Moraine turns 45
MUDDY CREEK TWP — Half a century ago, there was no massive state park in the northwestern part of Butler County.
This weekend marks the 45th anniversary of the opening of Moraine State Park on May 23, 1970.
“The idea started long before that,” said Natalie Simon, environmental education specialist at the park.
The 16,725-acre park features biking, fishing, hiking, swimming, boat rental, marina facilities, hunting, disc golfing, cabin rentals, ice fishing, sledding, cross-country skiing and ice skating.
Lake Arthur, the 3,225-acre lake at the heart of the park, is man-made.
A dam in the lake at Muddy Creek is what causes the lake to actually be a lake. The dam was completed in 1968 and the lake was full by 1970, when the park opened.
Frank Preston, a glass researcher and amateur geologist and naturalist from Butler Township, was a major force in the founding of the park.
The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, which Preston helped found, in 1951 recommended the creation of a lake where Lake Arthur currently is located. Before this, Preston conducted a study of the site, where a glacial lake was located 14,000 years ago.
Simon said that the hills around the lake are unusually shaped for the area, which is due to the glacier activity.
The state Department of Forests and Water, which ran state parks at the time, in 1957 contracted for a feasibility study for the creation of the lake, based on Preston's study.
The conservancy began buying properties in the 1950s for the park, and later sold them to the state so the park could be developed.
Before becoming a state park, the land was used mainly for oil drilling and strip mining. Workers had to plug 422 oil and gas wells to help get the park ready to open.Park manager Dustin Drew said the park was developed under M.K. Goddard, who was the secretary of the state Department of Forests and Water in the 1950s and 1960s. One of his goals was to have a state park within 25 miles of every state resident.Several houses in the area had to be torn down for the lake. A small village named Isle was completely flooded by the lake. The only building remaining from the village is the Mount Zion Baptist Church located off Route 528, which is the only privately owned building in the park and where a boat launch currently is located.The lake is named after Edmund Watts Arthur, an attorney and nature writer who spent a lot of time in the area and worked with Preston to help found the park.The official dedication for the park included a speech by Lt. Gov. Raymond Broderick, the throwing of a geologist's hammer named “Excalibur” — in honor of Arthur — in the lake and the release of 100 Mallard ducks.With Monday being Memorial Day, Drew said it is a nice coincidence that the anniversary is happening at the same time.“It's sort of a good opener for the season,” Drew said.He said the park will not have any events to mark the anniversary, saying that an event likely will take place for the 50th anniversary.The park is located in Brady, Franklin, Muddy Creek and Worth townships. It is intersected by routes 422 and 528.It has three marinas with 900 slips and mooring spots, the largest collection in the state.
The park contains 97 miles of trails, including 28 miles of hiking trails, 13 miles of bike trails and 20 miles of horse trails. It also has two beaches.During the summer, the park has about 40 employees. The number drops to 12 employees in the winter.Originally, most of the park was confined to the south shore. Over the years, the north shore became more developed.In 1990, the state “complexed” Moraine with McConnells Mill State Park just over the border in Lawrence County, meaning the two parks share the same staff, management and operations.The park has held the Boy Scouts of America's National Jamborees in 1973 and 1977. In 2010, the park held the Boy Scouts'Campaganza event. Each event brought tens of thousands of people.For the past 16 years, the park has held the annual Regatta at Lake Arthur. Last year, the event was reorganized and attendance increased by 27 percent from the previous year.The park makes a big impact on the region.Simon said that the park is heavily used, with about 1.5 million visitors per year.“It's probably higher than that,” Simon said.For every dollar that is put into state parks, about $12 is returned to the local economy, Drew said. In 2010, Simon said that visitors to the park spent $31.1 million in the area, contributing to 473 jobs and $14.7 million in income.Simon said that the park's age is starting to show in some ways.“Our buildings, our roads; everything is also 45 years old,” Simon said.Because of this, the park is working on renovations. Lakeview Beach on the North Shore has been undergoing numerous renovations.Last year, officials finished a shore erosion project at Watts Bay marina. Part of the shore there was eroding, leading to a three- to-four-foot drop-off from the shore to the lake. The shoreline was shaped in a way that it would break waves and prevent future erosion.Earlier this year, the state Department of Transportation announced a multimillion-dollar project that would add ramps to Route 422, making the park's North Shore easier to access when traveling eastbound. Simon said this project, expected to begin in 2017, will be big for the park.“I think there are big things in store for Moraine State Park,” Simon said.
