Cultural Resources

A. Recreation

Outdoor recreation opportunities abound in the Juniata watershed, especially at lakes, streams, forested ridges, and unique natural features.  Historical sites also prove enticing to the resident and tourist alike.  State, county, and regional tourist and development agencies have focused considerable energy on combining the attractions of historical and recreational sites for potential visitors.  For example, Greenwood Furnace State Park in Huntingdon County features hiking, picnicking, camping, fishing, and swimming, yet it is also the site of a 19^th century iron furnace community that attracts the amateur historian.

The abundance of natural and historical attractions draws recreation enthusiasts from within the region as well as from all over Pennsylvania and the U.S.  A recreation study of the Juniata River corridor prepared by the National Park Service estimated that 89 percent of the total participation in outdoor recreation in Blair and Huntingdon Counties is by nonresidents (USDI, 1991).

A recent study of outdoor recreation travelers commissioned by the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) found camping and nature sightseeing to be the primary activities of visitors to the Juniata River region (DCNR, 1999b).  Hiking, wildlife watching, and fishing were other popular activities according to the study.  A considerable portion of the watershed’s residents hunt and/or fish.  Approximately 46,000 fishing licenses and 61,000 hunting licenses were sold throughout the watershed in 1996 (PAFBC/PA Game Commission, 1999).  Boating, biking, horseback riding, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling are other important recreational activities.

The “supply” of recreation opportunities in the watershed is provided primarily by public agencies on public lands, including state parks and state forests operated by the DCNR, state game lands owned by the Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC), a flood control lake operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a National Historic Site managed by the National Park Service, and an experimental forest and recreation area owned by Penn State University.  Please see Map VI-1 for the location of these areas.  This base of recreational supply is supplemented by private fishing and canoeing outfitters, campgrounds, bait shops, and associated food and lodging businesses.

Eleven state parks are located in the watershed.  The purpose of these parks is to provide recreational and educational experiences for all the residents of Pennsylvania.  The location of state parks was designed so that no resident of Penn’s Woods is farther than 25 miles from at least one of these valuable places.  Stewardship of the natural outdoor experience and conservation of natural, scenic, aesthetic, and historical values over the long-term are the overriding values that guide the management of the parks.  Table VI-1 lists the state parks, their sizes, and the amount of use each receives.

(DCNR/PAFBC, 1999)
* One visitor day is recorded each time a person enters a park.

There are 32 State Game Lands in the watershed, totaling 158,192 acres.  The state game lands are owned by the PGC and provide habitat for many kinds of wildlife, which in turn attract hunters, fishers, birders, hikers, and other wildlife enthusiasts.

State forests are managed by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, whose mission is “to ensure the long-term health, viability and productivity of the Commonwealth’s forests and to conserve native wild plants” (DCNR, 1999c).  Management of state forests involves multiple objectives, including wild character, biological diversity, pure water, opportunities for low-density recreation, habitats for forest plants and animals, sustained yields of quality timber, and environmentally sound utilization of mineral resources.  Most state forests offer hunting, fishing, horseback riding, primitive camping, mountain biking, hiking, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling opportunities.  Parts of five state forests are located in the watershed, totaling 189,444 acres, and they have the following characteristics:

• Bald Eagle State Forest.  This 195,624-acre State Forest has 26,460 acres in the watershed, and is located in Mifflin, Centre, and Snyder Counties.  Recreation opportunities include over 400 miles of State Forest roads and trails for snowmobiling, 24 miles of cross-country ski trails, and 58 miles of designated hiking trails, including part of the Mid-State Trail.

• Buchanan State Forest.  This 70,386-acre State Forest has 30,759 acres in the watershed, and is located in Bedford and Fulton Counties.  Recreation opportunities include two State Forest Picnic Areas (Blankley and Sideling Hill) in addition to 87 miles of designated hiking trails (including 39 miles of the Tuscarora Trail), 78 miles of snowmobile trails, and five miles of cross-country ski trails.
  
