MEADVILLE — “Word of mouth is the number one marketing tool,” says Juanita Hampton, executive director of the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It is like a chain reaction — like a ripple in a pond.”

That’s why she and others are excited about a new book that highlights not only some of the interesting places to see in Crawford County, but the character of its residents.

“Ten Million Steps on Route 6” by writer Joe Hurley and photographer Travis Lindhorst is on sale now at route6walk.com, and Hurley’s effort to promote the book nationwide has him returning to Crawford County this weekend.

In 2004, Hurley walked the length of Route 6 from Provincetown, Mass., to Long Beach, Calif., writing weekly columns for more than a dozen newspapers, including The Meadville Tribune. His aim was to discover the true spirit of America by walking one of the country’s longest and oldest highways. The journey captured the interest of many Tribune readers who chose to greet Hurley and walk with him as he came through the area.

“Ten Million Steps” documents the interesting and unusual people and places Hurley encountered along his 3,500-mile journey. Getting the book into print took much longer than the walk itself because, unwilling to compromise the stories and photography to the demands of commercial publishers, Hurley ended up self-publishing, a process that put him hands-on with everything from proofreading to layout. The result is a 204-page tome suitable for display on even the fanciest of coffee tables. Generous space is provided for Lindhorst’s beautiful photographs and each story is its own standalone “chapter,” allowing the reader to spend just a few minutes at a time reading just as easily as several hours.

Crawford County takes center stage for six of the book’s “chapters,” which highlight the Riverside Inn in Cambridge Springs; a Venango couple’s successful effort to save and renovate an old church building; the roadsign art project at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation facility in Vernon Township; the efforts to restore Conneaut Lake Park; and the spillway at Pymatuning State Park, where the ducks walk on the fishes’ backs.

Having these sites written up in a specialty publication with nationwide reach is certainly significant, as Hampton and others in the business of promoting Crawford County point out. But Hurley goes further and makes a special effort, not once but twice, to underscore the interest, welcome and support he received from Crawford Countians. This happens nowhere else in the book and none of the other communities he went through — and he walked from the Atlantic to the Pacific — get this treatment.

In a chapter titled “Meadville Heroes,” Hurley writes, in part, of his experience here: “Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people welcomed Travis and me. It was beyond our expectations. I’ve been inspired by the kindness of people I met throughout this adventure, but in Crawford County I was overwhelmed by generosity.” Accompanying the text is a picture of Hurley being mobbed by well-wishers in downtown Meadville and a picture of a parent and child along Route 6 with a sign that reads “Best of luck on your journey, Joe. Keep trucking!”

In another section of the book where Hurley details the difficulties of planning and executing the journey, Hurley again highlights Crawford County’s welcome, and he further explains that the encouragement he received couldn’t have come at a more important time.

Hurley cut his foot while walking in eastern Pennsylvania, and this wasn’t a journey that allowed down time. He was literally limping across the state when he arrived here. He writes: “Western Pennsylvania, especially the Meadville area, was a turning point. Scores of people greeted us along the roads and made us feel like heroes. During a television interview, I mentioned money was tight, and hundreds of dollars flowed in. People stopped me along the way and pushed crumpled bills into my hand ... the gestures were more important than the money.”

Hurley’s effort to highlight Crawford County’s character “is pretty special,” Hampton said. Those mentions will help the county stand out to the tourists Hampton anticipates will read Hurley’s book. As a result, it will become more likely they will stop here and will talk up the county to their friends and relatives, Hampton predicts. “It will give us a lot of exposure,” she said.

Meanwhile, Hurley is looking forward to another helping of Crawford County hospitality when he returns this weekend.

“It’s great coming back to Meadville. It’s a great town and was one of my favorite places on the walk and after. The people in this whole area are so friendly and welcoming that it feels like home — actually it’s friendlier than home!

“Because the people were so helpful, we found a lot of great stories here, which is why there are more Crawford County stories than almost any other place in the book. I sure hope people come to this weekend’s events so we catch up a bit.”



Pat Bywater can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at pbywater@meadvilletribune.com.



You can go

Joe Hurley, author of “Ten Million Steps on Route 6,” has several public appearances planned for the area this weekend.

He will be at the Second Saturday event Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at the Meadville Market House.

On Saturday at 2 p.m. he will give a free, open to the public presentation at Allegheny College in Room 206 of the Henderson Campus Center.

On Sunday at 1 p.m. he will give a free, open to the public presentation at the Dockside in Conneaut Lake Park.

Books will be available for purchase at each event and are also for sale at route6walk.com.