Ronco

Barry Reda talks to his English Setter Belle. Reda, who grew up in Ronco as a "patch puppy," says that even though many Ronco residents moved away throughout the country, they took their patch values along with them.

Carolyn Capozza runs the Ronco Post Office, which is open for two hours on weekdays, and three and a half hours on Saturday. Although she thinks Ronco will never return to what it once was, she still sees a future for the patch in the kids who play basketball, ride their bikes, and walk down the street past her mailboxes.

From left, Chris Bartuch, John Moccaldi, Jimmy Hughes, Ryan Lee, 10, and Merari Lopez, all of Ronco, watch Bartuch's shot sail toward the basket in the Ronco community park. Lopez says they gather there almost every day to play basketball, weather permitting. The Hatfield's Ferry Power Station lies dormant across the river, having closed in 2013, more than half a century after the Ronco mines closed in 1955.

A 1907 map of Ronco and the surrounding mining operations shows planned houses, buildings, and a supporting farm. Kim Show, now of Uniontown, keeps this map with a small library of Ronco history, an interest sparked in eighth grade when she wrote a school report from first-hand accounts of the very beginnings of Ronco.