HELP

Want to help this project? We can certainly use you!

This web site was created by one person, but one person alone can't make it's vision become a reality. Someone had to get the ball rolling, but in order to keep it moving forward, more people will need to help. Without volunteers to help research information, develop the web site, and do some legwork to verify the locations of sites featured here, the project won't even get off the ground. If you're willing to help, please contact me.

Here are the areas where I could really use some help:

INFORMANTS
Know of some place special that's not listed on this site? Willing to share? Drop me an email with whatever information you have and I'll try to include it here. Locations on private property are fine, however I won't post their coordinates online unless the general public is allowed to visit or I have permission from the property owner. If you have actual coordinates please include them, but if not that's OK too. Just describe how to get to the spot as best as you can, and if it's permissible perhaps a Scout will be able to check out the area.

RESEARCHERS:
All of the information located on this site was initially discovered through research. It's amazing what tidbits of info you'll find hidden in old books collecting dust in your local library. Sometimes we'll get lucky and find entire books dedicated to a specific subject, like waterfalls or overlooks, but often that's not the case. Hiking books often mention unique features on the trail and old maps may contain locations of long-forgotten towns, but that information needs to be culled by someone. Whether you'd enjoy digging through dusty tomes at your local library or reading a recent hiking guide to see what secrets it may hold, this project can use you. If you have a particular area of interest or a certain locality you're interested in studying, great! Please consider sharing your knowledge with this project.

SCOUTS
Scouts are the folks who do the leg-work to verify that coordinates provided for a location and descriptions of the locations are accurate. In many cases, the coordinates on this site were initially obtained by geo-referencing paper maps or using software mapping tools. These coordinates might be dead on, off by a couple hundred feet, or maybe off by a mile or more. Every waypoint featured on this web site includes a Confidence Rating that tells just how accurate the coordinates given for that location are believed to be. The higher the confidence rating, the more accurate the coordinates are. I'd like to see every feature have a confidence rating of 5, but the only way to do that is to visit the location with a GPS and take a reading.

If you're interested in being a Scout, you'll need a handheld GPS unit. Make sure it's set to use the WGS84 datum (most are by default). Pick a location listed on this site that you'd like to visit, then travel there and take a GPS reading to verify the coordinates. Note some specific information about the location. For example, if the location you're visiting is an overlook, write down the field of view (in magnetic degrees) that you can see there. If you're visiting a waterfall, note the approximate height, the stream it's in, etc. If possible, include some very simple driving directions, or the GPS coordinates of a nearby designated parking area. Then send an email to with the information you've collected and I'll review it and update the database accordingly.

WEB DEVELOPERS:
I'd love to see improvements to this site. If you're a web developer and have some ideas for making this site better, please contact me. This web host provides a number of features that I'm currently not taking advantage of, simply because I don't know how. If you're willing to volunteer some of your time and skills, I'm willing to work with you to make this site better. Some ideas for improvement include: Moving all waypoints to a SQL server or MySQL database and making them searchable by county, zip code, or coordinates; the ability to search for waypoints with specific attributes such as "Handicapped Accessible". If this stuff sounds pretty easy to you, then please consider lending a hand. It's a major hurdle for me.

AUTHORS:
If you've written a book on special places in Pennsylvania and would be willing to donate a copy to this project, please contact me. Any information used from your work will be referenced on the site, your book will appear on the Bibliography page with its picture and a link to Amazon (or another site) where it can be purchased online. Providing a copy of your work for this project will hopefully be beneficial to you as well as us.

RICH FOLKS:
While we really need volunteers who are willing to contribute time and effort, financial contributions are still helpful. Running this web site involves monthly expenses that, while not large, do add up over time. Any financial contributions will first be put towards the monthly hosting expense, then used to purchase books and research materials that will help add content to the site. My intent here is not to turn a profit, just to provide useful, accurate information. Money alone won't make the web site better, but it will help keep it running.