“People are building memories… We have foundational memories, and that’s what these people are building day in and day out.”

Our host, Marci Mowery, speaks with Park Manager Jim Eckert about why Little Buffalo State Park has become one of Pennsylvania’s most approachable outdoor destinations.

Jim describes Little Buffalo as a “starter park,” a place where newcomers can comfortably experience the outdoors without feeling overwhelmed by rugged wilderness. From flat lakeside trails and beginner-friendly archery programs to ADA kayak launches, inclusive playgrounds, and accessible picnic areas, the park is designed to welcome families, first-time visitors, and people of all physical abilities.

Visitors can explore the working Shoaff's Mill, the Blue Ball Tavern, covered bridges, and historic rail exhibits, while seasonal traditions like the Apple Festival and “Light Up Little Buffalo” introduce new audiences to outdoor recreation.

This eclectic collection of events can provide the small “nudge” that sparks a lifelong passion for parks and nature!

Jim discusses the value of shared public spaces. Whether it’s hearing wood thrushes at dusk, skating across frozen lake ice, or sharing hamburgers at a summer picnic, the park becomes a setting where families build traditions across generations.

Key Topics:

• Little Buffalo as a “Starter Park” for New Visitors (01:40)
• Fishing, Birding, and Beginner-Friendly Hiking Trails (04:41)
• Accessibility Projects and Inclusive Recreation (06:54)
• Seasonal Traditions: Apple Festival and “Light Up Little Buffalo” (09:53)
• Hidden Wildlife Gems Around the Lake (14:37)
• Camping, Cabins, and Making Parks Accessible to All (16:25)
• Fossils, Geology, and “Touching the Past” (19:31)

Resources:

• Little Buffalo State Park: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/where-to-go/state-parks/find-a-park/little-buffalo-state-park
• Little Buffalo State Park Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/littlebuffalostatepark/
• Friends of Little Buffalo State Park: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LittleBuffalo/
• Little Buffalo Festival: https://littlebuffalofestival.org/
• Hoverter and Sholl Box Huckleberry: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/where-to-go/state-forests/find-a-forest/tuscarora/wild-and-natural-areas
• DCNR Events: https://events.dcnr.pa.gov/

🎧 Listen to the Think Outside Podcast on Spotify, Apple, or your favorite app while on the go! New episodes drop bi-weekly on Mondays, and you may occasionally find a bonus episode, as well!

The Pennsylvania Parks and Forests Foundation inspires stewardship of YOUR state parks and forests through volunteerism, education, recreation, and philanthropy.

Learn more, find events, download outdoor resources, and get involved!

👉 Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter

🎥 Watch outdoor tips and stories on our YouTube channel

📸 Follow the podcast on Instagram

🎶 Podcast music provided by Evan Mongeau

📱 Follow PPFF on:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• MeetUp

My favorite hidden gem is at the upper end of the lake. It's what's referred to as kind of the pond area. It's what sits on the upper side of the bridge. As you cross swimming pool road, you'll see different water fowl nestled in that hidden away spot. You'll see the turtles sunning themselves on the log. We have a lot of frogs in those wet spaces, so that's one of my favorite spaces, especially now here in the spring. We get a lot of wildlife centered on that area.

Imagine a place where stress fades, fresh air fills your lungs, and adventure waits around every corner, you welcome to Think Outside, the podcast that inspires you to explore, connect, and embrace the outdoors. Welcome to Think Outside with the Pennsylvania Parks and Forest Foundation. Today, I am at Little Buffalo State Park with Park Manager Jim Eckert. Jim, welcome.

Hey, thanks for having me.

I'm excited to be here, and I wanted to start off by thanking you for allowing PPFF to host their annual banquet here at your reception hall. What a great facility, and an opportunity to be here at the park.

Yeah, of course, it was great having everybody last night. It was a lot of good energy preparing us for the summer ahead,

nice, which is not that far away.

No, every time I blink at the calendar, it's like Memorial Day gets a little closer.

Keep your eyes open, don't blink. I was surprised how many people at the banquet last night had not been here before, such a gem, and easily accessed off of 322 not far from Newport.

