This 1964 blueprint for Moraine State Park shows features, such as a ski slope, that were never built because of financial shortfalls or changing recreational tastes.

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.

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