Ohiopyle, Heaven on Water, A Colorful Past
by Marci Lynn McGuinness ©  

   They came here to hide, to start over, to escape their own personal hells. Some were dodging the law. Others had wondered through the hills following the river. Many hopped a train and got out in paradise. Ohiopyle’s romantic appeal has gotten to men and women down through the ages-the Indians, white settlers, the Andrew Stewart family, early travelers, outlaws, businessmen, tourists. With the great water fall as its centerpiece, this hidden village exudes energy.

   During the 1600’s, the Monongahela People populated the mountain area surrounding the Youghiogheny River. Their culture was highly developed and derived from the Mississippi Valley Indians. We refer to them as “Mound Builders” as they piled all their dead people, animals, pottery, and discarded belongings in mounds mixed with the earth. Such mounds can be found locally- one on the east side of Summit Mountain. On Bear Run a defensive embankment was found and traced back to the Mound Builders-evidence of their war time.It was deduced that they were of high intelligence compared to the Indians white settlers met here in the late 1700’s.Their disappearance has been contributed to a combination of white man’s diseases and the war between the Susquehannacks and the Senecas (Iroquois). By 1675, these people were wiped out and southwestern Pennsylvania was left virtually bare. Soon, Delaware and Shawnee Indians were pushed east. These wayward Indians were taken in by the Iroquois who made their homes on the Monongahela River. They would send them to these mountains to hunt and fish and to bring home the meat supply. 
   During this time the American seaboard was colonized by the English and the French had settled along the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. There had yet to be an attempt on either of their parts tomove westward beyond the Allegheny Mountains. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the French had explored and set up their trading posts and missions from the Great Lakes to the Gulf and from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi River. The English had established fur trading with the Indians of the Ohio Valley, but had not tried to settle there until 1748. At this time Thomas Lee, President of the Virginia council, associated himself with twelve men to form the Ohio Company. Among his partners were George Washington’s brothers- Lawrence and Augustine, Governer Robert Dinwiddie, and a very rich London merchant named John Hamburg. They received a royal grant in March 1749 to take possession of five thousand acres of land lying on the south side of the Ohio River and between the Kanawha and Monongahela Rivers. They were ordered to select a plot of two thousand acres immediately where they would build a settlement with a fort and garrison where at least one hundred families could set roots over the next seven years. Christopher Gist was hired as their agent. He set forth to scout land and make friends with the local Indians. On this trip he befriended a Seneca chief, Tanacharisson, who was called the Half- King and was very much respected for his great intelligence. He returned to Virginia in 1751. In 1750 the Ohio Company built a storehouse near Will’s Creek (today’s Cumberland, MD). Colonel Thomas Cresap was hired to open up a road from Will’s Creek to the Monongahela River. He wisely took Chief Nemacolin as his assistant. They followed a century old Indian path that led west to the top of Laurel Hill (Summit Mountain)from Will’s Creek. It made a sharp north turn here and descended the mountain to join the Catawba Trail. In 1752 Gist made another survey of the area and the next year chose 2500 acres of land at the foot of Laurel Hill and built a settlement of eleven families. This made him the second settler of what we now refer to as Fayette County. 
   In 1753 the French began building forts to secure the Ohio Valley. Virginia’s Governer Dinwiddie commissioned George Washington to go to St. Pierre at the headwaters of the Allegheny and deliver a message demanding an explanation from the French concerning their design and to heed a warning. At Will’s Creek Washington took Gist as his guide along with French and Indian interpreters, servants, and traders and proceeded on the Nemacolin Trail. He delivered the messageand St. Pierre assured him he would pass the message on to his superiors, but he planned to oust all Englishmen from the Ohio Valley. The Ohio Company built a strong storehouse on Redstone Creek in January of 1754. In the spring of that year the French began moving their forces down river. 
   George Washington was then commisioned Major and ordered to go to Redstone, finish the fort, and kill or take prisoner those who try to halt their progress. Before moving on, Washington was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel and three hundred troops assigned him. They were split into six companies and Colonel Joshua Fry was appointed to command the whole brigade. As Washington and his troops left Will’s Creek their first mission was to cut out a roadto the fort as Fry would follow them with heavy artillery. They left in early April. On May 18 they reached the Great Crossing (Yough Dam area). The Youghiogheny River was too high to cross and Indians and traders told Washington that there was no way to cut a road over the rough mountains large enough to haul tanks and such. He decided they could be right and had his men build a wooden canoe. He rowed the canoe downriver while Lieutenant West, three soldiers and an Indian guide walked. Along this route they met a French trader named Paul Suver who told them the river was too narrow and low to haul such equipmet and troops. 
   When they came to where the Youghiogheny met the Casselman River and Laurel Run Creek, they camped for the night naming the spot “Turkey’s Foot” because of the three streams coming together in the shape of the fowl’s feet. They explored the area the next day with the idea of building a fort there, but after traveling the waters they came to rapids and a water fall (Ohiopyle). It was here that young Washington said, “the water becomes so rapid as to oblige us to come ashore.” He gave up the idea of transporting on the Youghiogheny and wrote in his journal to Joshua Fry that, “the Youghiogheny will never be navigible.”He and his men hiked along an old Indian path back thirty miles and joined their troops. They then continued on cutting out a road and arrived at the Great Meadows in Farmington at 2 o’clock in the afternoon on May 24th. Having notice that the French were nearby the men wasted no time. They organized their wagons in the natural entrenchments afforded by the land. He sent scouts out to find the French and discovered there was a small group of them camped just a few miles away.That night they met with the Half King and decided to attack the Frenchmen.This they did, killing the leader, Jumonville, and nine men and taking 21 soldiers prisoner. The Indians scalped the dead French. On May 30th they began building a fort to ward off the French who they expected to retaliate.On June 2nd the fort built out of “necessity” was finished and a religious service held. That day the Half King arrived with over 25 Indian families who were fleeing the French. Days later Joshua Fry died on his way to the new fort,leaving young Washington in command. On July 3 in the pouring rain the French attacked the fort killing 30 English and wounding 70. Thus the French and Indian War began. 
   According to records the area around the Ohiopyle Falls saw its first white settlers around 1770. A man named John Stewart came here and planted an apple orchard on Kentuck Mountain. He had four sons named James, Andrew, John, and Thomas. They buried John Sr, on the farm around 1800 and moved on with their mother. 
   It was after the revolution that early settlers came here, referring to their new home as Falls City. Paul Stull, Peter Bruner, David Askins, Rueben Thorpe, and James Mitchell built houses/cabins here. Askins was the man who named Kentuck Mountain. He said he was headed to Kentucky, which was considered the promised land at the time. Persuaded to stay, he made a tomahawk claim on ten square miles claiming it his “Little Kentucky”. James and John Mitchell and their families built up the farm that the Stewarts deserted. Rueben Thorpe served under the immediate command of George Washington in the Revolutionary War. He came here and opened a public house and distillery. My great grandmother was a Thorpe and many Mitchells reside in the area today. 

