Years ago this area looking nothing like it does today. I'm going to take you back about 40 to 50 years and paint a picture of this area back in the 1960's through the 1970's up until about 1990. I'll also give you a glimpse of this cache location 130 years ago, long before my memories of this area. When you visit this geocache try to imagine this if you will. Here at this cache location and the entire shopping center area from Shoemaker Road to the neighborhood behind the shopping strip, used to be a very distinct landmark. Imagine a large, 43 acre clay pit.
For over 70 years, up until 1970 Robinson Clay Products would dig up red clay from this large site, nicknamed "The Pit", then truck it across the street, process it, and fire the red clay in it's 8 kilns turning the clay into terracotta vitrified sewer pipe. The clay pipes would then be shipped off to locations all over. The damaged or defective pipes were returned to the Earth in a large mountain of broken clay pipes that was located approximately where the west side of the shopping strip is today. Not too many people remember this place as it once was. They might remember seeing it as they drove down Shoemaker Road or as they traveled south on Rt 100 and managed a glance over to look at the big hole in the ground. But few people knew it as intimately as the kids who lived in Pottsgrove Manor ("The Manor"), the neighborhood directly next to the "The Pit" at Robinson Clay.
The site of "The Pit" as many kids knew it as had many features including large hills, several tall cliffs, a 4 to 8 acre pond on it's east side that would grow or shrink depending on the weather, which submerged a small forest of trees creating an area we called the swamp. There was also an area we called "The Plateau" which was no more than a lower level flat area that had 45 degree hills on three sides that dropped down into the floor of the pit. We used to sled down the main hill of the plateau, which was pretty crazy. In the winter we would ice skate on the pond. In the summer we actually caught fish in that pond.
Scores of kids made "the pit" their playground against the wishes of their parents. Bike trails criss-crossed the perimeter of the pit as well as the woods and fields that were on the west side of the pit. Dozens of kids forts were all around the location of this geocache, which actually sits at about the halfway point of a long trail that connected the neighborhood with Shoemaker Road. This wide trail began at the dead end of Potts Dr. and ended at a large wild cherry tree next to Shoemaker Road. This long trail had a very interesting history in itself. The trail and this area around the cache location was once a race track dating back to the late 1880's, early 1900's. The race track was called Mill Park, later named Pottstown Speedway or Pottstown Driving Park. Mill Park and the track had its beginning in 1875 with the fairgrounds. The track was first used for horse racing and then it was later modified for automobile racing on the trioval from September, 1911 through 1934. When circuses came to town, they were frequently held in this area up until the 1950s. The racetrack land eventually became the neighborhood and the clay pit, which today is the shopping center. The large trail that we used to follow on our bikes was the remnants of turn three of the race track! As kids we knew there was something interesting about this large trail and the gradual curve leading out to Shoemaker Road. Little did we know this curve was turn three. So as you stand here signing the logbook to "The Pit" at Robinson Clay, imagine you are standing on the track between turns three and four of an early horse race track or an early dirt automotive race track with open wheel cars and leather helmets!
The cache location on this old trail, once a race track, during the 1950's through the 1980's was secluded by woods with many side trails that went in either direction, left or right, connecting the trail to fields to the left (towards the Pottstown Airport), or to the right and over to the pit. The location of the playground behind you was a large clearing surrounded by trees and bushes and bordering the dead end road was a large blackberry bush. At about the location of geocache was an old, wide tree that had an old tree fort. The tree was next the the old race track. There were also several mulberry trees nearby. Looking towards the back of Walmart was all dirt, the edge of the pit. This end of the pit was the newest to be excavated back in the late 1960's and early 1970's.
The far side of the pit, over where the water is today, was the oldest part of the pit. This was where the old pond was located. Where Arby's is located today used to be a 60 foot tall very distinctive gray color cliff that dropped from street level to the base of the pit below. Around Red Lobster was an old pump house that kept the pit from filling with water. Weis Market was where the plateau was and some of the better trails to ride a bike on. Behind Weis was an old, fenced in, metal playground bordered by several apple trees. The playground had a very distinctive castle-like slide, a bug-shaped monkey bar set, a basketball court, swing sets, several picnic tables and a few shade trees.
As kids we spend hours upon hours back here around the geocache's current location, bike riding, exploring, having fun. We would see deer, pheasants nesting, snakes, raccoons, skunks and squirrels. We would pick blackberries and cherries, wild apples and mulberries, and play until it was time to head home.
Today "The Pit" and the surrounding area is Walmart shopping center with many retail stores. The area was developed around 1995 erasing any evidence of the former clay pit and the adjoining woods and trails. Businesses and building replaced flowering fields, a stream, woods, tree lines and trails. Little is left of this adventurous child's playground. Few photos exist today of this area as it used to be. But strong, fond memories do. It was exciting to see the area develop into something useful since I was now an adult and no longer cared to ride the trails on my BMX bike. But with anything that changes something is lost. So this is for the memories of "The Pit" and to all my friends in the Manor who I hung out with day after day.
View of the pit many years ago from near this geocache location.
The Robinson Clay facility during the early 1970's
For more about "The Pit" visit the associated web page and read about some of the many memories here at this location.
Robinson Clay Products Company and "The Pit" in Pottstown, PA