History
Sandy Creek, the stream that was dammed to create Lake Wilhelm, was noted in reports made by George Washington during his 1753 trip to Fort LeBoeuf during the French and Indian War. Sandy Creek had a recurring history of flooding. This led to a study by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The study began in 1939. Plans were delayed by the start of World War II but the citizens of Mercer County could see the benefit of building a flood control dam on Sandy Creek. The state, county, township and municipal authorities of the surrounding area worked together to push forward the idea of building the dam and recreational facilities in Mercer County. The land was acquired in the late 1960s. Construction on the dam began soon after and was completed in 1971. Maurice K. Goddard State Park was opened to the public in 1972.
Maurice K. Goddard State park is named for Maurice K. Goddard. Goddard was a graduate of the University of Maine and the University of California at Berkeley. After reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during World War II, Goddard came to Pennsylvania where he took a job at Mont Alto Forestry School and later at Penn State Main Campus before he was appointed Secretary of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forests and Waters, a forerunner of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. Upon taking his position with the state, Goddard set about completing his goal of having a state park within 25 miles (40 km) of every resident of Pennsylvania. When Goddard retired in 1979, after 24 years working for the state parks, he had helped to add 45 state parks and over 130,000 acres (52,600 ha) of state park land to the Pennsylvania State Park system.
Read more about this topic: Maurice K. Goddard State Park
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“It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“You that would judge me do not judge alone
This book or that, come to this hallowed place
Where my friends’ portraits hang and look thereon;
Ireland’s history in their lineaments trace;
Think where man’s glory most begins and ends
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—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)