Wild Release #151

This evening I had the honor of releasing the first BookCrossing book ever in Norvelt, Pa. How do I know it was the first ever in Norvelt? There were no release zones in the drop-down list on BookCrossing, which could only mean that none had ever been released in the town before. I left Alistair MacLean's "San Andreas" inside Johnson's Hardware on Main Street; it's in a BookCrossing bag on an endcap near the garden hoses.

Originally called “Westmoreland Homesteads," Norvelt was established April 13, 1934, by the federal government as part of a New Deal homestead project. With 250 homes, Norvelt provided housing, work, and a community environment to unemployed workers and their families during the Great Depression. It was renamed “Norvelt" in 1937 in honor of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her interest in the project.