Yeah, I look at it as a great starter park, being so close to the Harrisburg area. It's not an intimidating, extremely rural wilderness park. It is a very accessible park for people just starting out for the state park system.

Yeah, it's one of our quote unquote newer parks, is what we call one of the Goddard era parks. I think it was what, 1972

Yes,

yeah. And even though it's, we'll say, one of the younger parks, you have a lot of history here, you know. I was reading that it was, you know, a pathway for indigenous people when they were moving through the area. You have furnace history, but you have a national register of historic places right here within the confines of the park. Can we start there and talk about that history?

Sure. So, here at Little Buffalo, we have what we call a historic district, where we have several historic assets. We have, of course, the Shoafs Mill, which is the mainstay of the park. It is what we're known for, largely speaking. It's in a lot of our graphics and media, we love promoting the mill. It's one of the only working mills in the state park system. Weekends, Memorial Day through Labor Day, the park educators will run the mill for the Apple Festival in the fall. We grind cornmeal, we grind apples for apple cider and apple butter, so that's a great asset. We have the clays-covered bridge, we have the Blue Ball Tavern, we have a historic way car that would have operated on a narrow gage railway through the park. So we've got a lot of historic assets here in the park, and they're all in close proximity to one another, so you can really make a small trip out of it and see, see them all in one go.

Yeah, that's very nice. And I've been to the other end of the railroad in Blaine, where they also have an exhibit, so you could do a one, two, you could start here and look at your train car and learn a little bit of the history, and then go to the other end within the historic district, if I recall, you also have a band shell,

yes, that's correct,

and what happens with the bands to show, are they concerts?

Yeah, so there's an annual event with an associated group of the park. It's called the Little Buffalo Festival, where there's multiple musical acts and associated vendors and displays. It's a really great event. I had never really experienced live music in a state park before. Last fall's event was my first time attending, and it was a really cool experience, just the outdoor atmosphere, the community building, just everybody enjoying the music in the park. It was really magical environment.

Now, would that be on the state parks calendar of events, or no?

We will cross-promote it on our Facebook page, it's through a partner organization.

Okay, so we'll make sure that we link your Facebook page, so if people want to find out about that and some of the other programs that you have, yeah, to learn more.

Yeah, following us on Facebook is a really good way to keep, keep in touch with what's going on at the park.

So, in addition to the historic district, you have a lot of outdoor recreation opportunities. What are some of those that a visitor would find here at Little Buffalo?

Yeah, so when I talked about Little Buffalo being a starter park, we've got the Essential State Park lake that's really the focal point of the park itself. We've got about, I think it's usually pegged at about 88 acres of lake, it's stocked with. Trout, it's also got abundant other fish species, like pan fish. It's really popular as a fishing destination. We have about 10 miles of hiking trail, nothing too intense. The more intense hiking trails are both of the ridge trails, Buffalo and Middle Ridge, but if you're looking to have some more tame hiking experiences, everything that's settled down in the valley is generally flat. My favorite trail is the Fisherman's Hiking Trail that goes along the lake. We're a stopover for a lot of waterfowl, so if birds are your thing, we're a good birding destination as well.

We were hearing a lot of cardinals, not cardinals, saw those, they were having a fight with my mirror on my car. Yes, but Orioles, Baltimore, and Orchard Orioles.

Yeah, this does seem to be a popular park with Orioles, for some reason.

Yeah, they're so beautiful. It's so fun to see them. And we had a wood thrush come down, and we had a campfire, and they would just sat there, and we were watching us.

Their evening song is really nice.

Yes, it's very beautiful. So, you have hiking trails, and I, those, some of those also are good for cross-country skiing in the winter.

Yeah, so, like, namely the Fisherman's Trail that I mentioned, that's a nice flat trail. So, yeah, you could, you could use it for cross-country skiing as well.

I remember coming to Little Buffalo in the summer for your pool, we would drive up. I grew up in Lancaster County, and my cousins and I would come up, and we would spend the day at the Little Buffalo State Park swimming pool. So, is that still a very popular destination?

