What do powerplant cooling towers, a multimedia CD, and an old mill have in common?

Maury Tosi.

I happened to find out about an old mill in Shelocta one day. The gristmill is no longer there, but a few stones and other traces remain. Maury owns the land where the mill stood. I mentioned that it would have been interesting to see it. That question unlocked a treasure chest of the Shelocta/Elderton/Spring Church/South Bend/Girty area that lies just beyond Apollo-Ridge High School.

It turns out Maury Tosi has put together two different CDs with photos, writings, old histories and artwork on them. They are actually laid out in web page format, only you don’t need to be on the Internet to read them or see them, or in some cases, hear them. Yep, some pages on Maury’s actually CD play music. On one of the CDs he has over 5000 images of the Shelocta region long ago, second and third generation descendents of early settlers, construction of the Keystone Dam and even a section of drawings of early American pioneer life. There are genealogies, houses, schools, dams, farms, and probably pictures of your mother’s mother. There might even be pictures of your father’s Oldsmobile in there, I don’t know. Did I tell you Maury put all this together?

Did I tell you Maury Tosi is in his 80s?

Marguerite and Maury Tosi

Did I tell you he is “self taught on computer?” Or that he isn’t even from that area?

But Maury and his wife, Marguerite, have lived there since 1964. He moved here then from Monongahela, to be the Superintendent of the 250-man force that built the Keystone powerplant cooling towers and the Keystone Dam. You know the big white towers (we all think are smokestacks but aren’t) that you see on the way to Indiana on Rt. 56? Yep. Maury was there in the Big Digging—and yes, he has pictures of that on the CD too!

Having taught Sunday School at St. Jacob’s for 30 years, Tosi says, “I’ve got lots of information from people in church…Lots of the pictures are from old photographs. The mill and the [mill] dam, that started me.” He has only worked on the project since ’01 or so; it snowballed as people saw it. “I give them (the CDs) away, and it generates feedback. It grew from there…then I wanted an easy way to get around in [all the information.]”

Maury Tosi’s work has not only captured moments in time from the Shelocta region, but also created an invaluable resource for others.

Be sure to check out Our Local Heritage online—Maury has graciously agreed to let us display a small part of his cd!