like this segment on the past of canada for like i'm here to tell us some of the lakes rich history and hopes that people will see what a gem we have in our midst and how essential it is to preserve it for future generations cannon's berg lake located near johnson's crossroads on route pennsylvania in one thousand fifty eight the pennsylvania fish and boat commission manages the lake i have lived on the lake for over forty years at one time or another my family has owned five different homes on the lake one of the most unusual houses was a rental property on mcdowell lane just be on the little eight seater where my parents purchased the property from late adrian while the state and the early one nine hundred seventy s he found surprises around every corner in the one nine hundred thirty s mr loud lived in a tent in the middle of a cow pasture beside chartreuse creek he lived there for about ten years while he built his all cement lighthouse the house was terrorists into a steep hillside shortly after the house was finished alcoa came through and built the dam his backyard creek quickly became a lake adrian's farm equipment was left behind at the lakes bottom list of out build a large deck that hung right over the water so that it could fish without leaving home his side walk when alongside the house and disappeared right into the lake as you could see in these early lake construction pictures wouldn't forms were being built for cement piers to replace the wouldn't be told in full also note the longwood retaining wall when we had the house the wall was covered with a layer of thousands of bottles hidden by shrubs bottle mystery was solved when we found a tiny metal fruit cellar door in the basement the door was the only way in or out of a hidden room still filled with hundreds of bottles of home brewed beer and a partial copper still business this late one nine hundred thirty so the shows mcdowell name and the farm name were adrian built this house before the lake was created the bodies of cows and other farm animals were set to service from their resting places after the fire million became a lake this photo was taken in one thousand seventy we had the house for several months before noticing that there was a hollow sound if you kept part of the wall halfway down the stairs to the basement when a pail was removed we found a coal mine inside the house complete with carts and rails having been seventy three a bobcat recently killed chickens and even peacocks of a neighboring farm have also been spotted on the hillside behind the more strange lakeside homes today the house is new owners and is covered with final ten citing away in april of two thousand and six the family prefers to say that he died just two days after the start of trout season dave was widely known by the regular fisherman they saw his expertise and advice which eventually earned him the nickname of the fishing grew  his children and grandchildren would often join him fishing they braved many hours in the cold and rain in hopes that snagged some allusive fish it didn't matter if they came home empty handed it was about the company they kept every first day of the season became a family event his wife even shyly admitted t to go skinny dipping in the creek because the lake was built ed abraham a retired long time peters township high school teacher told a friend as he struggle to pull his canoe up a boat launch of getting letters during the second world war from his brother his brother chronicled the likes construction and told him that just wouldn't recognize our old swimming hole mcdowell's and not grasses and much of the foreign oil and became the lake mrs macdonald brother in law sam also on the saw the next day we got the call that we passed the inspection water's edge condominiums now stand in what was mrs macdonald backyard the plan was to spend the summers at the cottage was close enough adapted stalky to pittsburgh and access from the road beside the little lake feeder what a great life for kids you know a rowboat in our own dog we didn't notice or care that the cottage had only three rooms the five kids slept on a bunk in the trundle bed and one tiny room my parents had a was the custom for everyone leaving the show to honk their cars horns the papel family owned the theaters and had one of the few year round houses on the lake to keep residents from complaining about the noise they installed drive in speakers in every house so we could now golf driving range screen number two is just an overgrown field across the street but if you look really hard you could still make out the green snack bar through the week you can no longer see where the theaters were  most of the cottages were torn down rebuilt or remodeled into permanent homes homeowners form two associations one for the north side and the other for the south they were finally able to buy the land their home sat on after settlement with mr rogers neighborhood one summer day a man was offering hot air balloon rides from beside the theaters parking lot my father braved the trip and snapped this photo with his little camera he has passed away but the theater goes on thanks to the talents of his daughter sonny and son in law rob such as the little i could introduce several generations to the magic of the theater and also offers lookingglass theater children's presentations and a summer is a few hours away and there's a lot to be done the worms are packed in styrofoam containers dad always said thirteen to a container with a red worms or nightcrawlers when a temporary home of the white porcelain tub better than the ducks would pursue us as sort of their own little sport we would occasionally