Amish crew to wrangle Murrysville tree sign into shape

A group of Amish workers from the Smicksburg area are hard at work this week clearing brush around the Murrysville tree sign off of Pleasant Valley Road.

The 850-foot sign — which spells “Murrysville” in capital letters with spruce trees — has become so overgrown that several letters are indistinguishable.

Chief administrator Jim Morrison said $10,000 has been earmarked for the work being done this week, and it should more than cover the cost.

The sign, primarily planted with Norway spruce trees, along with a few Colorado blue spruces, has been maintained by the Sportsmen and Landowners Alliance of Murrysville since the late 1970s. Beginning a decade or so ago, alliance officials were reimbursed up to $2,500 by the municipality for the work they performed.

According to alliance President Carl Patty, the group's members largely are unable to continue with the maintenance, in part due to the steep slope on the hillside.

“There's also been a lot of deciduous growth from the sewer line down to the road,” Patty said. “(The Amish crew) will be working on that and then working their way up through the sign.”

Though the Amish workers do not own power tools, they have no problem with using them, Patty said.

“We'll provide them with weed whackers, gas-powered chain saws, rakes and pitchforks,” he said.

The workers also plan to pile the debris they gather and burn it. Morrison said any residents who see smoke trails coming from the area of the sign this week shouldn't be worried.

Planted in the early 1930s by Boy Scouts, the sign made entirely of arborvitae has grown to more than 150 feet tall. It has been featured in the “Guinness Book of World Records” and on “Ripley's Believe it or Not.”

However, even if it is well-maintained, it won't last forever.

“Jim (Morrison) had an arborist come out (in the fall of 2013) when we were working out how the sign was going to be maintained,” Patty said. “What we're looking at is that if the trees are trimmed, they should last us, as a viable sign, for another 10 or possibly 15 years.

“In that time frame, we're going to have to do some very serious fundraising to be able to maintain the sign in the future,” he said.

The big problem, he said, is that the trees are big and getting bigger.

“The average Norway spruce grows 2 and a half to 3 feet per year, and that's not just upward, that's outward,” Patty said. “So the letters start growing together and losing their definition. Plus, in 15 to 20 years, you're looking at an additional 20 feet on these trees, and at that point, they'll be too much to manage.”

The Amish crew will be working over the course of about 10 days, weather permitting, Morrison said.

Patrick Varine is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-871-2365.