Here’s a clue to this edition’s Mystery Photo: it is in a far-out location. Figure out where this photograph was taken, and send your answer to ebrack2@gmail.com, and be sure to tell us where you live.
The most recent mystery was solved by Sara Rollins of Lawrenceville: “This is the Flight 93 Memorial in Somerset County, Penn. It is the final resting place of the 40 passengers and crew who stopped hijackers from taking their plane to crash into the Nation’s Capitol in Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001. It’s near Shanksville, Penn., in the quiet fields of Stonycreek Township, that commemorates that horrific scene from one of the worst days in the country’s history. The architect who designed the site, along with the visitor center and the Tower of Voices, was Paul Murdoch. The landscape artist and architect was Nelson Byrd Woltz. He designed a Field of Honor by planting 40 Maple trees, one for each passenger, and he also transformed an old coal mine into a healing center.”
Also recognizing the scene were Jay Altman, Columbia, S.C.; Matt Willis, Lawrenceville; George Graf, Palmyra, Va.; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; and Stewart Ogilvie, Rehobeth, Ala., who identified the photo and told of a similar tragedy: “I worked across the street from the World Trade Center in the late 1970’s and 1980’s and transferred to Buckhead in 1988. My company, a primary dealer of the Federal Reserve Bank, where I was an institutional US government securities trader, was shut down by Westpac Bank after heavy losses and I lost my job in 1994.
“Most of my associates took a job at Fuji Securities on the fourth floor of the WTC. Fortunately they escaped the disaster because they were on a low floor. I was offered a job back there after Westpac closed us and declined as I had just moved my family to Gwinnett a few years earlier. I went up to Cantor Fitzgerald often as they were one of our brokers often eating at Windows on the World in the 80’s. They were on the 100+ floors up and the 100+ people all died on 9/11. Who knows what could have happened if I had made a different life choice. The WTC was a magnificent set of buildings both with lobbies larger than a football field.”
- SHARE A MYSTERY PHOTO: If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Click here to send an email and please mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
Gwinnett Tech continues remarkable growth trajectory
Gwinnett Technical College continues its remarkable growth trajectory, reporting 15,689 students enrolled for the 2025 academic year, marking nine consecutive semesters of enrollment increases. This fall alone, more than 12,300 students are enrolled—a 12 percent increase over last year. Additional growth is expected from the upcoming Term C mini-mester in November. The surge follows an impressive 15 percent enrollment increase in Spring 2025. President Dr. D. Glen Cannon attributes this momentum to several strategic factors, including transfer students from four year colleges; high demand programs fully covered by HOPE; affordable tuition and fast-track career pathways; and robust industry partnerships.
