The Park
The Wheaton House, 2005. Early evening art exhibit for Rodrica Tilley, Specialist-in-Residence.
Before Salt Springs was a state park, it was the Wheaton family homestead. From the late 1830s until 1970, six generations of Wheatons farmed the land, raised their families, and welcomed friends and strangers alike to picnic, hike, and camp in their woods and fields. To perpetuate the public's access, the Wheatons approached the Bureau of State Parks to purchase their farm and turn it into a state park.
The BSP was interested in Salt Springs because of its rare geological aspects, old-growth hemlock trees, and deep gorge with waterfalls. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania acquired Salt Springs in 1973 with money raised through Pennsylvania's Project 70. With The Nature Conservancy acting as financial intermediary from 1971 to 1973, ownership passed from the James Wheaton family to the BSP. The 405-acre homestead became Salt Springs State Park.
The park includes woods, trails, a strikingly beautiful series of waterfalls through a deep gorge, and a grove of virgin hemlock that is unique in the area. Two nineteenth-century farmhouses have been renovated. One serves as a private, income-producing residence. The other, the Wheaton House, is where the Friends hold public programs, maintain their offices, and offer interpretive displays of natural and human history. Renovation of the carriage barn is complete, and work is progressing on the dairy barn.
Salt Springs includes an additional 437 acres owned exclusively by the Friends of Salt Springs Park, Inc. In 2000, we purchased a 300-acre tract adjacent to the park. This tract is called the Friends Land. To ensure preservation of the Friends Land in perpetuity, we placed it in a Conservation Easement that is held by the Edward L. Rose Conservancy. In 2006, we increased the Friends Land by purchasing another adjacent 137-acre tract. Both purchases were made possible by grants from the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, with matching funds donated by the public. The Friends Land is easily reached by park trails. It offers expanded recreational opportunities and further protection to the Fall Brook watershed and its diverse habitats.
Many people ask us why we call the park "Springs" when there is only one spring.
The park's name reflects what the area has "always" been called, at least since 1813. The land around "the spring," the hemlock grove, and the Wheaton farmstead is riddled with underground streams of salty water that reach the surface here and there. The one spring that was mined was the most accessible.
Who are we to contradict Rev. Davis Dimock, who wrote the following in his diary in 1813: dined with four gentlemen from Philadelphia who . . . stayed the night before at the Salt Springs . . . they dealt in extraordinaries about it, as though they had been on a voyage around the world.
The Friends
The Friends of Salt Springs Park, Inc., is a Pennsylvania nonprofit corporation, exempt from federal taxation pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. This means that contributions to the Friends qualify as charitable deductions for the donors' federal tax. As a nonprofit corporation, the Friends has bylaws, a Board of Directors, and a structure of committees (see Friends Organizational Structure).
We are a volunteer organization, formed by local citizens with the initial goal of stopping the deterioration of the facilities at Salt Springs State Park and preserving its potential for future generations. We have approximately 400 members (fees range from $25 for individual to $45 for families and upward for organizations). The officers and directors serve without compensation other than the satisfaction of seeing their accomplishments. The organization has enjoyed the full cooperation of the Susquehanna County Commissioners and the Franklin Township supervisors, both of whom have ex officio seats on the Friends Board. Click here for more information on membership.
Volunteers resting after painting, weeding, hauling, picking up trash . . . on our May Work Day in 1997. Left to right: Rusty Ely, Bruce Rossman, Toby Anderson, Zoe Poster, Rodrica Tilley, Libby Anderson. Back: Vince and Nita Homer.
Although the Wheaton homestead became Salt Springs State Park in 1973, the Bureau of State Parks was unwilling to stretch limited funds to improve or maintain its newest, and one of its most rural, properties. Local citizens were, and we formed the Friends of Salt Springs Park, Inc., in 1994. In 1995, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania contracted with Susquehanna County for the latter to manage the park. Susquehanna County in turn subcontracted its responsibilities to the Friends. (See Lillian Theophanis' article for more information on the park's history and other organizations involved during the 1970s and 1980s.)
Contracting with the Friends is the only time in Pennsylvania that a volunteer organization has been given responsibility for a state park. Since 1995, we have been the driving force behind improving the park facilities, restoring its buildings, enlarging its hiking and camping facilities, and providing year-round programs. When this 10-year contract expired in December 2004, the state was so pleased with our management that it signed a new contract directly with the Friends.