Early Falls City

   As the Thorpes, Askins, and Mitchells struggled to make a living in the wilderness surrounding the Ohiopyle Falls in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, many built water powered mills along the Youghiogheny’s tributaries. At this time there were no roads-only paths-that led to the beautiful falls area. I’m sure this was part of the attraction for those seeking a peaceful place to live. With the roar of the wild water fall as their background, these tough people cut out a life in this remarkable area. It took hours to travel here from the closest towns of Connellsville and Uniontown, but as today, the energy derived from being near such powerful water is always worth it. Such power was harnessed to run grist and saw mills which allowed the families to grind the grain they grew and to saw timber for their homes, barns, and later, their mines. 
   Falls City was a special place.Those who lived within these majestic mountains and along the fast moving river were proud and thankful to have found their paradise. 
   In 1837 James Mitchell bought 400 acres on Kentuck Mountain from Andrew Stewart. This was several decades after John Stewart’s family buried him there and left. Andrew was his son. A mystery arises here-one I have yet to settle. Was this Andrew Stewart an uncle or cousin to the Congressman? There were three Andrew Stewarts that I know of-these two and the Congreesman’s son, Colonel Andrew Stewart. I believe strongly that they were related not only to each other, but to William Stewart who founded Stewart’s Crossing in Connellsville. The Congressman had a son named William. When I find out these details I will share them with you! History is a never-ending learning experience even though you never really know anything for sure!! So, I will strive to discover whether Mitchell bought the land from John’s son or the Congressman. 
  
