This haunting photograph was taken by Richard Morgan and ran in the Observer Reporter in the winter of 1959. The old Lazear farm had been purchased by the Commonwealth and now 67 acres of bottomland that once grew enough corn to take to market was filling with water behind its brand new dam.
The caption reads, “Too late – already partially submerged in the lake is Lazear Covered Bridge in Richhill Township which was in the path of progress resulting from the construction of a new state park in western Greene County. A campaign to save the half century-old bridge by having it moved to another location in the park, possibly for use as a bridle crossing and footbridge has supposedly fallen short. A number of local organizations as well as some state and national groups sent petitions to the state several months ago in a last minute bid to preserve the span, which is regarded as one of the few such privately owned landmarks in the nation. As evidenced above, the lake has already surrounded the bridge and partly inundated it on three sides.”
Thanks to Morgan’s daughter Mary Beth Pastorus, this well-preserved original photo-graph is now part of the history to be found at Cornerstone Genealogical Society. When I made my appointment to mask up and search the stacks for family histories and read the file of saved newspaper clippings and fliers on Ryerson Station and the state park that borrowed its frontier name, I came to find this photo that I knew existed as a faded newspaper clipping. Instead, I was delighted to learn Mary Beth had recently donated much of her dad’s collection of photos and clippings from his years in the newspaper business. Now I would learn that this lost bridge that once took Jesse and Ivy Lazaer and their kids across the North Fork of Wheeling Creek to their handsome brick home did not go quietly into the lake. According to another earlier clipping from October 23, 1959, the people of Wind Ridge and beyond had been fighting for months to save it.
“Petitions and letters from five to 10 influential organizations and firms are being forwarded to Dr. Maurice K. Goddard, State Secretary of Forest and Waters [now the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources] in expectation the Department will reconsider and see fit to… move it to a suitable site on the 1000 acre recreation park.”
First park superintendent Henry Asel suggested it could be moved to a sugar tree grove near the Lazaer home, “by the proposed swimming beach” and become a footbridge. Community efforts were reported to be underway to raise the money for purchase and transfer. National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges and Pennsylvania Conservatory Society were contacted to help the community “make the new Greene County Park as scenic and as attractive as possible.”
The article continues, “Earlier efforts of the Ross Hill Garden Club and others to preserve the bridge were shelved by the State, which has indicated that if not purchased by some interested organization as a landmark – in the park or elsewhere, it will be turned over to the State Department of Supplies. Bids will then be asked for the sale of the structure to the highest bidder.”
But time had already run out by the time this last rallying cry was published that October. Looking at the date, I get a strong hunch that two months would hardly be enough time to open the state bidding process on the old Lazear covered bridge. The actual month and day on the clipping that shows the water rising on this irreplaceable artifact about to become history is missing, but the year – 1959 is still there.
Note to history lovers: If you feel the need to preserve a piece of our past for future generations, make sure you leave yourself enough time.