From wasteland to wonderland

Those who visit Linn Run State Park, near Rector, to enjoy its pristine mountain forest scenery might find it hard to believe that when Pennsylvania purchased the land for conservation and recreation, the commonwealth was criticized because the acreage was considered a wasteland in the aftermath of extensive logging.

Today these 610 acres -- part of a complex of nearly 200,000 that people from across the country and the world visit for a respite from concrete, glass, metal, noise and pollution -- encompass one of the loveliest spots on Earth, so pure in appearance and testable qualities that fragile aquatic life flourishes.

The park's guardians, led by park manager Doug Finger, care for the land and its traditions.

"There are a lot of firsts represented here," Finger said. "This land purchase in 1909, for $42,000 from Byers-Allen Lumber, was the first for conservation and recreation, and it started a trend. In 1918, the National Park Service was established.

"There was a mining and logging revolution around then, for a 10- to 11-year period, and conservation became a state and national government mission; it became important to save land ravaged by logging and fires. Oil development had ravaged the environment in Pennsylvania, too," he added. "From the 1864 oil boom to around 1890, more oil was spilled on the ground and in rivers than was gathered for use. They used wooden barges, with hundreds of thousands of barrels on them. They'd build dams to ensure there was enough water to float them, then break the dams to move the barges -- and only about 20 percent made it."

Another factor propelled the movement.

"We were an urban and rural society then -- and urban people stayed in the urban areas," Finger said. Then the educated elite became imbued "with the whole idea of the stress of the urban environment, and it became important to get people out of cities for their psychological as well as physical health, for the benefit of society.

"It was a general trend; it was around that time," Finger said, "that health spas started out, including the idea that fresh air could cure tuberculosis."

Not only was the land purchase a first, "Laurel Mountain was the first ski resort in Pennsylvania," donated by Richard K. Mellon, Finger added. "This was the first place to import Michigan whitetails" to re-establish a deer population in the state, and "Linn Run had the first trout hatchery," still operating today, providing brook trout, a native fish, for anglers.

Linn Run just managed another first: Park staff members rebuilt their headquarters themselves, saving taxpayers money.

"Most state offices are designed and built by contractor services," Finger said, "but when money for state parks became flat, we saw a need to be more self-sufficient. We saved $100,000 to $150,000 by doing this with our own park crew."

Staff members wanted to move administration offices to the back and devote more space to visitors, including exhibits about the area's natural history and history.

The building they created is impressive -- beautiful, functional and conveying the ethos of the park service by being in tune with its environment.

Park crews constantly clear fallen deadwood that blocks roads and trails and is also a fire hazard. Some of it is neatly stored in a special cubby near a woodstove set on a lovely slab of stone.

Some of the wood used to rebuild the station also was gathered nearby.

"We milled our own beams and mantelpieces with a portable sawmill," Finger said. The rest, including tongue-and-groove paneling, was bought locally.

"There definitely was an advantage I saw, as a manager, to our own staff building this to plans they developed themselves," Finger said. "They were able to develop their own touches, like this chair rail, dividing vertical and horizontal-running boards. My park staff really owned the project; they were involved in every step. Like here," on a wall, "the boards could have been butted, but they chose to champer the ends," for visual interest.

He also is pleased with a surprise the staff created, a park logo created with different woods and panel-direction in the conference room.

"Everything we build is handicapped-accessible, with lower light switches, higher outlets, wider doorways," Finger added. "Next is a wrap-around deck designed to let handicapped people fish in the stream out back."

Fishing is possible at Linn Run because of the park's trout hatchery -- and a partnership Finger called "exciting" with the Forbes Trail chapter of Trout Unlimited, which adopted Linn Run as a project five years ago. It's provided nearly 1,000 hours of volunteer work to improve habitat and stabilize the stream.

"Linn Run," he says, "is a highly episodic acid stream. That's because every time it rains or there's snowmelt, what comes from some of the most acid air around," from industry and power plants in less-regulated Ohio, "enters the waterways. The stream can be at 2.5 to 3.5 pH when snow melts."

The Loyalhanna Watershed Association helped to address that problem.

In 1988-89, working with Penn State University, the watershed association helped to drill three wells in limestone, to provide water with pH of 6.5 to 7.5, sometimes even 8; these wells are operated through trout season to buffer the acidity of the stream.

Now there's a new method.

Trout Unlimited, through Growing Greener, deposited 100 tons of limestone sand into streams last year and will do the same this year. The basic material, once settled into the substrate of a stream, constantly buffers the more acidic water flowing over it.

"Already Rock Run, a tributary of Linn Run, has gone from a pH of 3.5 to nearly 6.0," Finger said. "That's taken a stream that was dead, 3 miles in length, to seeing invertebrates back, mayflies and stoneflies," which provide food for fish.