 
The Congressman Andrew Stewart I spoke of was a major player in the development of Falls City. He wasborn in 1791 in McClellandtown on a farm that his father traded to William McClelland for a farm in Gibbon Glade called “Land of Cakes”. His parents, Abraham and Mary (Oliphant) Stewart, raised their son to be an independent thinker. He worked on the farm while going to school. One day in 1812, Abraham took his son to work with him as he was road supervisor during the building of the great National Road. This particular day went down in history and no doubt stayed in the boys mind all his life. Tom Fossit, a very large and rough mountain man who was known to have killed Braddock came along and showed them where the general was buried. They dug up General Braddock’s corpse and his bones were moved to the other sid e of the road where a marker was made. At an early age, Andrew took a job as a clerk at a furnace and then taught school. Always thinking of the future, he saved his money and went to Washington College to study law. In 1815 he was accepted into the Fayette County Bar. This same year he was elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature and re-elected for a three year term. Next he began to run for Senate but President Polk appointed him District Attorney. In 1820 Stewart began his Congressional career, serving eighteen of the next thirty years. After eight years he changed from the Democratic party to the Whig because of their views on the tariff.In 1848 he was nominated Vice President of the United States, but by a fluke of fate, the chairman went to the convention announcing they could not make a decision. Filmore was then nominated to be President Taylor’s VP and Stewartdeclined the job of Secretary of the Treasury.The Honorable Andrew Stewart was known throughout the country as “Tariff Andy”. He fought hard to protect our country’s industries and to repair the National Road. His contemporaries and friends in Congress included Abe Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, John Quincey Adams, and Andrew Johnson. 
   During the early 1800’s he built an entire block of offices and businesses in Uniontown called “Stewart’s Row” in addition to the Clinton House Hotel on Main Street there.He lived in part of Stewart’s Row and then made his home in the Clinton House before it was turned into a hotel. This sat next to the courthouse as it does today. But, it seems, his heart was always in the mountains.He built a hotel and cabinsalong Fayette Springs Road where a sulpher spring , known for itscurative properties, attracted travelers from far and wide. So popular was the Fayette Springs that he built the second Fayette Springs Hotel on the National Road, under a mile away. This was 1822. He was thirty years old and serving his first term in Congress. The hotel boasted a ten pin alley, billiards, and the best banjo pickers this side of the Alleghenies. Through the next decades Stewart emassed land holdings of over eighty thousand acres. He bought and sold and leased and rented. He built the Wharton Iron Furnace in 1839 and produced canon balls for the civil war, rebuilt a glass-works, constructed eleven saw mills, four grist mills, numerous planing mills, and two hundred rental properties! 
   In 1835 Stewart married the daughter of David Shriver. They had six children. 
   After retiring from public service in 1850, Stewart bought up Falls City and surrounding mountain properties. He laid the city out, built a grist mill on the falls, and began constructing houses and selling them to his workers. Before Stewart came to town there was only small industry. Folks were making due in a life of hard labor-farming the lands and hunting and fishing and gardening for their food. Stewart brought prosperity to their paradise. As much as I hate to assume things, in history, you must try to feel what the people must have felt. Mr. Stewart was undoubtedly upset with the mix-up that cost him the Vice Presidency, especially when President Taylor died and Filmore became President. President Stewart, hmmmm...
   As a resident of Ohiopyle today, I am proud that such an intelligent visionary left his legacy for me to discover. Throughout the next 22 years, this great man poured his never ending energies into building industry in Falls City. Although he resigned from Congress, he fought hard to bring the railroad to our fair Falls City and succeeded in doing so. 
   As settlers built churches and stores, a tannery, hub works, shook factory, and several splint chair factories, Stewart developed a plan to make Falls City a place for city folk to escape. 
   So, you are probably wondering what the rest of the Falls City residents were up to while Mr. Stewart came in and pretty much took over. 
