10 3-12 shp public mtg-compressed- final

A MASTER PLAN …

… to CONNECT & SHARE OUR STORIES with town, country and the places beyond …

SUSQUEHANNA HERITAGE PARK

a p e n n s y l v a n i a c o r p o r a t i o n

withalbertinvernona r c h i t e c t u r e L L C

Jones Battaglia Landscape Architects

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Agenda1. Introduction

2. Public Input – What We’ve Heard

Public Input Session 1, Steering Committee & Key Person Interviews

3. Review park & interpretive concept plans

Regional Connectivity Overall Concept Plan Park Concept Plans

4. Receive feedback on park & Interpretive concept plans

5. Next Stepsa p e n n s y l v a n i a c o r p o r a t i o n



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Owner Acres1 Wilton Meadows Nature

PreserveLancaster County Conservancy

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2 Highpoint Scenic Vista and Recreation Area

County of York 79

3 Native Lands County Park County of York 964 Klines Run Park Safe Harbor Water Power

Corporation48

5 Zimmerman Center for Heritage

Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area

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Parcel

Area Being Studied

Where are we now? - today

Where do we want to be?- 10-20 years

How do we get there?- Immediate, Short, Mid & Long

Term Implementation Strategies

Our Process - 3 simple questions...


What We’ve Heard

Respect the peacefulness and tranquility of the neighbors

Respect the landscape – low impact on resources Meet the needs of locals and visitors to the area &

to the parks Expand passive recreation opportunities Concern for pedestrian and bicycle safety along

Long Level Road Tell the stories of the River, Land, and Man Incorporate art into the parks Connect the parks to the Rivertowns Encourage & promote local economic activityWhat’s our story?

Our vision….

T h e r i v e r , a s a m e t a p h o r f o r l i f e :The choices we make,the lessons we learn from it, and the legacies we leave behind.

Regional Connectivity Concept

The Big Picture!Susquehanna RiverLands

Conservation Landscape Initiative (CLI)

• National Recreation Trails- Captain John Smith Water Trail- Lower Susquehanna River Trail- Mason Dixon Trail

• Rivertowns- Columbia, Wrightsville, Marietta

• Collection of National Register of Historic Places Native American Archeological Sites

• Conejohela Flats Important Bird Area - Susquehanna River Flyway

• Cultural Resources- Lincoln Highway- National Watch & Clock Museum,

Marietta Art House, Historic Wrightsville Museum,

- Wright’s Ferry Mansion- Zimmerman Center for Heritage- Columbia, Wrightsville, Marietta- Blue Rock Heritage Center- Indian Steps Museum

• Existing Trails- Captain John Smith Water Trail- Lower Susquehanna River Trail- Atlantic Coast Bicycle Route- Bicycle PA Route S- Mason Dixon Trail- Northwest River Trail- Native Lands Trail- Chickies Rock Trail

• Proposed Trails- Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal

Trail(Long Level Trail)

- East Prospect Borough Connector Trail

- Northwest River Trail Extension - Atglen-Susquehanna Trail- Turkey Hill Trail Extension- Little Chiques Trail

• Rivertowns & Main Streets- Columbia, Wrightsville, Marietta

• Parks- Samuel Lewis State Park- Wrightsville Riverfront Park- Marietta Riverfront Park- Columbia Borough Riverfront Park- Lock 2- Klines Run Park- Native Lands County Park- Highpoint Scenic Vista and

Recreation Area- Wilton Meadows Nature Preserve

Regional Connectivity Concept

The Big Picture!Visitation Figures

Location 2010 2011Samuel Lewis State Park 104,028 111,652Klines Run Park 139,712 147,813Highpoint Scenic Vista & Recreation Area * 36,327 36,327Lock 2 268,789 261,864

* Collected in 2008


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SUSQUEHANNA HERITAGE PARKLocal Connectivity Plan

• Hiking Trails- Mason Dixon Trail from Wrightsville

Riverfront Park to Lock 2 - existing- East Prospect Borough Connector

Trail – proposed- Native Lands Trails – existing- Wilton Meadows Nature Trails –

proposed

• Bike Routes- PA Bicycle Route S – along State

Route 462 - existing- Atlantic Coast Bike Route – along

State Route 624 – existing

• Shared Use Path - proposed- Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal

Trail (Long Level Trail) Wrightsville Riverfront Park to Lock 2, primarily parallel to River

• Lower Susquehanna River Water Trail - existing- Wayfinding to and from

Susquehanna Heritage Park - proposed

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“The aim of interpretation is not instruction, it is provocation.”

Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage

Lessons from the people who are most successful at getting their messages across.

Apple’s think different ads didn’t say a word about computers; they used iconic graphic images to associate their product with stories we already knew about people who charted their own course.

Customers bought Apple’s computers so they could chart their own course.

LESSONS FROM THE

SUSQUEHANNA

What lessons can we learn from the people who are drawn to this river?

Why did the first people come here?Did the fertility of this land near the river contribute to their success?Did they move from village to village because they exhausted the land they needed to support them ?Did the palisaded villages they built to defend themselves exhaust their human capital? Why did they disappear?

Why did other people follow them here?What lessons did John Smith learn when he sailed up the Susquehanna in 1608?What stories about these free people did John Smith and others who followed him take back home? Could those stories have influenced their thinking about what it means to be free?Is that story part of this land’s legacy too?

Why did others follow John Smith to the banks of this river?What did the Cresaps and the Wrights and the Latrobes and all the men and women who followed them do here?Why did they build ferries and bridges and canals and railroads and highways over & along the banks of this river?Why did some of their industries succeed?Why did some of them fail?

Why are people still drawn to this river?What lessons can they learn from us?What lessons can we learn from them? What lessons can we learn from all the people who are drawn to this river?

LEGACIES ON THE

SUSQUEHANNA

1,000 years agoancient people left markson the rocksin the center of this river.

What marks will we leavefor people to admire1,000 years from now?

LESSONS & LEGACIES FROM THE

SUSQUEHANNA

Central Purpose and Message

The Susquehanna Heritage Park will serve as a Gateway to the Susquehanna Region, and will use a variety of interpretive media to share the lessons we can learn from the legacies left by people drawn to the banks of this river -from its earliest inhabitants to its most recent occupants.

Subthemes:1. Why does the river draw people to this region (e.g. landscape

painters).2. What lessons can we learn from the choices they made? (why

did they paint the way they did, what does that tell us about the evolution of our democracy?)

3. What will our legacies be? (what will we do, based on our understanding of their art?)

Highpoint Scenic Vista & Recreation AreaGateway to the Susquehanna’s Heritage

Lesson: Residents and visitors are introduced to the significant stories about the people, places and events that influenced this region’s natural, cultural and architectural heritage

Media: existing trail that climbs the hill, with locally quarried limestone markers set in the trail inscribed with iconic graphic symbols (glyphs) representing the regions historically significant sites. For example, the wiggly snake (a universal symbol for knowledge) that aligns with the solstices at the Shenk’s Ferry petroglyphs will be used as the icon for that site.

When they reach the summit (physically and intellectually), visitors will have been introduced to all of the region’s attractions, many of them visible to them on the horizon. The iconic glyphs -with QR codes embedded in the stones- will now function as mnemonic and wayfinding devices to help visitors find and learn more about the sites on apps, brochures and entrance signs.

Legacy: existing hillside monument enhanced with iconic graphic markers that help visitors learn about, find, and remember local and regional heritage sites.

Concept Plan 1 – Highpoint Scenic Vista & Recreation Area

Lesson: Visitors will learn what happens when current residents make a conscience decision to help an undeveloped site to return to its natural state.

