USA - Pennsylvania - Pymatuning Spillway

PYMATUNING SPILLWAY

"WHERE THE DUCKS WALK ON THE FISH"

Built in 1934 when the headwaters of the Shenango River were dammed, the carp at the Linesville Spillway at Pymatuning Lake soon became a tourist attraction.  The only place at a State Park where you are allowed to feed the wildlife. Pymatuning State Park sees over 3 million visitors each year.

Sent by Nancy from Pennsylvania, USA.

Pymatuning Reservoir is a man-made lake in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, and Ashtabula County, Ohio, in the United States, on land that was once a very large swamp. Much of it is incorporated into two state parks: Pymatuning State Park in Pennsylvania, and Pymatuning State Park in Ohio.

The first known inhabitants were the Mound Builders. Two of their mounds were flooded by the creation of Pymatuning Lake. The Lenape were living in the area when European settlers first came there. The lake is named for the chief who lived in the area at the time, Pihmtomink. The Lenape were pushed out of the area by the Seneca tribe, a member of the Iroquois Confederacy. The Seneca were defeated by General Anthony Wayne's forces during the Northwest Indian War, and left the area under the terms of the Treaty of Greenville. This treaty marked the end of Native Americans inhabiting the area.

The first settlers to the area were farmers, whose lives were not easy, as the land was very swampy and very difficult to reclaim. Farm animals that wandered off were often lost in the quicksands of the swamp, or fell prey to predators, such as foxes, bears, and mountain lions. The swamps were infested with mosquitoes that brought yellow fever to the settlers.

An unsolved murder case is associated with the then Pymatuning Swamp. In 1932, herpetologist Norman Edouard Hartweg, while searching for reptiles, ran into a body of a lady. The police concluded that she had been murdered elsewhere, but her identity was never confirmed, nor the murderer identified (read more).