Revisiting Bedford County: Shawnee State Park and the Ship Hotel

Bedford County, PA still looks pretty much the way I see it in old pictures and in my mind. At Shawnee State Park, the little swing still sits in its secluded picnic area at the top of the hill overlooking Shawnee’s lake and beach. I have a 30-year-old picture of that same swing set, with me and my sister and my dad posing in front.

Both my mom and my dad traveled from the Pittsburgh area to Shawnee often with their families while they were growing up, so I have seen several pictures of them posing in the park at various stages of their lives before their children. In one picture, my mother and her brother are both young children sitting at a picnic table. Another picture shows a camping trip that my parents took together with my aunts when they all were teenagers.

My husband I went camping at Shawnee this past week and met several of my family members for a picnic there. My aunt and uncle and cousin came all of the way from Greensburg to join us. We all have a lot of fond memories of the park, since we have had many family picnics there over the years. When my Grandma Gaffron was living, we celebrated her birthday each year on Mother’s Day weekend due to the proximity of the two dates, and she liked to rent the cottage on the lake.

Grandma Gaffron used to reminisce her memories of riding to Bedford County on Route 30 during the 1930’s and 1940’s. The road ascends Bedford County’s Mt. Arafat and passes Lookout Point, where on a clear day you can see seven counties and three states. My grandmother remembered being a kid and going past the Ship Hotel on Lookout Point. (The hotel, near the top of Mt. Arafat, was shaped like a ship.) My grandmother and I were both saddened when the ship burned down in 2001.

I am attaching here a link to a WQED blog about the Lincoln Highway (Route 30). The third picture down is of the Ship Hotel.

Edit:

I found additional material online about the Ship Hotel. Here is a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story that appeared immediately after the fire. I am under the impression that a cause had not been determined for the fire.