History of Presque Isle - Present Day

Present Day

Today Presque Isle is used as a Pennsylvania state park, Presque Isle State Park, that is open to the public for a wide variety of recreation. The peninsula became a state park in 1921, and since then large amounts of money have been spent to make visiting the park a better and more pleasant experience. Three years after becoming a park the project of lying paved roads around the park began. Today the road network creates a 13-mile loop around the outer edge of peninsula. Before the roads were built the only visitor to the park were primarily boaters. Many years later the roads were destroyed by storms, and they were rebuilt further away from the shore. The peninsula has a great environment for exercising. In 1984, a multi-purpose blacktop trail was built for bike riding, running, and inline skating. In 1992, 55 break walls were constructed off the shore to slow down the waves thus slowing down the amount erosion that would take place on beaches. These break walls save the park over a million dollars a year that would be spent on replenishing sand on the beaches. The project took 4 years and cost over $23 million. In the summer of 2005, the Tom Ridge Environmental Center opened to the public to learn about the unique the environment and wildlife that Presque Isle has. The center cost $31 million to be built.

This relatively small piece of land has been through a large amount of change in its lifetime. The city of Erie, PA would most likely not exist if it were not for Presque Isle. Also, Presque Isle brings in roughly about four million visitors a year, which is a major part of the tourism for Erie’s economy. “A number of historical elements are briefly mentioned in various archives but detailed records are incomplete or do not survive.” said Don Guerrein. There are a great deal of fact about this peninsula, but there is still many mysteries about the place.