This last piece of the Glen Onoko story is meant to tell a tale of reclamation. 100 years ago the land that makes up what is now Lehigh Gorge State Park was clear-cut and heavily trafficked. This was the land of the Anthracite Coal Boom and the Lehigh River was the speeding highway of unchecked Industrial progress pushing Eastern Pennsylvania and for that matter, the entire United States into the age of steel.
Years later and with many reasons to account for it, the industry that dominated Eastern Pennsylvania fell into the annals of memory. Plants shut down, skies cleared up and thousands upon thousands of acres across the span of Industrial expansion began a slow rise into the process of secondary succession. Some places have been re-colonized into human use as landing spaces for McMansion expansion.
Some places, like Lehigh Gorge State Park have been allowed to return to nature. A great way to shake the Rust of the current Recession in my opinion is through projects like this, or the work being done in the Lehigh Gap near Palmerton.
These same places of restoration, that attract tourism, and job creation in places that cater to tourists – these places are acts of forgiveness. They are steps in the right direction. They are places to be celebrated.
They are places to pray in, to play in….
Check out the rehabbed railroad tunnel and last round of Glen Onoko pictures below:
#1 by Judy Klinger on November 9, 2010 - 10:09 pm
You put a poem on your blog a few months ago so I thought maybe you might enjoy this http://www.merwinconservancy.org/
Thanks for the picture- post on glen onoko