rock Springs Park.

This noted aerial navigator manipulates his aircraft with the ease and dexterity of a skilled bicyclist, turning and darting through space with the grace of a bird.

Captain Dallas piloted his aircraft Saturday afternoon, from Rock Springs Park, across the Ohio River to the Diamond, in East Liverpool, and returned in a remarkably short space of time. This flight was witnessed by 15,000 visitors, many of whom came hundreds of miles to enjoy the sight.

If the reader has never witnessed the flight of an airship, it is the grandest sight imaginable. Don’t fail to see it at Rock Springs Park this week. It may be your last opportunity.

I try to imagine what the sight of this magnificent flight must have been like for the thousands gathered at the park and across the Ohio River in East Liverpool. In the postcard image below, one can get a feel for the spectacle as Captain Dallas is seen attempting a landing at Ontario Beach Park, Rochester, NY.

Beaver People in Canoes

I don't know what I find more delightful about this news brief which appeared on Wednesday, July 24, 1907: the mental image of "Beaver people" paddling or the fact that they were floating to Rock Springs Park in canoes.

A trip from Beaver, PA to Chester, WV would be a pleasant downstream trip. Notice that the canoes were then "shipped back by freight." At this time there would have been no locks or dams to contend with as Dam #8 would not be completed for another 3-4 years.

"How long have kids been tipping their chairs?"

The upper deck of the stern-wheel steamboat the Homer Smith leaving Pittsburgh to deliver excursionists to Rock Springs Park in 1928. (Courtesy of Richard Bowker)

I love to talk about Rock Springs Park and can steer any conversation in that direction. For instance, this past school year a first grade teacher was upset about the fact that one of her students was always tipping his chair back in class. She couldn't get him to stop and was worried he might injure himself or a fellow classmate. Exasperated she asked me, "How long have kids been tipping their chairs, anyway?"

I immediately thought of my book project and the little boy in the picture above. (Zoom in)

"I know for a fact that kids have been tipping their chairs since at least as far back as 1928," I responded.

I'm not sure my observation was appreciated.

Beautiful Steamboats

(Courtesy of Richard Bowker)

I think it was western film director John Ford who said that a moving train was the most visually interesting thing to watch on motion picture film. In my research for Images of America: Rock Springs Park, I came to believe that steam paddleboats have the same effect in still pictures.

It may be somewhat ironic, in a book about an amusement park, that my favorite images are of the stern-wheel steamers which carried pleasure-seekers from Pittsburgh and Wheeling to the park.

In the photograph above, the Homer Smith awaits passengers along the Mon Wharf in Pittsburgh in 1928.

A series of these photographs are shown in the book. One with the skyline of Pittsburgh under construction and one with the Homer Smith adorned with a banner reading, "All Day Excursion to Rock Springs Park."

The smokestacks on the upper deck could be tipped backwards to allow passage beneath certain bridges.

Heartsick About a Typo

This early view of Marks Run displays the natural beauty of Rock Springs Park prior to commercial development.

Authoring a book is often a lonely task. I spent many, many hours poring over news articles, emailing those who knew the park firsthand, analyzing images and documents, and researching in libraries, and often my “little” victories had to be celebrated alone and in silence.

For example, I was given one week to review the final page proofs of the book and then was contacted one last time by a proofreader for any changes before the book was sent to the printer. I read and reread the book text over and over again, looking for any corrections that I needed to make. I found a couple of possible grammatical errors and changed a couple of overused “This picture clearly illustrates.” With my proofreader’s help, I thought I had fixed everything that needed to be fixed. The book text and images were then sent to the printer in Charleston, South Carolina, just before Easter recess.

Then, stupidly, I decided to look at everything again over the holiday weekend, just in case, and of course I found one more error. My second editor, had changed all the “World’s Greatest” and “World’s Largest” to the lowercase “world.”I’m not sure why he did this, but thought I had caught them all. I was kicking myself wondering why I didn't think to search the text for all the “worlds” using Microsoft Word’s “Find” feature. None-the-less on page 23 my text read, “Today, the Smith House overlooks The world’s Largest Teapot.” My heart sank. I knew I had to find some way to correct this or my perfectionist tendencies would focus on this one tiny spelling error and drive me slowly insane until the book came out and, most especially, after it was in print. So in a last ditch effort I sent off an email to my proofreader:

Me: I imagine it is too late to make text changes to Images of America: Rock Springs Park, but I thought I'd give it a try anyway. I was looking over the text and noticed that I missed one capitalization error on page 23. If there is any way to change it; the "world's Largest Teapot" on page 23 should read "World's Largest Teapot."

Proofreader: Joe, it would be too late to make the change, but fortunately I caught the lowercase “world” and fixed it.

Me: I know it is only a small thing, but you finding and correcting my capitalization error means the "world" to me! Seriously, I put so much time into this project, and unfortunately am such a perfectionist, that a little thing like that would have bugged me no end. Now, I know why editors are often referred to as an author's "other eyes." You're the best!

So, dear readers, if you see any typos in my book, please don’t tell me. I need to keep my sanity for my children’s sake.

Update: Okay, I must admit there is a typo on page 10. “dislays” instead of “displays.” Doh! This happened after the proofreading process was completely out of my hands, and yes, I am heartsick about it.

(Photo Courtesy of Dick Bowker)