see a large turtle go by something i haven't seen in over twenty years my brother in law remembers hearing of a cache of stolen gun once discovered hidden under the bridge this is hell suburban legends are born i once called the police because a seemingly stray pit bulls had me pinned inside my house turns out that the owner and his dog had been fishing the fisherman's wife reported the missing the fisherman somehow became entangled and was found at the bottom of the lake still sitting in his rowboat in the one nine hundred eighty s a couple risked swimming across the lake swimming is not permitted and unfortunately the man drowned the boat launch now offers fishing opportunities to handicap sportsmen from a large level concrete area the parking lot is also occasionally used as a landing site by medical helicopters the peters township volunteer fire department uses a lake for search and rescue training on march twenty third two thousand for the peters township fire department with some of that training to the test for recovering a large truck that had gone into the lake at the boat much a large notice board spells out the regulations no alcohol no fire no camping etc when i was a kid camping was not only allowed but almost a requirement on the opening day of fishing throughout the one nine hundred seventy s we would wake up on saturday morning to a blown campground they would come quietly and sometimes not so quietly all during the night to stake their claim on a tiny spot of sure the lakes would be so filled with boats that you would think that you could be taught from the lake to the next about getting your feet wet by midday the fisherman would have dwindled away to only a few die hards didn't come to the fishing on opening day these weren't the regulars much of the opening days for the guys and girls to get out to fish just a few times a year it was the experience the county the tradition it was the camaraderie of a bunch of guys out for the night just hanging out and seeing who could tell the tallest fishtail it was filled with the anticipation of catching the first trial of the day these photos were taken about two thousand and four when a group of home schooled kids on a field trip at the dam parking lot helping fish commissioners stop the lake with trout a large truck pulls up with a tank on the back there is nothing high tech about how the fish get from the parking lot to the water they're simply put in buckets and haul to the water where they're unceremoniously dumped into their new home to the kids to light occasionally a fish wi of the back of the lake is home to a lot of wildlife besides the fox coyotes and bobcats already mentioned here and feeding a flock of white ducks abandoned in front of our house in the one nine hundred seventy old habits die hard we still see the band and pet ducks in the creek and on the lake until they can fend for themselves for years my dad mike so when i became quite remembered for feeding the ducks he averaged fifty pounds of seed a week and about seventy five to one hundred twenty ducks were fed each day you could set your watch by them they would swoop in for their twice daily meals dad slap cut the attention of local papers on several occasions we finally stopped this practice when the canadian geese started to bully the ducks out of their food we've had number over three hundred on many occasions today the lake is getting international attention for another type of bird there's been an albino heron spotted in a lake for the last several years some on a fall or just believe that it may be a hybrid they suspect that is half of blue heron and half the great parents although very large are quite graceful despite that they can make the most god awful loud squawk while in flight although they are usually very shy birds species list until recently several of these near eagle sized birds make their home in the lake i recently saw one swoop down a carry off a rabbit a few days later i stepped out of my house to find one on the roof not five feet away it's quite a shock to confront such a large bird and speaking of eagle a bald eagle has been seen hovering over the lake beginning since the fall of two thousand and six this is a photo of my sister katie and cousin regina and a canoe at sunset our front yard for three summers to earn the money to buy it this photo was taken in one nine hundred seventy four robots are still a common sight on the lake these one hundred eighty six pictures show that the lake is beautiful year round used to joke about how hard the ice fishermen are they seem to go on the ice in the most impossible of conditions my dad would say that there were only an ice cube on the water the fisherman would be out there standing on it the winter brought its share of dangers to one night in the early eighties i was awakened by noises and i saw a string of dozens of flashlights heading through the woods not evergreen townhomes someone had wandered away from the mcmurry hills manner poor me and the spent some time later he'd fallen through the ice fireman pulled out his body well in oblivious little girls skated figure eights around him the winner also conjures up memories of lakeside bonfires hot chocolate on the shore and skating parties this was no rink ice it came complete with nature made bombs and no organ music was a blast actually get out and walk on the water the dam has changed a little bit more than sixty years now in need of some repairs it still managed to withstand the ravages of hurricane ivan the end of village green drive was submerged under twelve feet of water it was the only way in or out of the evergreen plan for all of the residents