MUDDY CREEK TWP — If events had turned out differently, today visitors to Moraine State Park could go back to their campground after returning the horses they rented to their stable. Winter sports enthusiasts would be counting down the days until they could hit the park’s ski slope and toboggan.

These were just some of the features on a blueprint of the park printed in 1964, four years before Muddy Creek was dammed to begin the filling of Lake Arthur and six years before Moraine State Park was dedicated.

According to a Pa. Department of Conservation and Natural Resources history, at least four continental glaciers reached their greatest extent just north of Moraine State Park. These huge ice sheets, sometimes more than a mile thick, transported stones and soil in, within, beneath, and in front of them.

When the glaciers retreated, they left behind the accumulated debris, which is called a moraine. Deposits of gravel, sand and clay found throughout the area are evidence of the glaciers and their moraines.

The glacier created a landscape of rolling hills topped with hardwood trees along with swamps in the valley bottoms that was farmed and mined for limestone, coal, clay and shale.

During the late 1800s, wells were drilled to extract oil and gas. When the wells dried up, they were abandoned and left unsealed.

Much of the park area lost its topsoil and many streams were polluted with abandoned mine drainage. The land remained largely unoccupied.

During 1926, Frank W. Preston of England moved to the town of Meridian and opened a glass research lab. Preston also was an amateur geologist and naturalist. During a trip to the Muddy Creek Valley, he noticed that the hills had a unique shape and attributed it to the glacial periods.

Preston studied the land for decades and named many of the landforms after Edmund Watts Arthur, a prominent Pittsburgh attorney and naturalist. With the support of friends, Preston formed the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1932 to purchase land to recreate the glacial landscape and preserve open space.

Carmen Bray, director of communications for the conservancy, said, “It was one of the first major projects of the conservancy. It wasn’t the first project, but it was one of the first.”

“Preston was one of the founders,” she said. “During that time, there was a push after the Great Depression to get people to work.”

Ninety years later the nonprofit conservation group is dedicated to conservation, restoring rivers and streams, planting trees and green spances and caretaking the Frank Lloyd Wright house, Fallingwater, in Mill Run, Pa.

Muddy Creek was dammed in 1968 to create the modern Lake Arthur as a smaller version of a previous glacial lake. And Lake Arthur was filled by 1970.

In her 1976 history of Brady Township, local historian Edna Maxwell McClelland wrote that to create the lake, Routes 422 and 528 had to be moved, Brady Township lost 2,900 acres of taxable land, and the town of Isle in Franklin Township vanished beneath the lake’s waters.

But before that, the former Pennsylvania departments of Forests and Waters and of Mines and Mineral Industries helped to reclaim the abused land. Workers sealed deep mines, back-filled and graded strip mines, plugged 422 gas and oil wells, and fertilized the soil and planted thousands of trees and shrubs.

And drew up plans for Moraine State Park, said Dustin Drew, the park manager for both Moraine and McConnells Mill state parks.

Today’s park attracts 1.2 million visitors a year even without a toboggan run or horse stable, according to Drew, who manages the 17,000-acre park and lake and a staff of up to 40 rangers, maintenance workers, office personnel and educational workers.

As expected with access to a 3,200-acre lake, Drew said water sports are the big draw of the park.

“Fishing’s popular as is boating, both motor and sail,” he said. “There’s a 20-horsepower limit on motors and no personal watercraft.

“There are two swimming areas, Lakeview Beach on the North Shore and Pleasant Valley Beach on the South Shore,” he said. “There are marinas to rent boats and slips to keep boats.”

On land, there are equestrian trails, biking and hiking trails, a paved trail along the North Shore, a snowmobile trail system and cross-country skiing,“ said Drew.

Instead of a horse stable at the park, users of the equestrian trails have to haul their mounts in by trailer. Instead of a ski slope, the park has two cross-country skiing trails, and the Pleasant View Picnic area on the South Shore is a popular sledding destination. Under certain conditions and restrictions, 26 miles of trails on the north and west areas of the park are open to snowmobilers.

Another feature on the 1964 blueprint that never materialized is a campground. Drew said overnight camping in the park is restricted to tent camping in two areas, Muskrat Cove and Five Points, and available only two organized group such as Scout troops and church groups.

“There are 11 cabins we rent out; they’re on a peninsula,” said Drew. “They’re popular. They have the highest occupancy rate in the state park system. You have to make reservations up to 11 months in advance.” Camping is available on nearby private campgrounds.

Drew said many of the planned features of the park shown in the 1964 map weren’t built because of a lack of funds.

“The funds only went so far. The master plan is the ideal of what could be. Not all of it came to fruition,” he said.

Remnants of the master plan can be found in the park today. Drew said the Baird Point area has a “ghost beach,” a planned swimming area that was never fully developed. There’s a concrete curb and roads and sewer lines off Christley Road that were installed but never used. The roads are mostly overgown now, Drew said.

The planned ski slope north of the Davis Hollow Marina has been repurposed into mountain bike trails.

“Our mountain bike trails are fairly technical. You have to be a good mountain bike rider to navigate through them,” he said.

Sometimes, plans changed because recreation trends shift. Drew said the master plan called for more picnic areas in the park with tables and charcoal grills. “But picnicking isn’t as popular as it once was, so they’re not a priority,” Drew said.

And sometimes the park develops features that were undreamed of when the 1964 master plan was created.

Moraine State Park boasts a disc golf course in the North Shore’s Lakeview area that has hosted world championships, he said.

And what people don’t notice, said Drew, is that there have been $10 million in improvements done to the park in the last 10 years. They’re not as visible as a horse stable, but the projects maintain and improve already existing park facilities.

A lot of it is based on adding or maintaining water and sewer lines, he said. And the park built a new wastewater plant near Prospect in 2018, as well as a new pumping station and park bathrooms. Docks have been replaced and the cabins’ flooring, mattresses and curtains have been replaced.

“People want to come to the park and they just want to see it maintained and in its proper state,” he said.

Last month, the Pennsylvania General Assembly passed a $45 billion state budget that contained an additional $640 million for water and conservation programs.

Drew has his own wish list for any extra funds that may come to Moraine State Park. “Other state parks have seen success with RV camp sites. They’re very popular. The park doesn’t have to maintain cabins. We provide the site and you bring the cabin and take it with you.”

An RV campground wasn’t even imagined by the creators of the park’s 1964 blueprint.