Whipple Dam State Park will reopen Friday after a large-scale project. Here’s what is different
After a 16-month wait and a large-scale rehabilitation project, nearby Whipple Dam State Park is finally set to reopen.
According to officials, Huntingdon County’s 256-acre park will reopen Friday after closing in September 2019 — and visitors will be treated to a number of changes. Here are some of the highlights for a project that revolved around dredging the lake:
- All paved surfaces in the park were repaved
- A wheelchair-accessible fishing pier was built on the north shore, with slots in the railings so fish don’t have to be reeled over them
- 40,000 cubic yards of accumulated sediment were removed from the lake bed
- Various fish habitat structures and turtle nesting platforms were installed
- Structural improvements were made to the dam, first built in 1935
A spokesperson could not immediately provide the total cost of the project, which was completed by Snow Shoe’s John Nastase Construction. But Paul Fagley, an environmental education specialist for the Greenwood Furnace State Park Complex, intimated this reopening was a long time coming.
According to Fagley, the initial target for reopening was July 2020. But the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with some rehabilitation-based issues along the way, kept pushing that date back.
Thankfully, Fagley said, it won’t be pushed back again. Instead, future plans have already been made — as trout-stocking is already set to resume its normal schedule prior to this year’s opening day. Fagley also said warm-water species will be restocked by this summer, although those species will likely be under catch-and-release restrictions until the populations are re-established.
“It’s a nice, quiet lake ... and it’s good for fishing,” Fagley added.
Whipple Dam State Park is under the purview of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of State Parks. The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission helped with the project, as did the Bureau of Forestry’s Rothrock State Forest District. Eagle Scout candidate Nicholas Cole of State College was also lauded by the bureau for creating eight turtle-basking platforms.
Potential winter visitors to the dam are advised that Laurel Run Road is still not maintained, and travelers should follow signs and stay on the blacktop to enter via the exit road.
