A Natural Place Disrupted

A Natural Place Disrupted

“Grab your poles boys and let’s go fishin” Dad would say to Seth, my brother and me. It didn’t take long before we hopped into the front of “Old Blue” Dad’s 1987 pickup truck and off we went to Ryerson. Wow!!! When we were little my brother Seth and I referred to the trip to Ryerson State Park as “Ryer Lakin” short for “let’s go to Ryerson and let’s go fishing”! What a great time we had just taking in the scenery and talking about anything that came to mind, girls, cars, life in general. We would spend hours just talking about what two boys, ages ten and twelve talk about with their Dad!

Ryerson Lake was a large state park located about thirty minutes from our home and it was a big, beautiful lake full of rainbow trout and other assorted fish that kids just love to catch on a warm, summer evening. There was nothing like fishing at Ryerson for two boys and their dad on a hot summer evening just when everything starts to get that orange glow just before the evening sun sinks below the horizon. Add a gentle breeze, a few fishing worms and a pole and it didn’t get any better than this.

Ryerson Lake was a great place to fish until the mines came through and expanded and the lake had to be drained because there was a huge hole in the spillway as a result of mine subsidence in southwestern Greene County. The loss of the lake was really sad especially for my brother and me because we had some terrific summer evenings we spent there just baiting our hooks and casting over and over to see what big fish might be foolish enough to bite down and get caught!
I had read about the lake and the effects of mine subsidence on it but it was not as meaningful to me nor did it really impact me until I went there one afternoon and saw what used to be the lake now a grass bowl of green without any water. “How can this happen?” I asked myself with utter amazement that anything so big and beautiful could have become to desolate and barren! No fishing at Ryerson! What a sad day that was for my brother, Dad and me to see what had been out favorite fishing bank now a muddy, stinky, soggy, stink hole.

Ryerson Lake was an icon in the community and people came from the north, east, south, and west to enjoy the serenity and peacefulness of a quiet ripple like a skipping stone as they cast their fishing line onto the glassy water! From the bank, fish were jumping every now and then as if to say “you can’t catch me” but a belching bullfrog made it a perfect day for sure.

I am not sure how or why Ryerson Lake became what now looks like a massive football field with no trace of water or fish and some say it will be revitalized and restored to a lake in the future. While I would like to believe that is the case, I don’t see any sign that it will happen in my lifetime and I am so blessed that I had the opportunity to experience the beauty and awe of this place when it was something to behold! I am only sorry that I can never fish at Ryerson Lake with my brother and Dad like I once did and one thing is for sure, it will never be the same most likely in my lifetime. There is just something special about two young boys, their dad, and a fishing hole like Ryerson Lake.



http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateParks/parks/ryersonstation.aspx

http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=HGN130-053