Q) I see Stony spelled with an "e" sometimes. Which is right?
A) I'm guilty of it as well - making all English teachers pull their hair out - as I spell Stony with an "e" (Stoney). Neither is wrong or right. The oldest documents talking about the valley refer to "Stoney Creek Valley". Before you ask, I can already answer the question that no one is certain how the spelling or name came about. Some suggest that it was because of all the rocks, while others say it was named after someone with the last name of Stone. No one is certain (or if someone is certain, I haven't met them yet).

For your reference, Stony Valley does have another name as well, one that is not as well known. Bell's Valley came about around the time of the Revoluntary War when the Bell family lived in Middle Paxton Township (or the Dauphin end of Stony Valley). The area was soon named Bell's Valley due to the amount of Bells living there (the map at right showing the Bell family's residence in the 1830s).

Q) How many stations still sit along the former railroad?
A) A tricky question to answer, as Water Tank and Cold Spring remain in theory, in actuality the answer is only four that can be proven. Water Tank, which was a caboose station used really as a hunting camp, remains in rotting ruins along Stony Creek in the area of Water Tank Trail. The Cold Spring Station stood in full as well, until the early 1990s when vandals ripped it off its foundation; the remains are in the Stoy Museum at the Lebanon County Historical Society.

Other than that, the remaining stations are Roeders and Moyers, that have both been turned into residences, and Aucheys and Stanhope, which are used as outbuildings on a farm in Freidensburg, Schuylkill County. Although not the station, the Pine Grove Scale House remains along a back street in the town of Pine Grove, and has been turned into a residence as well (pictured right). If anyone knows of any more stations that still exist or what happened to some of the other stations - Please let me know!

Q) How did Gold Mine get its name?
A) There are over three dozen different reasons on how Gold Mine received its name; however, none of them have been absolutely proven. The most likely reason is because "black gold" or coal was discovered at the town. Other reasons date back prior to the Revoluntionary War when the stagecoach once ran through the area and the legend of "lost gold."

Q) Where did the Cold Spring Hotel sit?
A) Contrary to popular belief the hotel did not sit behind the stone steps seen at Cold Spring (that was the caretakers house for Camp Shand), nor did it sit on top the huge stone wall. It actually sat in front of that long stone wall, where the wall juts back (near a concrete section), and continues westward. The stone bases with holes for four pilars can still be found along the roadway in front of the hotels.