His breath is heavy, his feet are in rhythm, sweat drips down his face; sees tree after tree, he smells the forest vegetation, he hears only the sound of his feet hitting the dirt path.

Suddenly, it all stops. He stops.

He sees the tall, carved stones in a clearing. He makes his way to go investigate.

Tombstones.

George Hancock started his day as a runner, and ended it as a historian.

Hancock studied history at Pitt-Johnstown when he was an undergraduate years ago, and has been running for the last 36 years of his life.

He said he is familiar with many trails on Pitt-Johnstown’s 650-acre campus from when he was an undergraduate.

Upon making the cemetery discovery, Hancock said the historian in him emerged.

Hancock collected items and information over the years, but he said it was hard to research local history.

“There is not a large interest in local history and it is difficult to spark interest when there is no appeal for a mass audience,” said Hancock.

Hancock has many hobbies, and they combine to form a talent. Through running, he discovered the tombstones and his background in history sparked the interest.

Online, Hancock has written about his findings of the cemeteries on Pitt-Johnstown’s campus and some in the surrounding areas.

“I’m always updating it (online history). I will get phone calls from people who have read it and can provide more information or help me fill in the blanks,” said Hancock.

Hancock started researching the Pitt-Johnstown campus as soon as he discovered the cemeteries decades ago.

It wasn’t until his son’s Boy Scout troop needed help getting their merit badges, 13 years ago, when he decided to lead historical tours.

“I wanted to get them interested in the history aspect of the land, as well as the actual trails themselves. The tour took us about three hours, but it was a lot of fun.”

Since then, the Outreach Program contacted Hancock with a proposition to start historical trail tours as classes. The classes are credited with documentation upon finishing, but are not used for college credits toward graduation.

Hancock offers these tours at least twice a year; occasionally, he will schedule a tour for Homecoming weekend to attract previous graduates.

“I like to schedule the tours for early spring and late fall, due to the animals and vegetation. When the land is overgrown, it’s harder to walk and there is higher risk for dangerous animals. I’ve seen copperhead snakes many times.”

The area surrounding the largest cemetery on the campus land, the Baumgardner cemetery, is not always completely visual in the late spring and summer months due to planted tree growth.

To help fix this problem, in spring 1996 Paul Newman, the History Club adviser at the time, adopted the area as a project for the club to maintain.

“The students would use lawnmowers and weed-whackers to try to clean up the area. They would also pick up fallen stones to help restore the burial sites,” said Newman.

In return for cleaning up the area, the students took advantage of the local history landmarks and would research the ruins themselves.

“The students would make rubbings of the stones to make out the names and dates,” said Newman.

Newman said that, according to the tombstones, there were four different families buried in the same area on campus.

“The tombstones date back to the early 1860s and each name is of German descent,” said Newman.

The tombstones are not the only ruins left behind from the people who resided here so long ago.

“There are pre-cut roads through the woods that were made long before this became a campus. There are ruins of a farmhouse and a barn as well,” said Newman.

Hancock has studied each of these families and what they have left behind in detail for a number of years. “When I found the names of the farm-owners, I started researching in the school’s library,” said Hancock.

Hancock said he tried the phonebook method of research.

“I would just go through the phone book and call everyone listed with the same last name as on the tombstones. I would ask them if they had any relation, stories, or relatives from the area and would take any information I could.”

Hancock said that, though he was able to find a lot of information through microfilm reels in different libraries, it is difficult to come across firsthand material.

“The type of research that I’m trying to do is slow because it’s long and tedious. Some may consider it boring, but I love it,” said Hancock.

Hancock is not the only person who gets enjoyment out of his research. Many faculty, staff members and students have taken Hancock’s tours and said they found it interesting.

Engineering Professor Beverly Withiam, along with her husband, took Hancock’s cemetery tour this past spring.

“I absolutely loved it,” said Withiam.

“George has the ability to make it fascinating with the mixture of legend and myth stories and historical facts about the ruins, and the people buried there,” said Withiam.

Withiam said though some of the cemeteries are off-campus and had to be driven to, the sites on campus were far back in the woods and required a hike to get there.

“There wasn’t a path to get there, and it wasn’t maintained, but George knew exactly how to get there from memory,” said Withiam.

She said that the ruins were still visible even with the overgrown vegetation.

“You could tell where the chapel had been and most of the tombstones were intact. Some of the names were worn off, but most of them were still completely legible.”

Withiam is a Johnstown native and said that she recognized a few names that were common in the area.

“I had grown up in the area, so I recognized a few of the German names that were on the stones. My husband is from New York State, however, but he still had fun.”

Withiam said she had an idea of how large the campus was, but still found it interesting to hike through the wooded area to explore it.

The nature trails that are closer to the townhouses are used for sports teams’ practices and include a cross-country trail.

The trails that Hancock uses for his historical tours, however, are some ways away and can be best reached by driving through Windber, approaching the campus from a different angle.

Hancock, now a Pitt-Johnstown staff member in the business office, said he encourages all students to explore the trails of their campus and will be providing opportunities to do that in the upcoming spring with another scheduled tour.