   Andrew Briner built a farmand saw mill on Cucumber Run. Samuel Potter came here and raised five sons, John, George, Amos, Thomas, and Charles. He built a grist mill on Meadow Run in 1832and ran it for twenty years until his son John took over. Samuel Potter built The Fayette Tannery for Fuller, Breading & Meason in 1853 in addition to the Meadow Run Cabin and a store/office complex just below the falls. 
   William Williams settled in Stewart Township(named after our illustrious Andrew in 1855)on Meadow Run in 1830 and helped build the Clay Pike in 1810. 
   Sugarloaf Mountain was settled by the Shipleys, McClatcheys, Gilmores, Morrisons, Halls and Woodmansees. 
   The Thorpe farm was built by Jacob and improved by James in 1805 just north of the Youghiogheny. On the east side pioneers were the Mariettas, Minors, Zarleys, Tissues, and Fultons. Stores and farms and small businesses cropped up in Falls City and neighboring Mill Run.  
   The year after Stewart Township was laid out Thomas Burgess was elected Justice of the Peace, James Leonard-Constable, James Morrison-Assessor, and John B. Potter was our first Auditor.
   As far as records show, the Stewarts did not seek office in their township. I believe they were far too busy. That same year, 1856, a post office was opened in the tannery store. It was named Pile Falls and run by Samuel Price. This served as the social center of the town for many years. 
   George Potter and Benjamen Leonard were the first to manufacture splint chairs on Meadow Run. Rueben and Christmas Leonard followed in their father Ben’s footsteps and kept his business going long after his death.    In the early 1800’s Jim Dean had a saw mill on Meadow Run. In later years (1868) the Rushes and McMillans operated mills on Jonathan Run. 
   Around 1843 Henry Fry made history by constructing a hewed-log dam above the falls and a frame of a saw mill, but before he got underway high water destroyed his efforts. Next the Honorable Andrew Stewart put up a dam about four hundred feet above the falls along with saw and grist mills. A long trunk conveyed the water to the mills. These were destroyed in a fire before they were open for business. Andrew’s young son Albert then upgraded the machinery with three Rainey turbine wheels. This gave the mill the power of one hundred and thirty horses. In 1865 he added a planning mill to this well patronized industry. 
   I can’t neglect to mention that three miles up above the falls, in the very early 1800’s where the meadow lies, was a salt works. Thomas Meason (1819)would take ten pounds of salt to every barrel of water taken from their three hundred feet deep hole. This would be pumped to the surface by horse power and transported to the works half mile away through wooden pipes. There the water was evaporated in sixty two, fifty gallon iron kettles. The salt sold for three dollars a bushel. When the price dropped the works was abondaned, and the kettles given to local farmers for their maple sugaring. Later the B&O Railroad was laid across the salt works. 
   With all this growth, it was only a matter of time when a tavern would be opened. Elijah Mitchell took care of that in 1858 when he built a “public house” just across from the falls. This made it handy to workers and travelers. 
   Churches sprung up as the population grew. On May 22, 1834, The Little Kentucky Baptist Church was organized . Its members were the Mitchells, Briners, Deans, Thorpes, and Rushes. Three years later they moved to Falls City next to the river where today’s Visitor’s Center now stands. The Mount Hope Presbyterian Church began their meetings in 1850 in the old stone school house on Kentuck Mountain. By 1873 they were meeting in the Baptist Church and then Andrew Stewart gave them the plot of land for a church (where the firehall was later built). The Meadow Run Methodist Episcopal Church was built down on the stream in 1860 and still runs today in that building. At the turn of the century the present day Methodist Church was built just behind the corner store. 
   Schools were built on top of Kentuck, Sugarloaf, Maple Summit Mountains and in between asfamilies grew, but Falls City’s first official school was built in 1882. Before this classes were held in a cabin close to the falls. One room school houses were named Whig Corner, Mountain, Egypt, Sugarloaf, Kentuck, and Greenbrier. So, the mills were running non stop. Men hunted the great white tail deer and caught our native trout. It was a rich private life in Falls City. Residents enjoyed the river. They had it all to themselves. Andrew Stewart built the first bridge (covered)over the Youghiogheny River in the early 1850’s, making his beautiful Ferncliff Peninsula accessable to the town itself. And then he brought the railroad to town....

