Quehanna Wild Area

Founded in the 1950s as a nuclear research center, Quehanna has a legacy of radioactive and toxic waste contamination, while also being the largest state forest wild area in Pennsylvania, with herds of elk.

Quehanna Wild Area has many sites where radioactive and toxic waste was buried, some of which have been cleaned up while others were dug up by black bears and white-tailed deer.

To fill the void left by the demise of the Susquehannocks, the Iroquois encouraged such displaced eastern tribes as the Shawnee and Lenape (or Delaware) to settle in the West Branch watershed.

[4] In the 1950s the Curtiss-Wright Corporation coined the name "Quehanna" for its nuclear reservation, which it derived from the last three syllables of "Susquehanna",[7] "in honor of the river that drained the entire region".

[11] Scull's 1770 map of the Province of Pennsylvania showed the colonists' ignorance of the land north of the West Branch Susquehanna River; Sinnemahoning Creek was missing, and the region that includes Quehanna was labeled "Buffaloe Swamp".

Some settlers would harvest timber and float it downstream once a year to make money for items they could not produce themselves, but by 1820 the first full-time lumbering operations began in the region.

For example, in 1871 a single splash dam on the Bennett Branch of Sinnemahoning Creek could release enough water to produce a wave 2 feet (0.6 m) high on the main stem for two hours.

The soil was depleted of nutrients, fires baked the ground hard, and jungles of blueberries, blackberries, and mountain laurel covered the clearcut land, which became known as the "Pennsylvania Desert".

[35][36] In a December 8, 1953 speech to the United Nations, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced a new Atoms for Peace policy, and Congress enacted his program into law the following year.

[37] Under the new program, the airplane manufacturer Curtiss-Wright Corporation sought a large isolated area in central Pennsylvania "for the development of nuclear-powered jet engines and to conduct research in nucleonics, metallurgy, ultrasonics, electronics, chemicals and plastics".

[38][39] Curtiss-Wright worked closely with the state, and in June 1955, Governor George M. Leader signed legislation that authorized the construction of a research facility at Quehanna.

Both of these were on the land which Curtiss-Wright had purchased, which was a regular octagon surrounded with a 24-mile (39 km) fence built by forest rangers, supervised from three guard houses on Quehanna Highway and Wykoff Run Road.

At this site, a Curtiss-Wright division manufactured Curon foam for furniture and household products and used beryllium oxide to make high-temperature ceramics for application in the nuclear industry.

[40] Curtiss-Wright spent $30 million on the project, and developed a community for its scientific and technical staff at the village of Pine Glen, southeast of Karthaus in Centre County.

[40] On August 20, 1960, Curtiss-Wright announced that it was donating the reactor facility to Penn State and selling its Curon foam division; the remaining 235 employees lost their jobs.

[50] Although Martin Marietta completed its AEC contract and its lease expired on December 21, 1966, it had to stay at the reactor site "until radiation contamination was brought to acceptable levels".

PermaGrain also let Neutron Products, Inc., a Maryland company, do cobalt-60 work in its hot cells, which required an amendment of their license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC, the successor to the AEC).

[8][38][52] In 1993, strontium-90 contamination in the reactor facility led the NRC to require PermaGrain to begin decontamination work, and the Pennsylvania DEP commissioned a "site characterization study".

A former employee told how a night watchman walked through a spill in the reactor complex without knowing it; the man's car and the carpets in his house had to be destroyed as a result of the contamination.

At the wire-burning site 150 short tons (140 t) of contaminated soil were removed from 3 acres (1.2 ha), with clean earth and grass seed placed on top of the area.

Parts of the trail have been moved, away from damage caused by the 1985 tornado, to avoid pipelines, to circumvent the Piper Boot Camp, and to pass closer to streams.

[2] The area falls into portions of two distinct geological physiographic provinces, with all but the northernmost part in the Pittsburgh Low Plateau, known for its coal and mineral deposits, and characterized by steep-cut stream beds.

The land on which Quehanna Wild Area sits was part of the coastline of a shallow sea that covered a great portion of what is now North America in the Pennsylvanian subperiod.

Below this is the Pennsylvanian Pottsville Formation, a gray conglomerate that may contain sandstone, siltstone, and shale, as well as anthracite coal, and which forms much of the Quehanna plateau.

[41][92] It traveled over 69 miles (111 km) of mainly dense forest and wilderness in central Pennsylvania, and damaged or destroyed buildings early in its life, including a CCC-built lodge at Parker Dam State Park.

By the early 21st century, many of the trees in Quehanna were 80 to 100 years old, and the maturation of the forests led to the disappearance of species like bobwhite quail, ring-necked pheasant, and snowshoe hare; white-tailed deer, ruffed grouse, black squirrel, and cottontail rabbit all became less common.

Common animals found in Quehanna include chipmunks, porcupine, and beaver, omnivores such as the black bear and raccoon, and predators like bobcat, red fox, and coyote (which has been in Pennsylvania since the 1930s).

The shrub and scrubland areas left by the 1985 tornado and cleared for elk to feed in are home to indigo bunting and prairie warbler, while ponds and wetlands attract waterfowl such as hooded merganser and wood duck, and wading birds like great blue heron.

