It was the summer of 1974 as a Boy scout I was participating in a Allegheny Trails Council Boot & Paddle program which involved taking a weeks long 150 mile trek by canoe from Tionesta Pa to edge of Pittsburgh along the Allegheny River a trip no longer available any more since they closed Camp Tionesta in 1977 in favor of new camp heritage built in Farmington Pa.
We would spend several different nights stopped at uninhabited islands or small parks sometimes beside a dam or marinas.
But one of those stops was like a ghost town a long abandoned boat club behind the West Penn Power station in Springdale . A small slice of ground a 100 feet wide by maybe 200 yards it was filled with little decaying picnic pavilions bath and changing houses and picnic tables . It looks to have been abandoned in late 50's I do not even know the name of it and access to it now is strictly by boat as the whole area has changed in the 40+ years I was last there. From the satellite pictures it looks like all the structures have been bulldozed and maybe just couple foundations left .
It might have been called the Springdale -Cheswick Boat Club but locals I asked know nothing about it even existing. The little picnic groves and beach houses you could see where painted with different nautical symbols and flags and they where probably made to move after the plant converted from coal to oil as several large oil tanks took up much of the area at that point since removed Then again after building it the river conditions around the plant may have well changed making it uninhabitable.
I wish I would have been able to afford a film camera to record the trip because so much of what I saw along the trip no longer exists factory's , Oil wells and railroad buildings and structures torn down and industry removed as well as marinas and vacation homes and shacks. Plus the bad flooding after hurricane Agnes and Ivan wiped out large numbers of homes and parts of towns as well as ice flows from winter freezing.
Unfortunately many of those I took the 2 trips down the river with are no longer with us many of the scout leaders who would now be in their 80's 90's having passed on including many of the scouts as well having died young from cancer .You know I have to wonder if it was not from what we encountered camping overnite on this and the other spots ,including my getting bite by a tick with lyme disease which at time Dr.s did not know what they where dealing with .Plusall the other pollution from the river we swam and bathed in . Once we got below Oil City the river went from clean to oil slicked and polluted.
It may well have helped contribute to my own bout with cancer. I still every once in a while run into one of the guys I went down river with and every time more and more have passed on.Who have taken these trips.
 |
| Im 3rd from left |
 |
River map travel guide
Map where we stayed the night behind power plant |
 |
| Neckercheif Slide your awarded for completing trip |