Falls City Booms...

   Stewart Township was named after the Honorable Andrew Stewartin 1855, because the Congressman put his money where hi s heart was in the early days of Falls City (Ohiopyle). He bought up thousands of acres in the mountains, but it was the lush Ferncliff Penninsula that intrigued him! 
   After a detrimental flub by the Whig nomination chairnan cost Stewart the office of Vice President of the United States, President Taylor paid a visit to Uniontown. He arrived at the Clinton House HotelFebruary 21, 1849 where hundreds gathered to greet him. Andrew Stewart built the Clinton House and lived there many years before it was turned into a hotel. Was it here that the President offered Stewart the office of Secretary of the Treasury and was turned down? I have no information to confirm this yet, but I have a hunch that is why he made the trip to Uniontown. Taylor soon died and Filmore took the Presidency as Stewart should have. But our Andrew stayed busy. During the remaining twenty three years of his life he kept in tune with Washington and worked very hard to bring the railroad through Falls City. In addition to his business interests, he owned part of the Madison College in Uniontown and was President of the board. When they turned it into the Soldier’s Orphan School during the Civil War, he set up $10,000. worth of annual scholarship money for hard working students. This went on until his death although the school was moved to Jumonville. 
   In 1862 Stewart replaced the covered bridge over the Youghiogheny with a tall steel model. The ends of the covered bridge were steel and were hauled up to Cucumber Run. Here a bridge over the creek was built. This bridge was replaced this past year. Ashe served as President of the region’s committee to bring the railroad to the area, he also drew up plans for Falls City’s future. In 1868 these a maintenance building was erected here for the railroad workers. What an exciting time for Falls City residents and the Stewarts! By now he was an eldery man, but his energy continued. His sons David, Albert and Col. Andrew worked with him, helping to run his vast estate.    In 1871 the railroad came through Falls City and the Stewarts turned a huge barn into the three story Ohiopyle Hotel. It sat on the immediate north side of the B&O train station here. A general store was also opened in the hotel building. Stewart was ready for the flow of traffic and industry the railroad would bring. This same year Stewart built the wooden Meadow Run Bridge, making Falls City more accessible. 
   On July 16, 1872 the Honorable Andrew Stewart passed away and left his family his vast holdings referred to as the Stewart Estate. He was eighty two years old, a long life at that time. I believe that after he succeeded in bringing the railroad here, he was able to relax knowing his sons would carry on with his plans to make Falls City a travel destination of recognition. After the estate was settled his widow sold Stewart’s Row in Uniontown and the Fayette Springs Hotel (Stone House) on the National Road. 
   By 1879 the Stewarts built the four story Ferncliff Hotel on the 100 acreFerncliff Peninsula. It was a picture of glamor with running water throughout boasting eight hundred electric lights, and the best in cuisine and service. An archway bearing its name led travelers from the B&O station down a long boardwalk. “Our porters meet all trains” was part of their ad then.The boardwalk led up to the hotel on the hill and down to the river where a bathhouse, bowling alley, and pavillion were built for the enjoyment of patrons. “Western Pennsylvania’s Outing Resort” had a dining room that sat 150, hot and cold baths with iron and sulphur water, tennis courts, a baseball diamond, fishing, bathing, and picnicking. There were reading an reclining chairs throughout the woods in addition to a croquet court, many swings, and refreshment tents. The Ferncliff Hotel overlooked the Ohiopyle Falls and the Cucumber Falls and Meadow Run Slides were within close walking distance. The town of Falls City could be seen from Lover’s Leap, an overlook on the Ferncliff side of the falls. The Spoke and Hub Works, Fayette Tannery, Planning, Grist & Saw Mills, Thomas Potter’s Coal Mine,and the Falls City Shook Factory could be viewed from above. Wooden steps led down the cliff to the fallswhere visitors could enjoy the river. Surrounded by water, the peninsula offered both a relaxing and energetic atmosphere with all the modern conveniences of the great hotel. Other than a few small cabins, the hotel was the only building ever constructed on the Ferncliff Peninsula. 
   The Coal and Coke Boom was underway and the Youghiogheny River Gorge, mined and timbered.Throughoutthe next decade, stores, liveries, and businessess were erected and the population grew to eight hundred-the most who have ever resided here! In 1891 Falls City’s name was changed to Ohiopyle and the town wasincorporated intoa borough.Ohiopyle means beautiful falls and white frothy waterin the local Indian tongue. This same year a law was imposed carrying a fine of $5.00 - $25.00 for swearing or taking the Lord’s name in vain. 

