American Indians never fought a battle at the Cove in Mount Joy, but a group of picnickers did encounter a "beast" in a cave there in the 1860s.

So writes Vera Albert in "Short Stories from Mount Joy's Past," this year's contribution to booklets the historian produces annually for the Mount Joy Area Historical Society.

The Cove is a small but storied peninsula within branches of the Little Chiques Creek near the Mount Joy Sportsmen Association building.

Indians no doubt passed by there, and the place has been used for picnics, swimming, camping, baptism and other activities. Legend has it that a hermit lived in a football-sized cave at the Cove for many years.

The cave has been closed for many years — which didn't stop a Shermandale man from trying to dig his way into it in 2001. He died when rocks fell on top of him.

Mount Joy Township developed the area as Cove Outlook Park earlier this year.

In other chapters of the booklet, Albert tells about old Mount Joy buildings and businesses, newspapers and markets.

Oh, yes, about that "beast."

Albert says a second group of picnickers with the courage to examine the creature closely announced that "what was in the cave were two calves that were supposedly trying to get away from the heat and flies."

Another reason not to go caving without a solid source of illumination.


'As dumb as Jake Griel's bull'


Delayed feedback:

• Lancastrian Jim McMullin read the Aug. 14 Scribbler item about the lakes created in the West End of Lancaster when the old Griel Brickyard dug clay out of the ground in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

He says Jacob Griel owned a bull.

When the bull wanted a drink, he walked to a spring located on the edge of "Lake Saffron" or another of these water holes.

Sometimes he walked halfway around the lake to get a drink that he could have gotten by sticking his mouth in the water anywhere.

Some observers found this practice amusing and turned a phrase. They began referring to selected Lancastrians as "dumb as Jake Griel's bull."

Of course, Jake Griel's bull wasn't dumb at all, simply enjoyed fresh water better than stale.

So someone who is as "dumb as Jake Griel's bull" actually could be quite astute.

• Bill Lenox, who used to help edit the Lancaster New Era, calls from Elizabethtown to say that "Plumb" is the correct spelling of the Mount Joy Street (Scribbler column, Aug. 28.)

"Plum" is a misspelling, he figures.

That's because other streets in Mount Joy are named Angle and Square.

Rather than Prune or Persimmon.

"Plus," Lenox notes, "Plumb Street goes south — in that part of town built first. When they built the street north, they might have named it for the fruit."

• Kean Anspach, of Quarryville, says his experience with butterflies differs from the Scribbler's report on Sept. 8.

Fifteen years ago, he introduced milkweed into a pasture with the hope of luring monarch butterflies.

Nothing.

Suddenly this year, when butterflies supposedly are in decline, he discovered "large numbers of monarch caterpillars" on the milkweed.


Purple Heart returned to Indiana


Stephen Shaw collects medals of all kinds.

The West Lampeter Township resident and former Marine purchased a Purple Heart, which he displayed at a convention of medal collectors.

But he decided that such a special honor should be returned to the family of the recipient.

Bryson Hughes earned the medal when he was wounded in the Pacific during World War II.

Hughes died seven years ago, but Shaw tracked down his family,

Shaw and his wife, Lorna, turned over the medal to representatives of the Hughes family and local officials earlier this month in Hartford City, Ind.

"It always puzzles me how these medals get separated from the family," says Shaw. "This family didn't even know it was missing."

Contact The Scribbler: jbrubaker@lnpnews.com or 291-8781.