These are the white-capped rapids of the Youghiogheny River in the Pennsylvania State Park called “Ohiopyle.” One of the guides from our rafting trip there this weekend said the name came from a time when folks from the flat-land state of Ohio drove their cars too fast down one of the many mountainous roads and crashed all in a jumble. A Pennsylvanian who went by noticed and claimed “why, that’s an Ohio-pile!”.
He was joking. Inatead, the name actually comes from the Lenape language “ahi opihəle,” meaning “it turns very white,” and indeed, the rapids and waterfalls of the area are both frothy and fast. The Ohiopyle State Park opened in 1965, following a timeline trajectory that is all-too-familiar for the state: the American Indians (in this case, the Lenape, Seneca, and Shawnee, among others) got kicked out of the area (thanks, *French and Indian War*), and the European/American settlers first made money from hunting, trapping, and farming but then got busy deforesting with the lumber industry. The region became popular with urban tourists from Pittsburg who rode the train into Ohiopyle to see the waterfalls and take in newly built resorts.
Once the trees were sparce and the automobile made the train obsolete for tourists, the area declined in importance Eventually, it was purchased by the forward-thinking Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, who allowed the trees to grow back and then sold the land to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The State Park of Ohiopyle is now a popular destination for nature-loving folks: the waterfalls are gems, the biodiversity excellent, and the hiking trails and whitewater rafting opportunities plentiful.
