Swimming through History

To celebrate the birth of the United States, Chris and I naturally took a little drive. We kicked things off after sleeping in at a hotel just outside of Pittsburgh. The night before we stayed at Kennywood until they insisted it was closing time and moved on to Ritter’s, one of my absolute favorite greasy spoon diners, in the Bloomfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh. At this point we knew there was no driving back to Morgantown. I pulled up Hotwire on my iPhone and with 45 minutes before midnight, scored a ridiculously cheap 4-star hotel south of town.

When south of Pittsburgh, it is vital to stop at Two Brothers BBQ. It is a fact that the best BBQ comes from a trailer across from the volunteer fire department in Presto, PA. There is no meat they are not the masters of. I’m in love with their pulled pork nachos and their ribs. It was still early, so rather than hit the interstate back to Morgantown we decided to swing through Wheeling and take U.S. Route 250 and West Virginia Route 7 back. There are a few worthy attractions on this route. We decided to make a concerted effort to visit the Cameron City Pool.

The Cameron pool opened in 1939, the project being one of the make-work projects to put Americans to work during the Great Depression. The goals for the pool were two-fold: 1) recreation and 2) an emergency fire protection reservoir. The pool is unique in design being a walk-in pool with a semi-circular shape. It is one of the first pools of its type and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Searching the internet finds photos of the pool in use as recently as 2001 so we thought our odds were good. When we rolled into town we found a few streets closed for a carnival and firefighters using hoses and hydrants as a water feature to cool off the kids in the town. This seemed adorable and it was wonderful to see folks out and about. We made our way around the closures to the Cameron City Park, where the pool is. Unfortunately, we’re a few years too late.

The entrance to the pool was gated shut. We’re not entirely sure what happened to it. We walked up to the edge of the chain-link gate and could see the pool. It sat empty beyond the vacant pool house and concession stand. It was disappointing. Having this unique pool makes Cameron a special place not only for residents, but attracts outsiders. It made me revisit a recurring thought.

What if a group of people got together, pooled some money, and even just used the interest to make microgrants and/or microloans to help civic projects? Microfinance has been wildly successful in developing countries especially for increasing independence and entrepreneurship among women. If it works in that context I can’t help but wonderful what kind of effect it would have on civic pride, especially considering many of these projects currently receive funding through Transportation Enhancement Funds, a component of transportation funding that is increasingly controversial.

I think this is one of my new life goals. I want places like Cameron to not only be special to those from the town, but special to folks like me, with no specific connection to the place.