Eight years ago, when an underground deluge trapped nine men in the Quecreek Mine, just a half-hour's drive from the scene of Flight 93's crash 10 months earlier, Somerset County residents feared they had taken a one-two punch.

"The folks in this area did think, when the mine disaster happened, 'Oh, my, what are we going to be known as for the rest of our lives? The place of disasters?' " said U.S. Rep. Mark Critz, as he stood a short walk from the site at which he worked his cell phone, carried pipe, and had a wrench dropped on his head during the 2002 rescue when he was the late Congressman John Murtha's aide.

When rescuers hauled the ninth miner back to the surface in a narrow yellow capsule, though, the story line changed.

"I guess the saving of the nine miners was reaffirming that we're in this together, and when we pull together, great things can happen," Mr. Critz said.

That was the interpretation of history offered by neighbors, volunteers and organizers Saturday, as the National Park Service and the Quecreek Mine Rescue Foundation held back-to-back events at the scenes of the Sept. 11, 2001, plane crash in Stonycreek and the subterranean drama eight years ago this weekend. Both sites are the subjects of efforts to attract money and volunteers, as work to memorialize the events proceeds into pivotal stages.

At the Dormel Farm in Lincoln, near Somerset, a few score people heard dairy farmer-turned-foundation President Bill Arnold describe the mix of fundraising and volunteerism that had allowed his family and many other hands to build the shell of a visitors education center near the 240-foot shaft through which the nine miners were pulled to safety.

"The community has embraced this, and said, 'This is what we're about,' " from local kids serving as interns to Amish families that did much of the building for free, Mr. Arnold said.

"This is what Somerset County, and what has come to be called America's county, is about. It's about helping your neighbor. It's about looking at your inventory of blessings."

Quecreek, coming on the heels of Flight 93, "brought a lot of people together and put our county on the map," said Blaine Mayhugh, one of the trapped miners who now works hundreds of feet above ground servicing windmills.

The foundation recently launched a capital campaign aimed at raising the $1 million it needs to complete the interior of the center, said Mr. Arnold. Mr. Critz said he would look for federal funds but added that grants are now hard to come by.

For the Flight 93 crash site, the National Park Service and allies have raised $15 million in donations, triggering a matching amount of federal help, said Jeff Reinbold, the site manager. Combined, that's half of the $60 million needed to complete work at the planned 1,000-acre site and forge arrangements with landholders that will protect the surrounding 1,200 acres from dramatic change.

The 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks against the Pentagon and the World Trade Towers -- and the struggle with hijackers on Flight 93 that likely prevented a fourth attack -- is less than 14 months away, Mr. Reinbold noted. By that time, the freshly graded dirt visible from an overlook will be a plaza at the edge of the off-limits crash zone, its wall featuring the names of the passengers and crew, he said.

The wall's "line is the flight path," said Mr. Reinbold, pointing above a temporary visitor's center and moving his finger across the cloudy sky. "The plane came in over the top of the hill here, and in this direction, and so this [wall] picks up the flight path at the bottom" of the hill.

"It was, believe it or not, just about 40 feet above the ground, traveling at 600 miles per hour."

A new road will take traffic from Route 30 into the site, and then around a broken circle that will eventually be marked with trees and surround a field cut with trails.

A future phase to be completed by 2014 will include the trees, a walkway and a visitor's center. A later addition will be the 93-foot-high Tower of Voices, its wind chimes a reminder of the importance of conversations between passengers, crew, and loved ones on the ground who alerted the eventual heroes to the pattern of hijackings and attacks, prompting them to act.

Much like the Quecreek site, the Flight 93 memorial depends on volunteers.

"To be able to relate the story of 9/11, and in particular what happened aboard Flight 93, in a way that's meaningful and inspirational -- it's an honor," said Donna Glessner, a Shanksville resident and board member of Friends of Flight 93 National Memorial, which helps to operate the site.

She's seen people from all over Western Pennsylvania "bringing their out-of-town guests here, over and over."

"It's worth the trip," said Beth Thomas, a Newark, Del., resident who stopped at the site on her way home from a visit to Pittsburgh. "I remember what a perfect day it was that morning. It's helpful to come here so we don't forget" what happened to shatter the calm.

"We'll come back in four years," she said.

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