Media: land art associated with reforestation of steep hillside with native grasses, trees, shrubs and flowering plants along existing trail made accessible for local residents and walk on visitors

Legacy: a reforested site with habitat that supports native fauna

Wilton Meadows

Concept Plan 1 – Wilton Meadows Nature Preserve

Concept – Native Wildflower Meadow

Lesson: The visitors center will showcase the Visions on the Susquehanna collection of art that describes the changes in the evolution of democracy in America through the eyes of master painters, whose paintings of the Susquehanna mirror our own cultural evolution, from the sublime early days of our democracy to the critical expressions modern painters use to express contemporary social and political points of view

Primary Media: Visions on the Susquehanna exhibit, new 3 dimensional art (sculpture) commissioned for the site to extend that concept into the landscape, replica of the petroglyphs showing earliest known art associated with this region, children’s play area that uses local themes to help children understand that the choices they make will impact the landscape we all live in

Legacy: world class art exhibits, sculpture garden, playground

Klines Run Interpretive Center

Concept Plan 1 – Native Lands, Klines Run & Zimmerman Center

Klines Run Interpretive Center & Natural Play Environment

Lesson: Visitors will learn what happened before and after the Susquehannocks made contact with Europeans, and how the choices they made may have influenced the outcome of both of their societies.

Media: pow wows, storytellers, apps, longhouse replica, story (totem) pole, plantings of crops and plants and gardens used by native people, with existing grass trail along location of palisaded village made accessible for local residents and visitors

Legacy: a culturally sacred and archaeologically significant National Register of Historic Places site left largely undisturbed except for low impact usage by Native Americans that maintains and preserves those qualities for future benefit

Native Lands County Park(lower Liebhart site)

Lesson: Where we learn about early settlers subsistence form of living and how that choice is disappearing from the landscape

Media: ruins of agrarian farmstead, agricultural buildings, cartways, cemetary and landscape features interpreted through signage, apps and brochures

Legacy: a developed site that will over time return to its natural state

farmstead ruins & Dritt cemetery

Native Lands County Park

Lesson: Where we learn how buildings and landscapes can be repurposed in a way that preserves the architectural and cultural heritage while giving them new life for the foreseeable future

Media: restored and repurposed homestead, interpreted through exhibits, signage, apps and brochures

Legacy: restoration of a significant piece of local history that functions as a center for preserving, promoting and improving access to local and regional heritage focused on the Susquehanna

Zimmerman Center

Lesson: Visitors learn about and are given the opportunity to experience the conscience choices people are making in urbanized settings (Wrightsville, Marietta & Columbia) to preserve and revitalize their communities though commerce, tourism and the arts

Primary media: outdoor art (sculptures and murals), exhibits, photography, galleries, culinary arts, videography, lectures

Legacy: 3 revitalized communities

3 rivertowns

3 rivertowns

SUSQUEHANNA HERITAGE PARKPublic Input

ProcessGround Rules• Every idea is valid; Please

respect the opinions of others.

• You do not have to agree with every idea that is suggested; Even if you don’t agree, this is not the time to debate a specific item.

• Groups – Please have a spokesperson speak for the entire group.

• Please remain quiet while someone else is talking; Everyone will have a chance to speak.

• Please keep your statements as clear and concise as possible.

• Convey one issue per turn.

• Please respect the time limit.Parking Lot

• Moderator can ‘park’ comments for later discussion

Next Steps1. Meeting with Steering Committee and

Partners to discuss and refine concepts into Master Plan, mid Fall.

2. Refine draft recommendations & implementation strategies.

3. Meeting with Steering Committee and Partners to review draft master plan, recommendations, & implementation Strategies late Fall.

4. Public Meeting to present & receive feedback on draft master plan recommendations & implementation strategies, Early Winter.

5. Finalize master plan, recommendations, and implementation strategies.





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Project Contact:

Mr. John Buerkle, RLA, AICPVice PresidentPashek Associates619 East Ohio Street Pittsburgh, PA 15212412-321-6362

[email protected]





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10 3-12 shp public mtg-compressed- final

Documents

heritage park

heritage heritage area

susquehanna gateway

pa bicycle route s

state route

heritage columbia

native lands trails

historic wrightsville