"Linn Run trout are doing really well," Finger said. "We have a reproducing native trout fishery, supplemented with stocked trout."

Fish and other wildlife brought early activity here.

"The trout hatchery was built by the Latrobe and Ligonier Sportsmen's Clubs in 1928," Finger explained. "Around 1910 and 1920, there was lots of wildlife reintroduction. A significant spot for whitetail deer was Michigan, so that's where they came from. Wild turkey were brought from other Pennsylvania areas. Back then, we were actually just trying to find people who could remember seeing wild turkeys in their lifetime" to tell where natural habitat might be.

"Linn Run was the first area in Pennsylvania to begin what was called retreat camping," providing that "retreat" from urban life for societal health," Finger said. "You can walk through areas of the park, particularly around Adams Falls and Flat Rock, and see stone remnants of cottages where the state encouraged people from urban areas to build. People could lease a quarter-acre for $2 a year, and erect a structure for their own use for weekend retreats -- that was why it was called retreat camping. Today, they are called lease camps; there were about 40 or 50 originally; about 30 are left today, many in the same family since 1920.

"Even before 1907, Linn Run, Flat Rock (a popular area of the stream), even the bog were attracting people from Pittsburgh and Johnstown, some of them camping here," he added.

A bog in a mountain park?

"The bog at Laurel Summit covers about a 16-acre tract of land," Finger said. "A bog environment is unique this far south, because they're from glacial periods. Some from 1 million years ago, the most recent was the Wisconsin glacier, 14,000 years ago, but none came nearly this far south. A bog on top of the mountain, there's no foolproof explanation, but here's what I believe:

"Remember, the Appalachian mountains are folded. So you start with land that's in layers, but it was upheaved, like if you push a tablecloth together; the rock layers are folded, too. But now the tops are the old valleys of the ancient mountains, due to weathering and erosion -- and they're anticline, folded up on the ends, like the ripples between the high parts of the tablecloth. That's what keeps water very near to the top of the surface, and why when you cut trees on the top, water comes up -- there's lots of water available on the top."

Linn Run State Park photo albums show area history, like the PWS railway that used to take lumber off the mountain, and the stone-crusher across from the park office. Stone from here was used for the Methodist church in Ligonier, as well as for early streets in Pittsburgh and Ligonier.

Along the Iscrupe and Pappy's trails can be found remnants of old three-sided fireplaces from the early era, when the Duquesne Club built little Adirondack shelters near Flat Rock and Adams Falls. The rustic cabins near the park office that people can rent from the park were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

The stone foundations of the old McGinnis Rod and Gun Club, built by Hadley Martin's father, can be seen on the way to Flat Rock. A tree that used to arch across Linn Run Road, cut down around 1972, was cited in Ripley's "Believe It or Not."

Someday the photos will be put in displays in the park office. To achieve that and other goals, the park's guardians have started another partnership with stakeholders, who use the park and recognize it as important. The "friends group," 18 strong so far, is officially known as the Linn Run-Laurel Mountain State Park and Forest Outdoor Commission.

They've joined a statewide umbrella group, the Pennsylvania Parks and Forest Foundation. the affiliation will soon give the group nonprofit 501-C3 status soon, so "they can provide resources and funds for projects and events, to do things through partnership that state park people can't do on their own."

With the help of the partnership, Ed Callahan, the district forester, and Finger can do more things without the worries of the constrictions of government.

"We need to be more self-sustaining, not dependent on government, more business-like," states Finger. The partnership will be able to solicit and accept donations for improvements, which staff can't do.

"Tourism is important to this area," Finger said, and the initiative will increase attractiveness for tourists.

There are all sorts of projects to look at -- including gathering support for repaving Linn Run Road, so deteriorated and potholed that it destroys tires, alignments and dental work, Finger said.

"The road is one of the rallying points, and will be the first project," he said. "We want to make it safer; we will accept nothing less than to make for safe biking and walking at the same time."

The partnership also will seek to find a permanent ski operator for the storied downhill slopes.

Finger also hopes to establish campgrounds.

"There's nothing but Keystone," he said. "We have to turn away people with tents, and people with RVs, who would infuse money into the area" when using the park. If money from donations through the partnership was available, he added, "there are areas where we could do a lot. We need a board of directors, citizens to get issues out and show demand" for improvements.

The park manager lives in the park above Rector, and he knows and cares about the needs of area residents as well as the trails deer and coyote use, the spots where trees shelter a bend in Linn Run to keep water cool for the native brook trout, the four-generation gatherings in rental and "legacy" cottages, the tall trees where buzzards settle at night, the stretches of forests where oak seedlings must be assured -- all the things that might make the trip to Linn Run more pleasantly memorable for visitors.