Commissioners, Benninghoff Back Effort to Make Penn’s Cave a State Park

Penn’s Cave and Wildlife Park has been a privately-owned attraction open to the public for more than 140 years, and now it could become Pennsylvania’s 126th state park.

The Centre County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a letter supporting efforts to have the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources acquire and maintain America’s only all-water cavern and its 1,400 acres of surround property, ensuring its conservation for generations to come.

CEO Russ Schleiden and executive business director Jeanine Schleiden Watson, whose family has owned and operated Penn’s Cave for four generations dating back to the early 20th century, have for years been working to expand and conserve the property. It encompasses 15 deeded parcels with farmland, the historic Penn’s Cave House, other buildings and the headwaters of Penn’s Creek, which ultimately flows into the Susquehanna River basin.

“We decided that the headwaters needed protected,” Schleiden sad. “That’s why we bought a lot of the land and the headwaters of Penns Creek start there at the cave… It’s a great brook trout stream. The contributories also support the native brook trout.”

Schleiden and Watson have been working with DCNR for the past three years on a possible transition as part of their effort to conserve the property.

“We have been the custodians of it, and we strongly desire this to go to the state to protect and continue to conserve and have it available to the public,” Watson said. “We just want it to be preserved and taken care of. We’ve always felt like we were the stewards of that. We would hate to see this go into development, and unfortunately, that would be the alternative.”

The transition would include the entirety of the mostly contiguous property, and DCNR would have capabilities to preserve and enhance it beyond what the current owners can do, including a potential new education center, Watson said.

State Rep. Kerry Benninghoff, R-Bellefonte, has introduced legislation in the state House to facilitate the transfer, which would require approval by both chambers of the General Assembly and the governor.

He hopes it will be included in this year’s state budget, which is still being negotiated after missing the June 30 deadline.

“I can’t think of a better time in our country and our county’s history at the semiquincentennial to make this reality,” Benninghoff said. “If you want to look at Americana in its best, the park I think exemplifies that.

“The DCNR organization has been there on many visits. We’ve had the governor and some others there for visits as well. They know what we’re talking about.”

The Schleidens, Benninghoff added, have had other potential buyers “knocking on their door wanting to purchase this land and break it all apart, and a lot of it would be going to development.”

“We only have so much farmland out in our community here in Centre County and across the state,” Benninghoff said. “To me, it would be a real shame if that happened. They don’t want that to happen. Obviously they’ve worked into their 80s to be keeping this thing what it is. I think the state would be remiss to not take deep consideration, but everything at this tenuous time with the budget is horse trading.”

Seneca Indians discovered the cave centuries ago, and it opened as a commercial show cavern in 1885. Henry Clay and Robert Perly Campbell, the Schleidens ancestors, acquired it in 1908 and revitalized it as a tourist site.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, it has continued to grow as a popular attraction where visitors tour the 1,300-foot-long cavern by flat bottom boat over the deep groundwater that forms the headwaters of Penns Creek.

It also offers farm-nature-wildlife tours, off-road mountain tours and a variety of other activities.

Commissioner Mark Higgins said Penn’s Cave is “an irreplaceable attraction in the county and really, really should be preserved.”

It’s natural beauty and educational opportunities would be a strong addition to the state park system, Commissioner Amber Concepcion said.

“I am really hopeful the state will be able to take this on, and it would make a fantastic state park,” Concepcion said.

Commissioner Steve Dershem called Penn’s Cave “iconic” and said the opportunity for it to become a state park is a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for the commonwealth.

“It would be a crying shame if it were left to development or change or ruination of what it is right now, which is natural splendor at its best,” Dershem said. “It represents a lot of good things, but what it really represents is who we are in Centre County. It would be an opportunity to bring literally thousands of new people in to see it, spend time and spend their dollars here in Centre County. So I will have to say that it has an economic engine to it that would continue well into the future.”

All three commissioners applauded the Schleiden’s for their work to conserve and improve the Penn’s Cave property.

“This has been a very difficult decision for us, obviously,” Schleiden said. “This will be the end of that era. But we feel that it’s a very important part of not only Centre County, but the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and that it should be preserved in perpetuity.”