by Paul Belz

“Look!” I called to the hikers who walked along the Youghiogheny River’s banks. “You’re tripping over fossils!” 

They looked at preserved tree trunks and branches, evidence that Pennsylvania was once a tropical wetland. I am an environmental educator, and I long for a day when I can bring kids here.

Twenty-thousand-five-hundred-acre OhioPyle State Park is a living classroom for Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands. Its Ferncliff Peninsula abounds in lichen-covered maples, hemlocks, birches, oaks, and ferns. The Youghiogheny River, flowing from West Virginia to the Monongahela River, encounters resistant sandstone and makes a curve, creating this rugged spot.

Historians believe the name “Ohiopyle” comes from a Native American word for “Place of White Frothing Water.” Environmental educator Barbara Wallace commented, “The conflict between water and rock makes Ohiopyle special. No matter where you go in the park, whether to a waterfall, small gorge, class three rapids or a scenic overlook, you will see this in action. This battle shapes the mountains, gorges and rapids throughout the park. It also provides rock ledges that provide panoramic views of the entire area. For some reason this conflict provides solace and peace.” 

Rick Free, who works for Wilderness Voyageurs, said, “The Great Allegheny Passage and the Laurel Highland Hiking Trail bring hikers and bikers to the area. Others venture from around the world to experience the whitewater rafting options.”

“My favorite spot is Flatrock on the Meadow Run Trail,” he added, “because, like many places in the park, there you are engulfed by the natural beauty, and though many feet walk the same trail annually, the area feels untouched and isolated from the hustle and bustle of the outside world.”

Wallace revealed that her favorite spot depends on the time of year. She said, “In the winter it is the Sugarloaf sledding area.  In the spring it is the Great Gorge trail — we have some of the best and most abundant spring ephemeral wildflowers anywhere in the state. Late spring to early summer, I love the Sproul fields.  It is a birder’s paradise.  It provides a variety of habitats which means a great variety of bird species from field birds to wood warblers. Summer and fall the best place to be is anywhere on the river!”

“We are also located in a spot where four forest types come together,” she continued. “This provides great tree diversity which leads to great animal diversity.  Our most famous plant species is the globally rare Marshallian grandiflora, or Barbara’s Buttons.”

While Ohiopyle looks as wild as a fairy tale’s setting, humans need to work to keep it healthy. Free noted, “Invasive plant species, such as the Japanese knotweed, can crowd out native plants, as well as changing the available habitats for animals. Didymo or rock snot grows along the bottom of streams and can kill plants which grow there.”

“The park has an aggressive plan to manage invasive plants,” Wallace added. “We have had great success keeping Japanese knotweed managed along the Youghiogheny River. The other current invasive of great concern is the hemlock wooly adelaide that is impacting our streamside hemlocks. We are working with Friends of Ohiopyle and our local chapter of Trout Unlimited to help control this plant.”

Barbara Wallace  reflected, “Within the 20,500 acres of Ohiopyle State Park there are over 75 species of special concern, both plant and animal. The river, the rocks and the mountains create many microclimates where many unusual organisms thrive. In the animal department we are home to a Pennsylvania endangered green salamander. The park has been designated as both an Important Mammal Area and an Important Migratory Birding Area by the State of Pennsylvania.”

My partner Kate and I biked along the Great Allegheny Passage from Ohiopyle to the nearby town of Confluence, where a milkshake is a fine treat before the return ride. The eleven mile ride follows the Youghiogheny’s more peaceful spots as the river slides like dark chocolate through the green mountains. River otters and minks feast on the river’s fish here. These creatures join beavers, black bears, ospreys and other wildlife along the shores. Kate spotted one beaver scurrying across the bike path, but the rest of its family saw us coming and hid. 

The area’s history of human interaction is also interesting. Wallace explained, “It appears that American Indians did not settle in this area but used it for trapping and fishing. It is believed that they didn’t settle here because of the rugged landscape and fast flowing rapids. The town was officially founded in 1868.  However there had been pioneer settlers here in the late 1700s.”

“The town’s earliest residents were here to take advantage of the vast forest resources available,” she added. “Many of them were loggers or ran tanneries. As a sideline many of these settlers also farmed rye which they converted into moonshine.”

The region became a center for confrontations between farmers, trappers, hunters, and their government. King George III’s desire to respect Iroquois land claims became an issue in the American Revolution. After independence, George Washington led 15,000 militiamen into the Laurel Highlands and other regions to put down the Whiskey Rebellion, an uprising by settlers who opposed a tax on whiskey. 

The National Road made the Laurel Highlands  more accessible to farmers, trappers and miners in 1831. The railroad’s arrival in the 1870s strengthened the lumbering industry; a mill sat near Ohiopyle Falls. Trains also brought tourists – a round trip ticket between Pittsburgh and Ohiopyle cost $1. Many hotels appeared in the 1880s, including the Ferncliff Hotel with its boardwalk, trails, bowling alley, and dance palace.  The hotel complex closed in the 1920s, allowing native forests to return to the peninsula.

It was inevitable that coal mining would develop in the Laurel Highlands. Wallace commented, “Fossil fuels were deposited here during The Carboniferous Period, sometimes called the Pennsylvania Period, around 320 to 280 million years ago. The southern continent of Gondwana periodically flooded and dried as a series of ice ages raised ocean levels when ice melted, and lowered when it refroze.”                

This series of flooding and dryness deposited the rock layers that form modern Pennsylvania, and created the amphibian, reptile, and dragonfly filled wetlands where Ferncliff Peninsula’s fossilized trees once thrived. Aquatic plants that died here were buried under later deposits, creating Pennsylvania’s famous coal beds. Fayette County’s mines fired steel mills in Pittsburgh and Cleveland, and contributed to America’s prosperity. They also took a toll on local water quality. 

The Laurel Highlands’ fortunes changed in the 1960s when the Pennsylvania Conservancy bought much of the land and sold it to the state. Free said, “The park was opened to the public in 1965, but wasn’t formally dedicated until 1971. With one a million visitors to Ohiopyle annually, tourism is the focal point of the town’s economy, creating hundreds of seasonal jobs and adding millions of dollars to the economy each year.”

Wallace believes that environmental education deepens children’s and adults’ love for this wild place. “One of our favorite programming topics is our River Otter Education Project,” she commented.  We do this program with the general public and local schools.  Some of these are inner city, low income schools.”

“The return of the river otter is evidence that the improvement of our waterways through conservation and hard work has been a success here,” she added. “The students participate in an ongoing study to determine the diet of our otter population.  They visit an otter latrine (think of it like a fire hydrant in a neighborhood, where every dog has to stop) and collect scat.  We bike to and from the latrine.  On the way back one day I had a student say, ‘This is awesome, I thought this was going to be awful.  This is one of the best days I’ve ever had!’”

Both Wallace and Free believe that Ohiopyle’s growing tourism industry can offer sustainable work for the region’s people.  Wallace said, “The 2010  census had 57 full time residents in the Borough of Ohiopyle.  In the summer that number goes into the hundreds; many work with visitors who need a place to stay and eat.”

Free added, “Most of the part-time residents are working in the tourism trade.  Full time residents either run the businesses in town that are open year round, but many commute to nearby resorts or the town of Uniontown for work.  Many of the river guides in town are also winter sports enthusiasts, so they quickly find work at nearby ski resorts.”

Wallace concluded, “The future is very bright for Ohiopyle. It is an amazing place that is well loved by virtually anyone who spends even a small amount of time here. When you love a place, you want to protect it. This gives us great hope for a shining future here.”