the police called to say that the dam might burst and that there was a mandatory evacuation some of us living above the dam thought it odd to have to evacuate but we followed orders my neighbors and i went to higher ground in the nearby cul de sac and sat in our cars awaiting further instructions it was a scary hour long wait dark and cold we were about to return home when a fireman in a wet suit tapped on the car window he escorted us to a waiting rowboat on west mcmurry road my daughter c winnie the pooh in the driving night rain for a second time and stopped to look like something from a disaster photo you see in the paper of some catastrophe that happened to someone else we joined other residents that come from the evergreen condos on a school bus that was waiting there to carry chill apartments everyone was taken to the fire station on east mcmurry road some of activities found places to stay my daughter and i having no place to go slept in the fireman's bunk bed the next morning they drove us as close to home as possible we waited in past a golden retriever and some ducks swimming in the middle of west mcmurry road the dam held unlike so many unfortunate others we were fine it was just another of life's adventures for our scrapbook late president bill herod stated that the record high level reached at the dam was fifty three inches in one nine hundred fifty four high water marks are painted on the peters side of the and did a double take when i took this photo in one thousand nine hundred two on closer inspection you could see that the kids circumvented the barricade and walked right on to the dam itself the dam is five hundred twenty five feet long with a sheer forty five foot drop to the creek below in the one nine hundred eighty s kids actually would climb over the lip of the dam and slide down kids are the only things to dangle over the edge of the damn trees often washed down and computer on the edge for weeks before falling over the side bill harrigan told me the time he was pushing a fallen tree over the edge and fell over the dam himself he does not recommend the experience this picture shows the catwalk to the dam on the peters township four you can note the passage of time by the three pronged tree that later dwindled to two branches and then one and is now just a shrub fall and spring are certainly beautiful times on the lake too as seen in these pictures these next photos were taken during a severe thunderstorm they just couldn't do the light show in the water justice was followed by a beautiful rainbow the smaller parking area of west mcmurry road near the dam is often overlooked that gives easy access to shar tears creek below the creek is a microcosm of wildlife longtime residents of peter's township or remember chef and nursery and business for over forty years was located on the steep bend at the bottom of west mcmurry road as you come from a crossroads the nursery bordered the creek and came up evergreen drive towards the dam when it sold in two thousand and four to make way for the evergreen village condominiums there were three homes on the property mrs chef innsbruck house seen in this photo was torn down but her two daughters stone houses were preserved the nurseries trees were sold and moved to woodruff memorial park cemetery on route one thousand a portion of evergreen drive remains a private road and runs parallel to the dam and fishing parking lot little exchange there the nursery and woods behind them however have become nothing more than a memory mr chef in a quite a collection of indian arrow heads that he gathers in the woods behind the nursery he claims that it had once been an indian campground the chef and girls houses had large beams inserted through the foundations and were lifted and slowly pulled by trucks to the far end of evergreen drive beside the lake it was a tedious but impressive process the activity had to halt for a few days to raise utility lines so that the houses journey was a major event in the neighborhood as the houses were slowly driven by my dad commented there goes the neighborhood the two houses were combined into one large lakeside house the private portion of evergreen drive was increased from four lakeside homes to five when finished the evergreen planned should have sixty five new homes each building is made up of four houses the first of the five homes lakeside belonged to my parents the land was originally part  snodgrass farm the house was built as an office for alcoa during dam construction my house was next door and had a left a suspicious start it was used for construction storage and a little shed shown to the left of my house with a single door was a tall shed willie was a much that lived the ripe old age of fifteen throughout the one nine hundred seventy s he was well known to all the fishermen on the lake willie would walk into the lake and come out with the fish the fishermen would seem coming and move their chairs to wherever he went into the water life has been good on the lake i can't imagine living anywhere else now a new generation is growing up on the like a lot of lives have been deeply touched by this wonderful place i would love to see it preserved for future generations so that today's kids can grow and bring their children and grandchildren here too on september thirty two thousand six hundred fifty peters township girl scouts and adult volunteers joined forces to hold the first annual cannon's berg like trail project eye on the past and looking towards the future when morial benches were installed along with the garden bridge birdhouses signage and the stepping stone path the project will be featured on our next show to air