Most people have heard of Punxsutawney Phil, not so many have heard of Blue Spruce Bob. Each year, for many years, our maintenance crew would place Blue Spruce Bob out near our park office to celebrate Groundhog Day and to have a little fun with Marlene, our former secretary. Each year Bob was decorated in a different theme, this one being the year the Steelers last made it to the Super Bowl. When Marlene retired after 28 years with us Blue Spruce Bob also retired.
We look forward to the day when the waters of Auld's Run will flow clean again. This small mountain stream begins far up the mountain and as it tumbles downward it picks up acid mine water discharges from abandoned coal mines. Groups like the Blacklick Creek Watershed are working hard to clean-up abandoned mine discharges but it takes time and money to do so. Because of its location along the Ghost Town Trail Auld's Run is receiving renewed attention as a potential site of a stream clean-up project.
In 1904 the Ebensburg & Blacklick Railroad extended its rail line from Dilltown to Blacklick Station. Two different construction companies worked the line from each end to speed up the construction. The large rock formations that you see here, near Heshbon, were blasted out of the hillside by the railroad construction crew. The rail ine was used primarily to haul coal and coke to the steel mills near Lackawanna, NY. Some passenger service also ran on the line to connect with the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad at Blacklick Station junction.
