GOWEN CITY - A group of students from a Michigan university have discovered an obscure connection between the tragedies of Sept. 11, 2001, and the Shamokin area.
The exact equidistant point to all three attack locations - in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa. - is on the Burnside Mountain, south of Shamokin near Gowen City.
The coordinates 76°32'55"W, 40°45'25"N mark the spot where the second-year architecture students from Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Mich., would build a reliquary and museum in a hypothetical project, an idea sparked by this year's 10th anniversary of the attacks.
The students contacted the Brush Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce in late January, asking if Gowen City had its own chamber - obviously not fully aware of the small size of the East Cameron Township village. They eventually made contact with Pat Mack, director, and Kathy Jeremiah, grants writer, with the Northumberland County Planning Department.
Sophomore students Paige Spagnuolo, Megan Foley, Colton O'Rourke, Mitch Haney and Nick Cressman and Professor David VanderKlok drove into Danville Friday night, and Mack
and Jeremiah met them Saturday morning at the Wayside Inn and led them to their coordinates.
The steep, wooded mountainside location wouldn't be conducive to construction. It's just off Point Breeze Road (Route 3004), a short drive from Route 125 at the top of the Burnside Mountain.
In an e-mail, Spagnuolo said, "The benefits on being able to walk on the site are tremendous for this project, despite the work being purely educational and hypothetical."
The students and VanderKlok met with East Cameron Township Supervisors Wayne Kahler and Lambert Haupt, and retired township secretary Alice Henninger and her husband, Roger, to learn more about the township and overall area.
Mack and Jeremiah served as tour guides for the group.
"It's very exciting to see these kids work on this project," Mack said. "They plan on giving us an actual architectural design for a museum that could some day be built at the site in connection with the 911 terroristic attacks."
Haupt also said he finds the students' project intriguing. "I hope they go for it all the way. It certainly is a worthwhile project," Lambert said.
According a press release regarding the project, the students are doing architectural design coursework. Each class section this semester was asked to design a reliquary for a single object.
Although the project is only "hypothetical," the students have been taking the project on as if it were a real life project. LTU is known for its motto of "theory and practice." Unlike most architecture schools that focus heavily on the theory aspect of design, LTU pushes a curriculum of well-rounded balance between the artistic and the technical. Most of LTU's professors are active, practicing architects. The Lansing studio is led by VanderKlok.