NEW BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Tucked into a sleepy creek valley of Western Pennsylvania, the Mahoning Creek Dam has stood for 84 years, holding back waters to protect communities from flooding.
“If I could describe Mahoning as having a personality, I would say she is strong and resilient,” said Angela Erskine thoughtfully while on a boundary patrol around the dam’s reservoir. Erskine is the dam and reservoir’s natural resource manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Pittsburg District.
Although resilient, Mahoning is showing her age, Erskine said. The dam’s surface is brittle from years of swinging weather extremes and pigeon droppings, significantly deteriorating the concrete’s surface. Additionally, Erskine’s team is small and responsible for maintaining the1dam, managing thousands of acres of land and 5.5 miles of waterways encompassing the reservoir.
“Our collective dedication and overall expertise allow us to achieve remarkable outcomes,” Erskine said. “Our team always strives to deliver outstanding results supporting the mission at hand.”
She has only one full-time park ranger and a three-person crew constantly tackling a growing list of repairs and maintenance projects. Together, the Mahoning staff forms one of the smallest reservoir teams in the Pittsburgh District.
Erskine has managed the reservoir for about a year. Originally from North Dakota, she grew up on a farm before joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Her career has taken her across the country, from Minnesota to Massachusetts, before arriving in Amish country in western Pennsylvania. She learned that each reservoir, has its own character, rhythm and pace. Mahoning is no different.
“The best thing about Mahoning is that this is a nice little quiet area,” she said.
The Mahoning Creek is narrower than most federal reservoirs. Its summer recreation is mainly made up of paddlers since the waters are not ideal for fast boats or summer thrills. Amish communities surround the creek, spread across several tiny towns. Nearby shops sell locally-produced jams, real maple syrup, and Amish-built furniture.
“You can always tell which homes are Amish because of the white curtains, clothes drying in the sun, and horse carriages parked in the driveway,” Erskine pointed out while passing a home in her park ranger truck.
Despite its beauty and quiet surroundings, Mahoning Creek can still be a demanding facility to manage. The creek swells during high-water events, washing up tree trunks and other debris, scattering it like garbage across roads and shorelines. Some of the debris piles up near the dam, which keeps large tree chunks from washing further damage downstream.
“This is our creek, but we simply don’t have the staff or equipment to handle such large quantities of debris,” Erskine said.
Thankfully, the ranger team is not managing everything on the property alone. The district leases much of the land to the state or local municipalities to manage parks, campgrounds, and game lands for fishing and hunting. The rangers have also developed a partnership with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, which supports by clearing debris and performing other work on the federal land.
“Without those partnerships, there is so much we could not do,” Erskine said.
Another major obstacle comes from protecting the reservoir’s boundary lines. Erskine and her ranger perform daily and weekly patrols to ensure residents do not encroach upon federal lands with permanent structures that could cause flood risks.
James Norris, the lone ranger, also patrols on foot along steep, rocky and wooden slopes. He steps over logs and grabs onto branches hoping to keep his balance on his trek.
“In a few years, I will be in great shape if I keep this up,” Norris joked while catching his breath. He leaned over a railing at an overlook with a direct view of the dam.
Most people, even nearby residents, do not know the concrete behemoth exists, Norris said. Federal dams perform a quiet mission that goes unnoticed unless something drastic happens. Yet the Mahoning Dam has kept thousands of lives safe in its 80-plus years of operation.
The dam’s construction started in 1938 and completed in 1941. It cost $6 million to build, equivalent to $32 million in today’s value. It has prevented $812 million in flood damages since construction, worth more than 25 times its build cost.
Though the mission often goes unnoticed, Erskine knows her team’s value. Beyond the constant maintenance needs, Erskine, her ranger and the maintenance team tackle several projects that steward the land and improve visitors’ experiences.
“I am so proud to be a part of this amazing team, and I admire their hard work and dedication every day,” she said.
Norris is working to replace hundreds of signs that have become weathered over the years. The team plans on adding pollinator plots to benefit wildlife, and they dug a catch basin for frogs and salamanders to spawn.
“Mahoning is more than just a job,” Erskine said. “It’s a place we want to leave better than how we found it.”