A Week in the Blue Mountains

From June 14 to June 22, 1914, Henry Wharton Shoemaker and his wife, Mabelle Ruth Ord Shoemaker, traversed the Blue Mountain by carriage and on horseback, starting in Reading, Pennsylvania, in Berks County, and then weaving through northern Berks to western Lehigh, then Schuylkill, Dauphin, and Lebanon Counties, before returning to Reading. The couple had been married the prior year, and they appeared to enjoy each other’s company. Along the way, they had picnics together, and Mabelle took photographs, some of which are shared in this book.Always the storyteller, Henry enhanced the travel details with vignettes about the locals he met or about those who had lived in the locations in the past. The vast majority of Shoemaker’s recounting appears to be true, with a few exceptions, all noted in the footnotes. Perhaps Henry was on his best behavior.At the time of this adventure, Henry had just published Stories of Great Pennsylvania Hunters (1913) and In the Seven Mountains (1913) and was releasing Black Forest Souvenirs (1914), Pennsylvania Lion or Panther (1914), and Wolf Days in Pennsylvania (1914). A common thread through the earlier works was stories about panthers, lynxes, and bobcats. During the travel memoir, Henry recounts several big cat hunters from the area.Of course, Henry was well-connected and met with various leaders and proprietors along the way, including a descendant of Conrad Weiser and Henry Melchior Muhlenberg. He also connected with the painter Christopher High Shearer, known for his landscapes.What results is a unique time capsule of the people and places on both sides of the first mountain in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country. For this edition, the journal has been broken out by day and time, according to the original itinerary. Additional photographs have been added to further illustrate what or whom they saw. All the photographs have been carefully restored, sharpened, and colorized to provide a fresh look with details often lost in old black and white images.