• Gallitzin State Forest.  Only 606 acres of this 15,337-acre State Forest are located in the watershed, on the Allegheny Ridge at the Somerset-Bedford County line.

• Rothrock State Forest.  This 94,349-acre State Forest has 81,215 acres in the watershed, and is located in Huntingdon, Centre, and Mifflin Counties.  Recreation opportunities include three State Forest Picnic Areas (Colerain, Pine Hill, and Alan Seeger), five designated Natural Areas (Alan Seeger, Big Flat Laurel, Detweiler Run, Little Juniata, Rocky Ridge), the Thickhead Wild Area, 47 miles of designated hiking trails (including a large section of the Mid-State Trail), 38 miles of cross-country ski trails, and 207 miles of snowmobile trails.
  
• Tuscarora State Forest.  This 90,512-acre State Forest has 50,404 acres in the watershed, and is located in Mifflin, Juniata, Huntingdon, Perry, and Franklin Counties.  Recreation opportunities include one State Forest Picnic Area (Karl B. Guss), the Tuscarora Wild Area (5,382 acres), 49 miles of designated hiking trails, 12 miles of cross-country ski trails, and 120 miles of snowmobile roads and trails.

The Allegheny Portage Railroad National Historic Site is located on the Allegheny Front crossing the Blair-Cambria County line.  About half of this 1,500-acre site is located in the watershed.  Facilities include a visitor’s center, historic buildings and exhibits, nature trails, and a picnic area.

Located almost exactly in the center of the Juniata River watershed, the 29,790-acre Raystown Lake Project is one of its most popular recreation destinations.  Nearly 30 years old, the 30-mile long lake was formed after the construction of Raystown Dam, a flood control project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  The 8,300-acre lake is immensely popular with boaters, as it is the largest lake in Pennsylvania and places no horsepower limitations on boats.  The Corps, in cooperation with the PAFBC, the former Raystown Country Visitor’s Bureau, and private concessionaires, has developed plentiful and high-quality facilities, including 11 boat launch ramps, a visitor’s center, marinas, beaches, campgrounds, fishing guide services, parasailing, restaurants, and a resort.  The lake is well-stocked with both warm and cold water fish.

Penn State University owns the Stone Valley Recreation Area, a 6,670-acre experimental forest and recreation area in northern Huntingdon County.  This area is also the home of the Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center, an outdoor laboratory and classroom for environmental education of both students and community members.  A 72-acre lake provides boating and fishing opportunities and miles of trails entice the hiker, mountain biker, cross-country skier, and snowmobiler.  Cabins provide lodging for the interested recreationist.  Presently, the University plans to drain the lake to perform repairs on the dam and spillway, and this project will last at least through the year 2000.  During this time, there will be no public access to the lake.

The Lower Trail is an 11-mile recreational trail that runs along the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River between Williamsburg and Alexandria.  The only member of the Rails-to-Trails family in the watershed, the Lower Trail is located on the abandoned Petersburg Branch of the old Pennsylvania Railroad and follows the path of the 19^th century Juniata Mainline Canal.  The trail is open to hiking, bicycling, horseback riding, and other non-motorized recreation.  Future plans for the Lower Trail include opening an extension into Canoe Creek State Park within the next year, followed by a section between Canoe Creek and Hollidaysburg.

The Mid-State Trail (MST) provides 189 miles of rugged, cross-country hiking along the ridges of central Pennsylvania.  Beginning at the Little Juniata Natural Area in Rothrock State Forest, Huntingdon County, the MST takes the hiker through Stone Valley Recreation Area, Thickhead Wild Area, Bear Meadows Natural Area, Detweiler Natural Area, and Penn Roosevelt State Park.  Soon after passing through Penn Roosevelt State Park, the MST leaves the Juniata watershed and heads north to Tioga State Forest.  A seven-mile spur trail links Greenwood Furnace State Park to the Mid-State Trail.  A southern extension of the MST is presently being built from US 22 south along the Lower Trail and Tussey Mountain all the way to the state line.