   At the turn of the century Ohiopyle boasted four hotels: The Ferncliff Hotel, the Ohiopyle House, Dr. Brady’s Boarding House, and the Ranier . Passanger trains brought travelers from far and wide keeping the hotels over booked. Many residents and farmers rented extra rooms and times were good. 
   This time, from the moment the railroad came to town in 1871, to the great depression of the 1930’s, were six decades of prosperity. In 1903 the Stewarts tore down and rebuilt the Ohiopyle Hotel. Both their hotels were thriving and they had been building houses and stores in Ohiopyle and selling them and selling lots. I have yet to find out why they never built the subdivision their father had son Albert design. His son, Colonel Andrew Stewart died in 1903. With William dyng heroically at sea, Fannie losing her life as a baby, and Elizabeth passing in 1894, and David Shriver Stewart in 1897, Albert was the only child of the Congressman left to carry on his estate. Albert lived until 1916. The Stewarts had owned two hundred acres here-the entire town and the peninsula. Most of the buildings and houses were built by them. They gave the town the “Green” where the playground area is and the land where the firehall sits. This was originally given to the Presbyterian Church but the church has long been gone. 
   The Brady Boarding House burnt down in 1916 along with Tom Flemming’s Store and several homes.These were located across the Youghiogheny from the town and across the street from the Ohiopyle Hotel. Men doused the hotel with water and saved it The Downer Excursion House also burned this year. 
   In 1903 Tim Michell and his crew were cutting timber off of Ferncliff. They built a swinging bridge to get the logs across the river. Cable track was laid on the bridge and horses hauled wagon loads of lumber across the river! Since this is the year the Ohiopyle Hotel was rebuilt and son Col. Andrew died, I assume they were clearing land for their 337 lot village. I don’t yet know why Albert never went on with things-yet!I do know he did no building on the peninsula after his last brother died.All the Stewart’s Ohiopyle property was sold off through the years. 
   The Ohiopyle Lumber Company opened in 1905 which became the Kendall (Samuel and Jacob)Lumber Company in 1915. They built a 26 mile narrow guage tram road from Meadow Run to West Virginia to haul logs. They logged four thousand acres south and east of Sugarloaf Mountain. They worked this mill on Meadow Run into the early twenties. 
   The wooden Meadow Run Bridge was replaced in 1919 with the one that was recently replaced! 
   By the late1920’s many owned automobiles (which had a hard time climbing mountains) and the tourist trade fell off. 
   The 1930’s brought the great depression and times became hard here in Ohiopyle. The Ferncliff hotel was abandoned and the Johnstown Flood destroyed the Big Gristmill at the falls. Even the jailhouse and meat packers were washed away. Many moved away to find work. Moonshine stills and Speak Easies became the norm because mountain spring water was plentiful...and the Youghiogheny River kept flowing on.

From Moonshine to Mainstream...

   My mother grew up in Ohiopyle in the thirties and forties and tells me she never noticed that it was hard times here. They were perfectly happy and ate well. Helen Hochstetler Snyder, who graduated with the Class of 1938, wrote the following poem about that era:

Ohiopyle Memories By Helen Hochstetler Snyder

As I grew up in Ohiopyle in post-depression days,
I heard many tales of what it was like when Ohiopyle was in its “hey-day”.
How excursions came from Pittsburgh where city folks did dwell
How they spent their summer holidays at the grand Ferncliff Hotel
There was a boardwalk, so they said, winding through the park
And how I wished I could have been there. It would have been a lark!
The good old “Yough” was our playground and every spring we’d shiver,
Trying to be first to take a dip in that sparkling, flowing river.
Things have changed, and once again,
Ohiopyle’s the place Where people come from far and near and down the rapids race
My childhood home is standing still and memories abound
When I go back to Ohiopyle it’s the greatest place around! 

