page_title: Ricketts Glen State Park
section_title: Modern era
hierarchical_section_title: Ricketts Glen State Park / History / Modern era
caption_attribution_description: Footbridge at Waters Meet over Kitchen Creek on Waterfalls Trail in Ricketts Glen State Park, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, USA. Bridge from Glen Leigh to Waters Meet - trail map at left, National Natural Landmark marker on rock at right.
context_page_description: Ricketts Glen State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on 13,193 acres in Columbia, Luzerne, and Sullivan counties in Pennsylvania in the United States. Ricketts Glen is a National Natural Landmark known for its old-growth forest and 24 named waterfalls along Kitchen Creek, which flows down the Allegheny Front escarpment from the Allegheny Plateau to the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians. The park is near the borough of Benton on Pennsylvania Route 118 and Pennsylvania Route 487, and is in five townships: Sugarloaf in Columbia County, Fairmount and Ross in Luzerne County, and Colley and Davidson in Sullivan County.
  Ricketts Glen's land was once home to Native Americans. From 1822 to 1827, a turnpike was built along the course of PA 487 in what is now the park, where two squatters harvested cherry trees to make bed frames from about 1830 to 1860. The park's waterfalls were one of the main attractions for a hotel from 1873 to 1903; the park is named for the hotel's proprietor, R. Bruce Ricketts, who built the trail along the waterfalls.
context_section_description: In 1913, Ricketts opened the glens and their waterfalls to the public, charging $1 for parking. Although this fee was unpopular, it remained in place until the land became a state park. After Ricketts died in 1918, the Pennsylvania Game Commission bought 48,000 acres (19,000 ha) from his heirs, via the Central Pennsylvania Lumber Company, between 1920 and 1924. This became most of Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 13, west of the park in Sullivan County. These sales left the Ricketts heirs with over 12,000 acres (4,900 ha) surrounding Ganoga Lake, Lake Jean and the glens area of the park. An area encompassing 22,000 acres (8,900 ha) was approved as a national park site in 1935, and the National Park Service operated a Civilian Conservation Corps camp at "Ricketts Glynn" (sic). The funding to create a National Park at Ricketts Glen was "sidetracked" in 1936 when the money was redirected to the Resettlement Administration for "direct relief". Similar projects at French Creek, Raccoon Creek, Laurel Hill, Blue Knob, and Hickory Run were also defunded (all are now Pennsylvania state parks). The financial difficulties of the Great Depression and World War II brought an end to this plan for development.
  Arthur James, the Governor of Pennsylvania, signed legislation creating Ricketts Glen State Park on August 1, 1941. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania bought 1,261 acres (510 ha), including the glens and their waterfalls, from the heirs for $82,000 on December 31, 1942. The new state park opened to the public on August 1, 1943; however, the park's official history says "recreational facilities first opened in 1944". The state bought a total of 16,000 acres (6,500 ha) more from the heirs in 1945 and 1950 for $68,000; the park today has about 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) from the Ricketts family and about 3,000 acres (1,200 ha) acquired from others.
  The state's original plans for the new park included building an inn, an 18-hole golf course and country club, and a winter sports complex for skiing, ice boating, and tobogganing, as well as a beach with bathing facilities, cabins, and a tent camping area. Only the last three were actually built, all south of Lake Jean; the Hayfield area north of Lake Jean was to have had the facilities for golf and tennis, and the inn and winter sports complex were to have been atop Cherry Ridge, at an elevation of 2,461 feet (750 m).
  A 1947 newspaper article estimated that the new park would have 50,000 visitors that year, and detailed the work the state had done since acquiring the land. The Falls Trail through the glens was rebuilt, all the stone steps were replaced, and signs were added. Out of concern for greater safety, footbridges with handrails replaced those made from hewn logs, overhanging rock ledges were removed in places, and the trail was rerouted near some falls. In the southern end of the new park, the state built the Evergreen Trail past Adams Falls, as well as a new parking area for 200 cars and a concession stand, both along Pennsylvania Route 118 (PA 118).
  The state made other improvements in the park, including replacing or removing all of Ricketts' dams. At Lake Jean it built an earthen dam in 1949–1950 to replace Ricketts' 1905 timber dam; the new dam increased the size of Lake Jean to 245 acres (99 ha) and its eastern end now included the former Mud Pond. On April 20, 1958, the 1907 concrete dam at Lake Leigh developed a hole, causing Pennsylvania State Police to evacuate close to 2,000 people from the park. Engineers from the state inspected the dam and made a second breach in the dam near ground level, draining the lake. The resulting flow of water destroyed some of the hiking paths in Glen Leigh and the fish stocked in the lake wound up in Kitchen Creek. The Lake Jean dam was repaired in 1956. The last of Ricketts' dams, at Lake Rose, was breached in 1959 after remnants of a hurricane filled the lake to capacity. The rest of the 1905 dam was removed in 1969. At Grand View the state built a wooden fire tower at the site of Ricketts' earlier observation tower, then replaced it wi
caption: Bridge at Waters Meet, with the National Natural Landmark plaque on the rock at right
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