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West Bethlehem Township creates challenging hiking trail with beautiful vistas

3 min read

MARIANNA – On a sunny day, the water in a West Bethlehem Township pond is clear enough to see big fish chasing after their dinner.

A large wetlands has cattails that snake around the water and up a hill, creating a beautiful view on what was once an unsightly coal mine brownfield.

“It’s gorgeous,” said Lisa Scherer, a local volunteer at the property, where a challenging grass hiking trail about a mile long also has been created to the top of the hill overlooking Marianna Borough.

“It’s steep. It gets your heart racing,” Scherer said on a recent fall morning at the 150-acre site along Jefferson Avenue.

The township purchased the property in 2003 for $40,000 from Bethlehem Steel Corp., which used it as a refuse dump at Marianna Mine. The mine permanently closed in 1991, a devastating blow to the borough and township.

The company was ordered in 2002 by the state Department of Environmental Protection to set aside $45 million to remediate six mines, including the one in Marianna. The order involved reclaiming the waste pile in West Beth and cleaning up sediment ponds at the site.

Scott Beveridge/Observer-Reporter

Bob Mercante, chairman of the West Bethlehem Township supervisors, stands near the entrance to the new hiking trail in the municipality.

The DEP returns regularly to the pond to test its water, and no problems have been noted, said Bob Mercante, chairman of West Beth supervisors. A new layer of topsoil 12 inches thick was added over the mine refuse as a sealant.

As part of the sales agreement, the township was required to keep the property open to the public.

The township has since cleared overgrowth around the pond to open it up for fishing, Mercante said. It also has an agreement with the state Game Commission to allow hunters onto the property on a permission basis, he said.

Plans also are in the works to plant donated trees and stock pheasants on the property, Mercante said.

“It’s fantastic,” said Wes Silva, council president in neighboring Marianna. “The view up there is spectacular.”

One of the views is of the rows of Marianna Mine worker houses built a century ago as part of what was once among the most modern mining towns in the world.

Courtesy of Lisa Scherer

A view of Marianna from the top of a new hiking trail in neighboring West Bethlehem Township

“On a clear day you can see Uniontown,” Scherer said, pointing to the Fayette County seat about 30 miles away from Marianna.

Silva said the borough and township are working together to create access to the old coke ovens alongside Ten Mile Creek and near the former mine in an effort to attract tourism.

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