Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into Pennsylvania (13 page)

Winemaking, on the other hand, has a long—but limited—history in the Keystone State. William Penn planted Pennsylvania's first vineyard on his property in 1683, but the first commercial vineyard in the state (and the country) opened in Spring Mills, along the Schuylkill River, in 1793. Called the Vine Company of Pennsylvania, it operated there until 1822. A hundred years later, the wine industry in Pennsylvania had suffered two setbacks: First, when vintners tried to add European vines, they discovered that a tiny indigenous
insect—grape phylloxera—fed on the roots of all but the native Concord and Niagara grapevines and destroyed the European varieties. Then, in 1920, Prohibition shut down all commercial wine production in United States.

Prohibition was repealed in 1933, but Pennsylvania was the last state to lift its ban on commercial wine production. (Pennsylvania's liquor board was especially conservative.) Finally, in 1968, the state allowed small wineries to sell their product directly to the public as long as the wine was made with Pennsylvania-grown grapes. Since then, more than 120 wineries have opened, and today, Pennsylvania wineries are mostly small, family-run operations that produce less than 5,000 gallons of wine each year. The state ranks eighth in wine output, with approximately 920,000 gallons produced in 2007.

There are seven wine regions in Pennsylvania today: Lake Erie, the Pittsburgh countryside, the Northern Wilds (north-central Pennsylvania), Upper Susquehanna, Lower Susquehanna, Le high Valley and Berks County, and the Philadelphia countryside. More than 50 types of grapes are grown for wine production.

Most of Pennsylvania's grapes are harvested by early October, but even after the weather gets colder and the first frost hits the vines, there is one last harvest to be made. A few Pennsyl vania vineyards produce ice wine, a specialty drink that can be made only from grapes that have frozen on the vine. After most grapes have been picked, vintners leave some of them to dehydrate (and sweeten) for about two more months on the vine.

Then, in December or early January, after the first hard freeze hits, the vintners handpick and press the frozen grapes. They remove the ice crystals inside the skin and leave behind just the highly concentrated pulp, which then ferments for two to three months. The result is a sweet dessert wine.

Because of the special growing conditions, the labor-intensive harvesting, and the fact that it takes four times as many grapes to produce one bottle, ice wine usually comes in small bottles (6 to 12 ounces) with a high price tag (sometimes up to $50 each).

 

 

Pennsylvania has two National Hockey League teams, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Pittsburgh Penguins. Here's the history of the Flyers. (Penguins fans can skate over to
page 198
.)

Name:
The story of how the Flyers got their name goes like this: The Flyers formed in 1967, the year the NHL expanded from the original six teams to twelve. A contest was held to name the new team; 11,000 ballots were submitted, and the winner was the “Flyers.” But according to team lore, owner Ed Snider's sister Phyllis had already chosen that name, so it was a foregone conclusion that it would “win.” Other names in the running: Bashers, Blizzards, Bruisers, Huskies, Keystones, Knights, Lancers, Liberty Bells, Raiders, and Sabres.

Colors:
Black, orange, and white. Bill Putnam, one of the team's owners, thought they were “hot” colors.

Logo:
The “Flying P”: a winged, black letter P with an orange dot, representing a hockey puck, in the hole of the P. Philadelphia graphic artist Sam Ciccone designed the logo and the team's uniforms with their distinctive stripe running from the collar down both arms. (The stripe represents wings.)

The Flyers were a good team right from the start, making the playoffs in their first two seasons. They also became known as one of the toughest teams in the league, earning the nickname of “Broad Street Bullies” (after Philadelphia's Broad Street, home of the Spectrum Arena). By the 1973–74 season, the Flyers were regarded as the best team in the NHL, and they proved it by
beating Bobby Orr and the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup Finals. The next year, they won the Cup again.

In the 1975–76 season, though, the Flyers went back to the finals a third consecutive time . . . and they got clobbered, losing four games to none to the Montreal Canadiens.

The Flyers made the playoffs every year for the next 12 years, making it to the finals three more times but not winning the Stanley Cup. From 1989 to 1995, they didn't make the postseason even once, but since then, they've begun another run—the Flyers have missed the playoffs only once since 1995.

There are about 60 mammal species found in the hills, woods, and rivers of Pennsylvania. Here's a rundown of the most common
.

Although black bears were once hunted to near-extinction, there are about 15,000 of them in Pennsylvania today. And some of those are among the largest on record: in the last few years, hunters have routinely brought in males that weighed more than 800 pounds. (The largest black bear ever—hunted in North Carolina in 1998—weighed 880 pounds.)

Hikers in the Pennsylvania wilderness often come across wild boars, pigs with long tusks curling out from their snouts. The boars typically weigh about 300 pounds, but aren't native to North America—they were brought from Europe in the 1500s. Today, about 3,000 of them roam in Pennsylvania.

Most people think of coyotes as an animal common to the western United States, but over the last 30 years, coyote populations have been steadily growing east of the Mississippi River. The first photographic evidence of them in Pennsylvania came in 1930, and today, there may be as many as 30,000 populating the state.

Bobcats, the only wild feline predators in Pennsylvania, average three feet in length, about 15 inches in height, and weigh 30 pounds. They were hunted almost to extinction by the 1960s,
but were protected from 1970 until 1999, and today there are an estimated 3,500 bobcats living in the Keystone State.

Unlike the classic stripped skunk, these skunks have white, broken stripes on their bodies that make them look spotted. They're found almost exclusively in the southwestern part of the state, and are rarely seen even there. Eastern spotted skunks are smaller than other species—adults average just 15 inches in length—but they still carry a powerfully offensive spray.

Incredibly, whales—most often fin and right whales—sometimes enter the Delaware River, and have been seen as far north as Philadelphia. (Seals, porpoises, and loggerhead sea turtles have also been seen navigating the Delaware.)

For more Pennsylvania animals, turn to
page 293
.

 

 

. . . in the Erie Triangle
.

Town:
Erie

Location:
Erie County

Founding:
1795

Population (2008):
104,000

Size:
28 square miles

County seat:
Yes

An American Indian tribe known as the Eriez were the first people to live in the area. When European settlers moved in, they shortened that to Erie and named the region after the tribe.