The Link Trail is aptly named, for it links the Tuscarora Trail with the Mid State Trail while following Jacks and Stone Mountains.  Between Cowans Gap State Park at the south and Greenwood Furnace State Park at the north, the entire 72 miles of the Link Trail lies within the watershed’s boundaries.

As the Link Trail follows Jacks Mountain north of Mapleton, it traverses the Thousand Steps, an equally aptly named historical pathway that was used by silica brick miners to arrive at the mountainside mines above Jacks Narrows.  The Thousand Steps and 670 acres of surrounding land were recently purchased by a partnership headed by the Keystone Trails Association and Central Pennsylvania Conservancy.  The parcel will be managed by the PGC as a state game land.

The Tuscarora Trail parallels the Appalachian Trail for 105 miles in Pennsylvania and Maryland along Tuscarora Mountain.  The Tuscarora Trail intersects the Juniata watershed for only a few miles as it passes through Cowans Gap State Park.

The Lost Turkey Trail is a 17-mile trail that passes through Blue Knob State Park.

Forbes Road Historical Trail was originally built by General Forbes in 1758 as he traveled from Carlisle to Pittsburgh to relieve a siege at Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War.  The trail passes through Cowans Gap State Park in the southeast part of the watershed, and on to Shawnee State Park in the southwest part.

The Raystown Branch Juniata River Water Trail was recently designated from Bedford to Saxton, and is in the process of having signs and brochures prepared that help to interpret this 55-mile trail (Mayer, 2000).

Other notable trails in the area include the Terrace Mountain Trail, Buffalo Valley Trail, Dunning Creek Rail Trail, Jackson Trail, and the Reichley Brothers Rail Trail.  Please see Map VI-1 for trail locations.

Major recreational projects in the planning phase include two major greenway initiatives.  Greenways are designated corridors, usually along streams, which focus on developing recreational opportunities, protecting important natural and cultural sites, and promoting local economic development that supports and enhances the associated recreational and natural values.  The first greenway initiative is the Raystown/Huntingdon and Broad Top Greenway Partnership, the centerpiece project of which is the Raystown Branch Juniata River Water Trail from Bedford to Saxton.  A feasibility study of this greenway will get underway in the fall of 2000.  The Pittsburgh-to-Harrisburg Greenway is the more ambitious of the two projects.  This greenway will follow the route of the historic Pennsylvania Main Line Canal along the Juniata River, Frankstown Branch, and Allegheny Portage Railroad.  In 1999, the Pittsburgh-to-Harrisburg Greenway was identified by the White House as Pennsylvania’s only Millenium Legacy Trail (Millenium Trails, 2000).  Both of these initiatives are long-term efforts that will involve many active partners and projects.

Another significant greenway project that is located just outside the basin is the North-South Greenway along the Susquehanna River.  This greenway passes by the Juniata watershed as it travels from Pine Creek in the north to Lancaster in the south.

To experience fully the recreational benefits of the streams in the region, one must be able to reach them.  A plentiful supply of public access sites is crucial to maintaining recreational opportunities such as fishing and canoeing.  At least 39 boat ramps and 71 walk-in canoe and fishing access points are located in the watershed (Weymer, 1998).  Most of the boat ramps are owned and operated by one of the following: the PAFBC, the USACOE, or the DCNR.  For a complete list of public access points, see Table C-10 in Appendix C.

