Ten years ago Sunday, when a tornado ripped through Kinzua Bridge State Park and felled 11 towers of the mighty Kinzua Viaduct, many local residents feared the park had seen its last visitor.
That funnel cloud came with a silver lining.
Linda Devlin, executive director of the Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau, told The Era last week that the tornado left two choices for the park’s future — “Walk away or be inventive.”
“This national treasure was reinvented,” Devlin said.
The story of the Kinzua Bridge and what happened to it can be seen at the park, thanks to the decision of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources to leave the debris from the fallen towers on the floor of the gorge, and make the remaining towers an overlook to see the destruction.
“The parts that were reinvented were the historic towers,” she explained. “You have that history, what man made and what Mother Nature did. It really honors history, but doesn’t put a veil over it.”
There have been some lean years in terms of visits to the park, but that has been improving with the work at the park.
“When one looks at attendance numbers right after the loss of the bridge, they were dismal — just a little over 21,000 in 2005, for instance,” said Terry Brady, deputy press secretary for the state DCNR. “Many people elected not to visit the park because they believed ‘there was nothing to see.’ Area tourism folks and our parks folks worked hard to counteract that belief.”
Brady continued, “A once-intact engineering marvel no longer was intact, to be sure, but there was still much to see: acres of trees mowed down by the tornado — almost in precise order. Twisted remains of the bridge; an incredible view — regardless of the season.”
After the Skywalk was created in 2011, offering an overlook to view the destruction from the tornado, visitors started coming back.
“With construction and dedication of the new overlook, the draw of that natural venue intensified and you can see that in the rising attendance numbers, surpassing 165,000 in 2011,” Brady said. Visitation is expected to improve even more when a new visitor center is constructed at the park; bids are expected to go out next year.
“The planned construction of a new building to greet and educate future visitors — coupled with improved parking — should be an incredible boon to the draw of Kinzua Bridge State Park.”
Park Manager Mitch Stickle, a native of Duke Center, said visitors to the park love the Skywalk, and are very excited about the visitors center.
“Just last weekend I was up there and it was a constant flow of people,” Stickle said. “As soon as a parking space opens up, it’s taken.”
Groups of motorcyclists — 100 or more at a time — stop frequently. And the Skywalk has become a popular place for weddings as well.
Stickle called the park and its reinvention since the tornado, “A big source of pride,” and said the coming visitors center will be a real benefit to McKean County.
“It seems like the area is moving in the right direction,” he said.
The projected number of visitors this year at McKean County’s only state park is 140,000, Devlin said. According to studies commissioned by the visitors bureau, the economic impact of the Kinzua Bridge with that number of visitors is about $10.2 million this year for the local economy. And now that plans will be moving ahead to put in a visitor center, Devlin said she expects those numbers to explode.
“If we have 130,000 visitors without (full-time) staff or interpretation, we’re projecting that will at least double” once the visitors center opens. “When it opens, we’ll have full-time staff at the park.”
A new visitors center isn’t the only thing in store for Kinzua Bridge State Park. Devlin said work is underway to make the park a hub for hiking trails as well.
“We’re looking at making a connection from the Tuna Valley Trail Association and Kinzua Valley Trail Association,” she said, explaining a trail could run through Westline, Kushequa and to the park.
Also, the railroad grade used by the Knox & Kane Railroad could be made into a trail, which would connect the state park to Cook State Forest to the south. A connection could be made to the North Country Trail in the Allegheny National Forest, and Black Snake Trail in Allegany State Park in New York.
“We would become a major trail destination for the East Coast,” Devlin said.
And after the Animal Planet show “Finding Bigfoot” aired, with the stars using the Kinzua Viaduct for a vantage point in the hunt for the legendary creature, another kind of tourism has been growing in popularity.
People are flocking to the park hoping for a glimpse of the elusive beast.
“The biggest responses from the public are the Skywalk and Bigfoot,” Devlin said with a laugh. “We’re actually going to start a Bigfoot geocache. We’re going to use the GPS coordinates from the show. People will get a Bigfoot wooden coin.”
The geocache is still in the development stage.
Currently at the park, work is under way to create a walking path to the bottom of the Kinzua Gorge. The old paths have been closed since the tornado.
Devlin said the path will make use of the foot bridge across Kinzua Creek that was built years ago by Boy Scouts.
“People will again be able to see the viaduct from the bottom of the gorge,” she said.
This year is also the 50th anniversary of the Kinzua Bridge State Park.
Brady said, “Park staff, historical groups and dedicated volunteers are working hard to plan commemorative events that will make park visits during this anniversary year especially rewarding.”
