Mont Alto State Park was the second park established in Pennsylvania’s commonwealth system. The first state park created before it is nationally known and synonymous with an army’s courage during a harsh wartime winter. However, Mont Alto is now the state’s oldest surviving recreational area. The park’s history has deep roots in industry, transportation, forestry, hospitality and verdant scenery.
John Funk built the first residence in the Mont Alto area in 1817, and the settlement was initially called Funkstown. Later called Altodale, the community’s official name was finally chosen as Mont Alto at its incorporation a century later. Those first hundred years helped shape the town’s fortunes, and a significant enterprise was an ironworks company founded in 1807.
Samuel and Daniel Hughes started the Mont Alto Iron Works that year. Their furnaces used abundant local resources, including ore deposits, forest timber used for charcoal, and rushing streams to harness water power. During this era, Pennsylvania was a leading iron manufacturer. By 1870, the state produced $123 million worth of the product, more than twice the output of New York state, which was ranked second in production.
During the Civil War, a syndicate that included Col. George Wiestling, a Harrisburg businessman, purchased Mont Alto Iron Works. Wiestling later took sole ownership of that group, and using many innovations, his company prospered and employed 500 workers.
A driven man, Wiestling decided his firm would benefit if a rail line connected his operations to the Cumberland Valley Railroad near Chambersburg. His hard-working employees laid those tracks in 1872 and later added a route to Waynesboro in 1879. The Mont Alto Railroad was born.
Wiestling believed Sundays were sacred, and his iron company employees rested on the Sabbath. However, he didn’t want his railroad to stand idle during weekends. With plentiful acreage accrued along Antietam Creek and as an advocate for nature’s relaxing qualities, Wiestling soon started a new project: a community park.
Mont Alto Park opened in 1875, and it achieved instant success. An Odd Fellows picnic that year attracted an estimated 9,000 guests. The Village Record, Waynesboro’s newspaper, described the local reaction: “Those who had not visited were surprised at the park’s magnitude, attractions and conveniences. It promises to be a great resort.”
Colonel Wiestling continuously added new features to the park, which included a dance pavilion, shooting gallery, croquet grounds, carousel, swimming pool, restaurant and gymnasium. The local papers noticed each improvement, documenting new trails, bridges and a stairway to the “Narrows.”
Locals loved the park, and so did the entire region. People flocked to Mont Alto Park from Martinsburg, West Virginia, and Harrisburg. Trains brought picnickers and revelers from north and south. In 1888 roundtrip adult tickets from Waynesboro and Chambersburg cost 30 cents and 15 cents for children. Trains departed at 7:30 and 8:30 a.m. and returned each evening at 6, 7:30, and 8:30.
Mont Alto Park opened two years before Pen Mar Park, another famous regional attraction. A curious history student could speculate the former’s railroad ties inspired the latter’s creation (the Western Maryland Railroad founded Pen Mar Park) as a recreation rival. During the Victorian and Gilded Ages, mountain resorts in the Mason-Dixon region thrived, bringing city dwellers and lowland tourists from all over the East Coast.
Groups and organizations from the entire spectrum gathered at Mont Alto Park. The Cumberland Valley Railroad held its annual picnic there. Various church denominations frequented the park. Many local social clubs, companies, families and school classes staged reunions at Mont Alto. The president of Wilson College, Dr. Samuel Martin, treated his female students to an annual outing at the park every September, and an 1899 Mont Alto resident commented about Wilson’s coeds: “The fine ones were well behaved and are welcome back next year.”
Like its rival Pen Mar Park, Mont Alto hosted musical groups. They featured their own philharmonic orchestra and other popular local musicians. They performed at Mont Alto’s dance pavilion, now one of the last architectural remnants remaining at the site. The pavilion was later rebuilt but still wows today as a grand wooden structure with a towering white ceiling hidden inside a bell-shaped, dark-green canopy.
As Mont Alto Park gained popularity, the natural surroundings attracted a different type of visitor, people suffering from tuberculosis. A treatment shack called “White Pine Camp” was set up on the mountain in 1901, and it evolved into the Mont Alto Sanatorium. Later, the operation became the South Mountain Restoration Center, a facility with an 1,100-patient capacity during its peak years. That healthcare complex still stands today.
Like many tourist destinations of any era, Mont Alto Park had its heyday, followed by a decline. Col. Wiestling died in 1891, and his iron company went out of business two years later. The Mont Alto Railroad sold at foreclosure in 1901. Mont Alto Park continued without Wiestling’s guidance, but its fortunes peaked during his stewardship.
In 1902, Pennsylvania bought Wiestling’s former ironworks property and converted it into its second state park. Valley Forge was designated first in 1893 when Pennsylvania Gov. Robert Pattison authorized its purchase. That site celebrates the bravery of George Washington and his troops, who pulled together to survive a brutal winter. However, on July 4, 1976, this Revolutionary War-themed State Park became a National Park. This development bestowed Mont Alto Park with bragging rights as the oldest state park remaining in the system.
One year after Pennsylvania purchased the park, another significant event occurred. The commonwealth created the Pennsylvania Forestry School in 1903 at Mont Alto. Pennsylvania’s governor appointed Joseph Rothrock as the state’s first commissioner of forestry. Rothrock, later known as the state’s “Father of Forestry,” also utilized his medical wisdom to start the sanitorium at Mont Alto.
George Wirt, one of Rothrock’s disciples, became the Mont Alto’s school administrator and helped manage the new state forest lands. At that time, this Franklin County campus hosted one of only three forestry schools in the nation.
Mont Alto State Park remained a popular early 1900s destination, but visitation gradually declined year by year. Cultural changes were the main culprit, as the rise of the automobile gave individuals the freedom to ignore train schedules and make personalized travel plans. Rail service between Waynesboro and Mont Alto Park ended in 1933. During the 20th century most of the park’s man-made amenities disappeared one by one, but the resilient scenery remained intact.
The majestic beauty of Pennsylvania’s forests and streams is today’s prime attraction. Within this territory on the western side of South Mountain, an area known for lush Appalachian scenery survives. Multiple pathways wander through the landscape within Michaux State Forest, including the nearby Appalachian Trail. In the cooling shade of a forest canopy, the park remains a popular spot for a relaxing summer picnic.
Frank Kocek is president of the Mont Alto Historical Society. As a long-time resident, he values the varied historical and cultural aspects the park represents, despite the fact that its heyday has come and gone. “It’s a quiet spot in a noisy world,” Kocek said.
Today, the Pennsylvania State Park system has 124 units, none older than Mont Alto. Within 300,000 total acres, visitors experience opportunities to breathe fresh air and learn lessons from the state’s varied past. Another unique historical note is nearby Caledonia State Park. It became the third Pennsylvania park in 1903, making it the second oldest state park still in operation. Caledonia is also a former ironworks site with a historic pedigree.
As Mont Alto built its legacy of environmental restoration and conservation, the community always embraced its past, remembering influential people like Col. Wiestling and Joseph Rothrock. Wiestling’s manor house still stands on the campus of the original forestry school, now a satellite campus of Penn State University. That building is the oldest structure on any PSU campus. Rothrock was instrumental in creating many state forest lands that grace modern Pennsylvania.
On the 24-acre grounds of Mont Alto State Park, reminders of nature’s restorative powers are beautifully evident. Strolling along the rocky Western Branch of Antietam Creek, gurgling waters ease the worries of contemporary life. At places like this, where man-made creations often vanish with passing eras, the scenic qualities of this landscape endure, offering infinite pleasures for modern visitors and future generations.