B. Archaeological / Historical Resources

There are 115 historic sites in the watershed listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Sites include historic districts, iron furnaces, dams, canal locks, covered bridges, and historic buildings such as hotels, churches, woolen mills, grist mills, armories, factories, and theaters.  There is even an old roller coaster on the list (Leap-the-Dips in Altoona).  With 41 properties on the National Register, Huntingdon County features the most listed sites.  Properties listed on the National Register have passed uniform standards of evaluation; generally, sites are at least 50 years old.  Benefits of being on the National Register include recognition as a significant historic site, consideration in planning for federal projects, and eligibility to receive federal historic preservation funding and tax benefits (USDI, 1999).  Table C-11 in Appendix C lists the National Register sites in the watershed.

In addition to the official historic sites, there are 349 other historical and archaeological sites identified throughout the watershed, about 300 of which are assumed to date from pre-European settlement (9000 B.C. to 1700 A.D.).  For most of these sites, very little verification information exists.  About 213 of these sites are open air or open camp sites.  Small-scale subsistence agriculture is thought to have developed in the watershed around 3,000 years ago, leading to small, dispersed villages located along the major rivers (USACOE, 1995a).  Immediately prior to European contact, the Juniata watershed was primarily used for hunting, but was also home to some Tuscarora, Delaware and Shawnee villages along the Juniata River, including present-day Lewistown and Frankstown (Stroup, 1957).

In the mid-1980s, the National Park Service was commissioned by Congress to develop a program to preserve and interpret southwest Pennsylvania’s industrial heritage.  The America’s Industrial Heritage Project focused on nine counties in southwest Pennsylvania (Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fayette, Fulton, Huntingdon, Indiana, Somerset, and Westmoreland), and began the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission (SPHPC) as the entity in charge of pulling these counties together in a shared effort to preserve their cultural resources.  The product of this regional partnership is the Allegheny Heritage Development Corporation (AHDC), a non-profit organization whose goal is “to create a sustainable, resource-based tourism destination in the southwestern Pennsylvania area” (AHDC, 1999).

The Path of Progress is a 500-mile national heritage driving route that links the historic and cultural resources of the nine counties of the AHDC.  National and state parks and other important historic sites lie on the route, telling the story of the development of the United States from its origins to the present time.

The Juniata River Corridor Recreation Study, commissioned by the SPHPC in 1991, examined the recreation and cultural resources in Blair and Huntingdon counties.  Recreation needs include more trails suitable for hiking and biking, and more put-in and takeout sites along the Juniata River for canoes and small boats.  Recommendations included developing a rail trail between Williamsburg and Alexandria, and developing put-in and takeout sites near the following locations: Williamsburg, Mount Etna, Alexandria, Petersburg, Warrior Ridge Dam, Huntingdon, Mapleton, and Mount Union.  The rail trail has been completed (see the description of the Lower Trail above) and there are presently public access sites at all of the recommended locations except Mapleton and Mount Union. 

Of the large number of cultural resource sites in the two-county region, four sites were noted for having high quality interpretation potential: the two historic districts of Huntingdon and Hollidaysburg, the Mount Etna Iron Works, and the East Broad Top Railroad.  Additional interpretive facilities and exhibits are recommended for the two historic districts, as well as at the interface between the Pennsylvania Main Line Canal and the Allegheny Portage Railroad.  It was recommended that the East Broad Top Railroad be enhanced in terms of restoring buildings and equipment, using additional track, and providing daily rides and tours of the facility, all of which would better accommodate interpretation and public visitation.  No specific recommendations were offered for the Mount Etna Iron Works, but it was stated that the complex is “worthy of state or national recognition and has great potential for interpretation” (USDI, 1991).