   In 1906 the Kendall Lumber Company harnessed the water power at the Ohiopyle Falls to produce electricity. They not only ran their saw mill and plant, but the lights of the town as well. Residents will tell you, that when the river froze over in the winter, lights would dim and finally go out until someone went down to the freezing Youghiogheny and broke the ice up. Folks argued about whose turn it was, for the weather was atrotious and no one was anxious to go out to the roaring ice-laden Yough.The depression hit and many businesses failed. The Ferncliff Hotel ran through the late thirties and was abandoned, but the Ohiopyle Hotel continued it’s rein through 1964. 
   Just three miles away, in 1936-38, Edgar J. Kaufman (Kaufman’s Department Stores)was building the now famed Falling Water. Kaufman employed many locals in the construction of his new Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece. He ran a full time greenhouse and dairy farm on the acreage and some of his main workers lived in cottages there. Many saw mills and mines were still in business, but not in the capacity that they had produced during the coal and coke boom. Some men were hired to build the Youghiogheny River Dam and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but many turned to moonshining and running speak easies to make a living. I am presently working on a story about local moonshining, so I will save those details for later. 
   Lillian McCahn worked at the Western Maryland Railroad Station in Ohiopyle for 25 years. This station was built in 1911 by the river where the Baptist Church once sat. It is today’s visitor’s center. In 1948 McCahan wrote to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy asking them to buy the Ferncliff Peninsula and save it as a natural area. She knew of the rare southern plants and wanted to see it used as a park for picnicking. The conservancy did not have the funds to buy the 100 acre Youghiogheny paradise. Three years later she was in a panic as owner Alex Meade wanted to sell the peninsula for $35,000. His prospective buyer intended to build an amusement park. She contacted, Dr. William Mayer-Oakes, a Carnegie Museum anthropologist whom she had met in Ohiopyle and he agreed that this was an important piece of property to conserve. He discussed the situation with M. Graham Netting of the Recreation, Conservation, and Park Council. Along with Charles Lewis from the conservancy, they approached Edgar J. Kaufman. In 1951 he bought the Ferncliff Peninsula and the Ohiopyle Hotel from Alex Meade for $40,000. He then turned them over to the conservancy, unaware that he had just made the first move toward what would become Ohiopyle State Park, white water haven. 
   Around 1910 Ohiopyle residents began adding bathrooms to their houses. Up until that time, everyone used outhouses. The sewage ran through open ditches down the alleys to drains that took it right into the river. Most people had chickens and some say Ohiopyle smelled real bad between the sewage and the chicken do. At this time high school students took the train to Connellsville for their education. Down close to the river along the falls area, there was a road called Front Street or Commercial Street. Stores, homes, and blacksmith shops lined this lane. 
   In 1958 the conservancy announced its intention to preserve the Youghiogheny River Gorge from logging and mining. The Melon Trust Fund awarded the conservancy $100,000. to plan and develop a park in Ohiopyle, and to acquire land. They hired Community Planning Services in 1959 to analyze the land here and recommend boundaries for their dream park. The Youghiogheny River Gorge and all river front property became a priority. Borders extended upriver to Ram Cat where the Laurel Hill starts and south to Bruner Run. Sugarloaf Mountain’s north slope was included because of the wonderful slopes for skiing, along with Baughman’s Rock’s scenic overlook. Tharpe Knob ridge on Kentuck Mountain was included for camping, a possible golf course, overlooks, and Jonathan Run. Meadow Run, with its natural rock water slides and falls went into the plan, also. That same year, the West Penn Power Company gave the conservancy its riverfront property that ran from the Route 381 bridge to Meadow Run. In 1960 they announced that they would build a parking lot, trail, and picnic area at the Ohiopyle Falls. 
   In 1961 Mrs. Albert Fraser Keister sold 589 acres to the conservancy including one mile of Cucumber Run, the Cucumber Falls, and two miles of river frontage. Mrs Keister did this with the stipulation that the park be called “Keister Park” and for a while it was, but when the land was sold to the state for a state park, this promise was not kept. It was around this time that the conservancy and the state agreed that all the land here that the conservancy acquired would be sold to the state at cost. 
   Maurice Goddard was appointed Secretary of the Department of Forests and Waters in the mid fifties. Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr., whose father designed New York City’s Central Park, surveyed the state’s recreation needs and recommended that Ohiopyle be park designated. So, when Charles F. Lewis approached Goddard promoting the Ohiopyle area for conservation, he listened. 
   In 1962, at the dedication of the Keister acquisitions (now totalling 1,000 acres), Goddard announced his dream to “create a full scale state park here at Ohiopyle-one which will be almost unmatched in natural scenic beauty anywhere in Pennsylvania.” To acquire more land Goddard began Project 70 with the goal of opening an 18,500 acre park here by 1970. Ironically, $70 million dollars were allocated in 1963 to buy lands in Ohiopyle for a major state park. Goddard led the team that condemned the property belonging to Ohiopyle residents to make their park. He said he hated to condemn land but was doing it for the common good. This began hard feelings between the state park, conservancy, and the locals that still exists today. Homeowners began getting letters saying, “Your home will be bought”. They were no longer asking to purchase, they forced the people who loved their homes to sell at rock bottom prices. Most could not afford another place and had to move in with relatives or buy a much more modest home. Fights ensued, but the government won, as usual. 
   On Friday, November 13, 1964, just after the Ohiopyle Hotel was remodeled by the conservancy, someone burnt it down. It was definitely arson. There was no doubt. The fire was started on the porch during a severe drought. I believe this was one locals way of saying, “You may get our land, but you will never take our hotel.” The hotel and tavern was first built in 1871. My grandmother ran the place until 1963. I know that someone around here set that fire. Someone who wanted a little revenge. They say you can’t fight the government, but mountain justice occurs and this was one of those times. Since the park moved in locals have watched them destroy much of our history while striving to preserve the land. They immediately destroyed 17 buildings and have continued along those lines through the years. Yes, the park is beautiful-but it is God’s creation, not the state’s. They acquired the Ferncliff Peninsula over 35 years ago and today you can still go up there and see where the Ferncliff Hotel had been. They have never cleaned the area up. There are old liquor bottles, coffee cups, porcelain commodes and much more broken glass and misc. remains that people can get hurt on. If they think the place is so precious, why do they leave such debris lying about? In the past few years they let the Meadow Run Cabin be overtaken by termites until it fell into the road and had to be taken down. Did they preserve it and move it to another part of the park? No. It was torn down and burnt. I have a few of the logs which serve as steps to my museum. 
   In 1958 Lance Martin ran the Youghiogheny River’s rapids as an Explorer Scout in an Army surplus raft. Five years later, he, wife Lee, and friend Karl Kruger began taking people down the lower Youghiogheny for money. This marked the birth of the biggest white water rafting mecca in the world. In 1968, 5,000 people were taken on guided tours down the river. This figure rose to 95,000 for the season of 1978 and in 1982 to 150,000. Lance pioneered Wilderness Voyaguers, one of four guided rafting companies in Ohiopyle today. Now his children run the business and are proud of what their father did for this borough. 
   In the late 1960’s Route 381 was rerouted and Front Street removed. Sewage and water plants were built for the borough giving us city water and stopping the continual pollution of the Yough. I remember how happy my grandmother was when she got city water, and we are thankful for that today. This was one of the ways the conservancy tried to ease the locals anger, but the people who were run from their homes no longer lived in the borough and could not benefit.

