Longer wait for wagon train
A Wow in Friday’s edition celebrating the return of the National Pike Wagon Train to Brownsville is several years premature. Wagon master Charles ‘Doc’ Sherry said the wagon train will come to a halt at Mount Macrina in Uniontown, just as it has the past few years. Sherry said that a couple of wagons, not affiliated with the National Pike Wagon Train, plan on their own to continue the journey to Nemacolin Castle in Brownsville.
Few could fault the wagon train for stopping in Uniontown. Route 40 from there to Brownsville is fraught with safety hazards. The busy, two-lane road with narrow shoulders, dips and blind spots, is treacherous.
There is hope that more modern days of travel are in the offering. The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission has started purchasing property needed to build an expressway between Uniontown and Brownsville, with construction possibly starting in 2005.
Sherry said as soon as traffic has an alternate route, the wagon train will return to that section of the National Road. That is a celebration worth the wait.