Finally, the recreation study recommended that local communities should actively pursue the designation of the Frankstown Branch of the Juniata River and the Juniata River mainstem as Pennsylvania Scenic Rivers.  Presently, there are no designated Scenic Rivers in the Juniata watershed.  However, 13 stream segments are considered to have statewide importance (Category 1) according to the 1990 Pennsylvania Scenic Rivers Inventory.  Category 1-A streams are in urgent need of protection and further study; the four 1-A segments in the watershed include the Juniata River from Mount Union to Lewistown, the Little Juniata River from Spruce Creek to its confluence with the Frankstown Branch, and the entirety of both Spruce Creek and Tuscarora Creek.  Category 1-B streams have less immediate need for protection; two segments of the Juniata River – from Warrior Ridge to Mount Union and from Lewistown to the Susquehanna River, the Raystown Branch from its headwaters to Saxton, and the entirety of Sinking Run are in this category.  Finally, category 1-C streams have a perceived future need of protection; streams in the watershed with this classification include the Frankstown Branch from Hollidaysburg to the Juniata River, the Little Juniata River from Tyrone to Spruce Creek, the lower reaches of Great Trough Creek, and the entirety of Detweiler Run and Standing Stone Creek (USACOE, 1995a).

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania also began cultural preservation projects in 1989 by establishing the Pennsylvania Heritage Parks Program.  As mentioned in the previous section, efforts are underway across the state to combine the preservation and appreciation of historic and natural resources.  The goal of the Heritage Parks Program is precisely that, to preserve Pennsylvania’s historic and cultural assets as well as its natural resources and scenic beauty, and to do it all in such a way as to educate visitors while generating heritage or eco-tourism economic development opportunities for the regions involved.

Two State Heritage Parks intersect the watershed.  The Allegheny Ridge State Heritage Park in 1992 was the second heritage park to be designated in Pennsylvania; it focuses on the canal portage and railroad tracks that were built over the 1200-foot Allegheny Ridge, as well as the iron, steel, and coal industries these routes sparked.  Originally located in Blair, Cambria and Somerset counties, this park was extended in 1999 into Huntingdon County along the former canal route all the way to the East Broad Top Railroad, a rare and historic narrow-gauge railroad and a national historic landmark.  The Lincoln Highway Heritage Corridor, designated in 1995, promotes the transportation heritage of Pennsylvania’s section of the nation’s first coast-to-coast highway - U.S. Route 30 - as it passes through Franklin, Fulton, Bedford, Somerset and Westmoreland counties (DCNR, 1999d).

C. Education

There are a number of environmental education/research facilities located in the Juniata watershed.  The Raystown Field Station is located on 365 acres in the Raystown Lake Recreation Area.  This facility is run by Juniata College, in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  The Field Station provides special opportunities for environmental research and education.  The facility is a fourteen-bed, fully equipped field house that offers year-round overnight accommodations.

The Field Station mainly supports Juniata undergraduate science laboratory courses and undergraduate independent research projects at the station.  The Field Station also offers many outreach programs to the public.  They offer an Environmental Science Outreach Program to improve Environmental Science curriculum and instruction.  Programs include hands-on investigative field experiences for high school and middle school students and supports curriculum initiatives for high school teachers. The staff at the Raystown Field Station provides public environmental education through a summer speaker series for campers at the Seven Points Amphitheater, holds county Envirothon and Ecomeet Competitions, the state Science Olympiad, and local nature walks.

A favorite activity for many watershed residents is the volunteer supported maple sugaring operation. Every spring the Field Station taps nearly 400 trees and produces approximately 60 gallons of maple syrup.

Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center is one of only a few federal and state facilities in central Pennsylvania licensed to conduct educational programs with permanently injured (nonreleasable) birds of prey. With approximately twenty birds of over a dozen species, the Raptor Center offers the visiting public a variety of live specimens, including vultures, falcons, owls, hawks, and eagles. The main goals of the Raptor Center include the conservation of these majestic birds through education, as well as captive breeding programs that promote the understanding and well being of native raptor populations.  Shaver’s Creek offers field trips, teacher training, traveling bird shows, and research opportunities for Penn State University students.   They also hold a Civil Engineering Camp at the University’s rustic Stone Valley Recreation Area. The schools are two-week outdoor workshops for high school students interested in natural resource management, conservation, and exploring solutions to environmental problems.

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