Harrison unearthing 'hidden gem' of Silverlake

It was the early 1970s when Georgie Blackburn moved with her family to what she called Harrison’s hidden gem: Silverlake.

Nestled in a valley between Route 28 and Allegheny Valley Hospital, the property spans 65 acres and, at that time, boasted a cottage, a creek, an old barn and an expansive field where teens would converge for pickup baseball games. It was framed by rows of orange daylilies.

“Waking to the beautiful sounds of bullfrogs in the spring-fed lake, seeing the gorgeous trees change with the seasons, hearing Little Bull Creek bubbling out back, and discovering trails to hike was wonderful,” said Blackburn, who lived there for three years with her then-husband, former Highlands teacher Tom Conroy, and their children, Tommy and Gina.

“One day, our pediatrician, Dr. Lace, hiked down and asked us to walk to a tree 200 yards away to show the kids where a copperhead snake had shed its skin and left it hanging off a branch.

“I recall how amazed we all were when, at that moment, we realized the environmental education we were gaining by living there.”

Silverlake’s natural amenities soon will be on full display to the public as township commissioners move forward with a project to construct a walking trail off Carlisle Street.

It will meander through the wooded landscape to the valley and back.

The cost will be about $240,000. Work will be paid through a 2017 grant from the Department of Community and Economic Development, Harrison Commissioner Chuck Dizard said.

“After many years of dreams and discussions, the township is about to rebuild this significant asset,” Dizard said. “If you hike down to the valley, you will enjoy silence from the hustle and bustle of people and traffic on the hillside. Birds and animals will scurry around, and, for a few moments of your visit, you will think you were in the north woodlands of Elk County.”

Courtesy of NIRA Consulting Engineers

Harrison has hired G. Salandro Excavating to rebuild a modern walking-hiking trail at Silverlake, which was a popular gathering spot in the 1960s and ’70s but fell into disrepair for several decades.

For residents old enough to remember the site in the 1960s and ’70s, Dizard said, they might recall the fishing hole near a dam along Little Bull Creek that drew people young and old.

The lake was maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. In winter, the lake froze and people flocked there with ice skates in hand.

“The lake was a wonderful breeding ground for turtles as well as bullfrogs and fish,” Blackburn said.

“Older men would come to catch snapping turtles to make soup. I recall one day when two huge ones were caught, but the men had no way of transporting them up the hill. They put the turtles in my trunk and off we went to Brackenridge to drop off the turtles.”

Blackburn’s family were the only people living on the land. They took care of the flat parcel in exchange for life in the secluded cottage.

“Only propane gas was available for heating, and a well was the source of our drinking water,” Blackburn said. “But there was a creek where my kids would spend their days digging and discovering, usually using one of my kitchen utensils. I recall so many spoons were lost there.

“Every day, they would bring me flowers and pretty rocks — something I still collect.”

When the family moved in 1974, the property fell into disrepair. The cottage burned down, the dam broke and the access road was washed away. Vegetation was left untended for the next five decades.

Many years from now when the project is complete, “people will say the township leaders were thinking ahead,” Commissioner Jim Erb said.

“This project will be a success.”

Added Blackburn: “Silverlake is a community gem, and it fills my heart to know it is being resurrected.”