[110] As of 2010, the Pennsylvania Game Commission allowed hunting of the following species found in Quehanna Wild Area: American crow, beaver, black bear, black squirrel, bobcat, bobwhite quail, cottontail rabbit, coyote, elk, house sparrow, raccoon, red fox, ring-necked pheasant, ruffed grouse, white-tailed deer, wild turkey, and woodcock.

The club has also provided food plots for deer and elk, fed game animals in winter, planted and pruned fruit trees, stocked fish, and treated streams for acid rain.

Black and white image of a wide dam made of logs with a rectangular opening in the center, through which logs and water are flowing. The background is mountainous.
A splash dam discharging water and logs in the West Branch Susquehanna River basin
Black and white image of a steam locomotive pulling a crane and several cars of logs. In the foreground are large tree stumps.
A logging train of the Central Pennsylvania Lumber Co., which clearcut the Quehanna plateau from 1907 to 1911 [ 20 ]
Black and white image of a man standing in a wasteland of massive tree stumps that stretch to the horizon. A few small tree trunks are standing.
Clearcutting led to the "Pennsylvania Desert".
View along a cleared path through a forest of leafless trees and a few pines
Old Hoover Road, a hiking trail in M.K. Goddard/Wykoff Run Natural Area, was originally the Driftwood Pike, then a state forest road.
Black and white image of a stakebed truck from the 1930s with two men standing in front and about a dozen men in the back. The truck is labeled ECW (Emergency Conservation Work, original name of the CCC) above the windshield, and "S-118 F-101" on the door.
Men of Civilian Conservation Corps Camp S118, who worked in the Quehanna area
Black and white image of a pool of water with walls partially dividing it. A metal bridge is at the rear of the pool with a long metal assembly hanging from it into the pool. On the bridge at left two men in white lab coats look at a console.
The pool reactor in Curtiss-Wright's research facility. The nuclear core is in the water, and the control panel is on the bridge.
Black and white aerial view of several roads through a forest with a few buildings. The image is labeled "Jet engine test cells" in the upper right corner with buildings in two cleared circles at end of small roads labeled "North" and "South". In the lower left corner is a larger building in a cleared area labeled "Reactor & hot cells". The road to this is labeled "Reactor Road" and it leads to the labeled "Quehanna Highway". A clearcut strip is labeled "Electricity transmission line".
1958 aerial view of the reactor and jet engine test cells
Black and white view of a white wall with six rectangular windows and three men in white coats in front of them, lit by overhead lighting. Long cylindrical rods with handles hang from the ceiling in front of each window.
The hot cells in the facility were used to remotely handle materials too radioactive to deal with directly.
A robot with a metal arm is using its grinding wheel to cut into a wall, sending a shower of sparks upward.
The robot which disassembled the most contaminated parts of the facility in action
A gate made out of metal pipe with a STOP sign blocks a narrow blacktop road, which stretches off in a straight line into the distance between trees.
Reactor Road in 2010; even though the reactor has been demolished, access to the site by vehicles is still restricted.
Wall with a metal grate rising out of the ground. The wall is covered with graffiti.
Part of the former southern jet engine test cell bunker, which has been almost completely covered with earth
Black and white aerial view of a forested area with a vertical curving highway running through a group of large buildings near the center. A smaller road runs diagonally to the top right corner.
Aerial view of the industrial complex during the Curtiss-Wright era; the Quehanna Highway runs north-south.
An open wooden structure with a ramp leading up to it, on the edge of a large open field with large leafless trees around
Wildlife viewing blind at Hoover Farm Wildlife Viewing Area
Rear view of four hikers with large backpacks on a narrow trail through green bushes with bright white flowers. There is dappled sunlight, and small tree trunks rise in the background.
Hikers passing through mountain laurel on the Quehanna Trail , built in 1976–1977
A stream flowing over rocks and between evergreen trees
From its source in M.K. Goddard/Wykoff Run Natural Area, Wykoff Run drops 1,352 feet (412 m) through four rock formations. [ 76 ] [ 77 ]
A straight two-lane road between evergreen trees. A signpost at right has signs reading "Cameron County" and "Gibson Township" and "Building-Sewage Permits Required Flood Plain Regulations Enforced" and "10". In the distance is a yellow sign showing a T-intersection at right.
Looking west on the Quehanna Highway at the Clearfield–Cameron county line, where the 1985 tornado crossed the road
Four large, ragged, weathered stumps, pale with exposure to the elements, in a field of low, reddish vegetation, with evergreens in the background
Stumps from logging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, in a wetland area north of Reactor Road
A fallen tree lies in green ferns with sunlit dappled trees behind.
Second-growth trees in Moshannon State Forest
Shore of a small body of water with brown grass, small shrubs, bare trees, and evergreens surrounding it
Pond and wetlands at Beaver Run Wildlife Viewing Area
A deep, winding valley stretches to the level horizon under a blue sky. The lands is covered by red-tinged trees, and a few bare trees are in the foreground.
Mosquito Creek gorge is used for hiking, fishing, and hunting.