Fictional Valley vacation comes to an end honoring baseball great Josh Gibson

Editor’s note: Ralph Stone has been writing about an imaginary family from Omaha, Neb., touring a futuristic, fictional Mon Valley on a summer vacation.

The two weeks during the summer of 2048 passed by quickly. The Higgins family was down to the last day of their magnificent Mon vacation and wanted to make that final day as great and memorable as the entire two weeks had been.

They joined in with Monessen natives as they celebrated their own sesquicentennial birthday. The feasting had continued through those unique and entertainment laden ethnic villages as well as their very enlightening tour through the Joe Magarac touring mill.

They had witnessed the most impressive fireworks on July 4 at the Monongahela Aquatorium, where they had seen dramatic presentations of what life was like in earlier days of Monongahela, which included the role their ancestors played in the Whiskey Rebellion.

They were pleasantly overwhelmed during their visit to the Donora Museum of Champions and the attached museum, which explained the community’s role in the passage of clean air acts.

They thoroughly enjoyed their trout fishing experience along the banks of the Fisherman’s Wharf in lower Belle Vernon, and were absolutely amazed over the beauty of the Yough River Trail during their family bike trips. The journey they had taken to Ohiopyle was fabulous, and their experiences on the raft which took them over rapids they had never imagined was breathtaking.

Their bus and boat tours gave them even further cause to desire future trips back to this land of enchantment. The six lit-up bridges from Brownsville all the way to Elizabeth were like a fantasy come true, and the lighthouses stationed along the banks of the river emphasizing each community’s specialties were educational as well as entertaining.

As much as they enjoyed the magical output of Charleroi’s glass museum, they were also in awe of the movie and stage play lineups scheduled for the Palace Theater, the fourth-oldest film theater in the nation.

Mrs. Higgins and her daughter, Sally, were especially pleased with the revamped shopping center they found at Charleroi’s Magic City as well as the unique shops at Allens Crossroads in Rostraver Township. The entire family loved their visit into the past as they explored the 1940s-50s-era village on Broad Avenue in North Belle Vernon.

Perhaps the highlight of this entire trip was the extreme joy they experienced as a family during their visits to the River Romp Park. Danny loved pretending he was Tarzan as he swung on the vine ropes. The entire family really enjoyed the slides and wave pool.

All in all, it had been the most exciting and enjoyable vacation the family had ever taken. Now, Mr. Higgins wanted it to conclude by attending a baseball game. He purchased four box seat tickets for the Pirates Division A minor league team housed right along the banks of the Mon river in Monessen, where more than a century earlier, Josh Gibson, the former Negro League slugger, swatted what is one of the longest home runs ever hit in professional baseball.

In fact, the stadium’s name, Josh Gibson Memorial Stadium, honors and memorializes that same blast from the past. The idea for the stadium originated back in the summer of 2021 when Monessen officials decided to honor that historic home run with a plaque near the vicinity of that memorable round tripper.

That program and the placement of a plaque honoring the event was a great beginning, but there were a few diehard fans who felt more should have been done. In fact, a gentleman named Ty Brooks, a professional executive for Major League Baseball and a featured speaker at the ceremony, seconded that idea. During an interview following the program, Brooks thought it to be a great idea to build a new stadium near the site of the old Page Park where Josh had hit that historic blast. Brooks went on to say that both MLB as well as the Pittsburgh organization would be eager to back a well-planned idea such as that, and that if Monessen could develop a well-designed plan, that much of the funding may come from MLB and the Pirates office.

As years passed and leadership roles changed, that plan was initiated and the result is that Monessen became the benefactor of the Pirates’ top-rated Single-A minor league ball club. The attendance at their games was terrific, and you might say that it became the starting point for many other river attractions such as the River Romp Park, the boating tours, the lighthouses and the fisherman’s wharf. As they watched the game progress, the Monessen Gibsons displayed some talented pitching along with a solid defense and more than adequate bats.

The kids were full of questions for Mr. Higgins, who was considered a hardball expert of sorts. Donald,