The following poem was written by Lillian McCahan:

Bathrooms

The New York newswriter of note
Thought he was funny when he wrote
How many hundreds of thousands the Government figures proved must be unwashed
What else could one assume when not one of them had a room with plumbing?
My dear fellow pray, how could they bathe without a way?
I’d like to show him my washstand
Bowls, pitcher, towels always on hand;
All facilities so I may take my bath, Smarty, everyday. 

   Like most small villages, the general store is the center of social activity. For Ohiopyle, it has always been Holt’s (today’s Fall’s Market). Thomas and John Holt were brothers who brought their families here from Pittsburgh for the clean air. Thomas was ailing from black lung disease. In 1895 John built a store by the bridge along Front Street. This did so well that in 1918-19 he constructed the large brick store that Leo Smith runs today with his family. At that time the store was downstairs and Dodges and Chevys were sold upstairs. In later years Bob and Charles Holt opened stores next to each other. They were not on good terms and never set foot in one another’s stores! Charlie’s son Bill later bought the store and ran it for decades until selling to Leo Smith in 1975. Today, this is Ohiopyle’s social gathering place along the Yough. 
   What makes the Youghiogheny River so special? Below the falls it drops 90 feet in the first two miles and 13 feet per mile for the next five miles. There are 22 rapids in 7 1/2 miles within the gorge. But I would say, beyond the obvious thrill of the wild ride down the river, it is the negative ions that get you. They make people feel invigorated, and the Yough oozes with them. For 34 years now, the rafting companies and the park have had to deal with each other and it is not always pretty, but travelers can’t tell. What they come here for is not local politics, but those ions. 

   Two million people pass through this fair burgh every summer! They come to ride the river, stand by the falls and soak up the ions, eat ice cream and take walks on the many trails, ride the 32 mile long bike trail, swim, picnic, and relax by the river. A few years ago I began gathering information on the history of Ohiopyle. This led to the publication of two pictorial history books called Yesteryear in Ohiopyle, Volumes I and II. Later, I made a video including much of the scenery and a chronological story begining with George Washington’s first journey here, called Yesteryear in Ohiopyle - The Movie. As my readers became excited about my work, they began contributing not only photographs, but local relics. I then organized the Yesteryear Museum to preserve local history and share it with interested parties. Today, while the river flows continuously by, I soak up those ions and write about our colorful past. Because I have so many stories to tell, I am presently writing a screenplay for the big screen-an historical fiction movie based in a town I call Laurel Falls.

Ohiopyle is not just a place. It is a feeling.