It's a very popular destination. We open Memorial Day weekend, and we're all set for this summer. We're very excited. It brings in a lot of folks to the park, sometimes folks that haven't been here before. So, when they come here for the pool, we try to capture them and bring them into everything else that the park has to offer.

We've been very pleased to work with the park on multiple projects to improve accessibility. Your lake that you mentioned has an ADA canoe and kayak launch that helps to stabilize a boat. We worked with the park and the friends of Little Buffalo to put in an inclusive playground down by the swimming pool. I know the friends were very active with the restoration of the train car as well. Any other big projects on the horizon

with Pennsylvania Outdoor Corps? We're working on some accessibility projects this summer, such as increasing access to some of our pavilions through ADA parking pads and through pathways, so folks can wheel right up and make those more easily accessible. We're also looking at increasing access to the mill, so folks can get up on the second level of the mill, where the grinding stones are, and some of the gears, so they can see more of the inner workings, making that more accessible.

Those are great projects. Thank you for doing that.

Absolutely.

Well, you mentioned the picnic pavilions, and picnicking is a very popular activity here at Little Buffalo.

Yeah, it absolutely is. Picnic season picks up right around Memorial Day weekend. That's the unofficial start to summer. So, folks come for the pool, and they also come for the large picnic area that's in the adjacent area to the pool. We have grills and picnic tables, and one of my favorite features that I saw heavily used last year is some ADA picnic sites.

So, do you have, when you're walking around in the summer, do you have a favorite picnic smell?

My favorite thing about walking the picnic areas in the summer is all the visitors that just offer you food. Do you want a hamburger? Do you want a hot dog? Do you want a pop or a soda, depending on where you're from? In Pennsylvania, I say pop,

you're Pittsburgh,

that's right, yeah. No, I love the smell of hot dogs and hamburgers. I love just chatting with folks as I'm walking through the picnic area. It's good public contact, and it makes me feel good. It's one of the reasons I started this career. It's, it's, it's awesome, because people are building memories much like the reason most of us started in this career. We have foundational memories, and that's what these people are building day in and day out. When you're walking through the area, they're having memories,

yes, and they're having such a great time. You know, I love watching people on their picnics and kids running around and people interacting.

Yeah, as long as the children are running around safely,

yes, always.

Yes,

always. We always, we always want to like lean towards the safety.

Yeah, they make me nervous when they, when they're running. I don't want any scrapes, cuts, or bruises.

It's part of growing up, though, isn't it? Having a fuse,

yeah,

cuts and bruises.

No, look for a ranger, we'll give you a band aid.

Yes, that's important. Yeah, you mentioned you have these events. I know you also have your holiday event around Christmas. Remind me of the name of that.

Sure. So we have those couple signature events. We have the Apple Festival in October, and in December what you're referencing is Light Up Little Buffalo, where we transform that show's mill day use area into a magical. The holiday scene with lights and music, and you know, a special visitor from the North Pole,

and one of the things that I love about these events that you have is that if you're unfamiliar with the park, or you were nervous about coming here, it's a great way to have an introduction to the park, and you know, see some of the offerings, and maybe feel a little bit more comfortable about, you know, making this one of your destination hearts.

Those events are a great time to come out. I don't know how many folks I spoke to last year at the events that we're visiting for the first time, and I think, you know, like I said, when we can capture those folks through events like that and make them return visitors, and you know, get them passionate, and it's all about sparking that interest, and you know they'll tell a friend or tell a family member, or maybe they'll bring someone to next year's event, and you know we keep growing that positive space for people.

We talked a little bit about that last night. How most of us who are very active in the outdoors, somebody introduced us to a place to an activity, so it's such an important role that you can have to help somebody else find a passion that they might not know that they is hidden deep within them, that's right at the surface, and they just need that one little nudge,

just a little nudge. Maybe you have a good conversation with a park ranger or park educator when you're here, and it could spark a lifelong passion or a career.

One of the things that I've seen people doing around the lake is, you mentioned the fishing, so they are fishing. Do you have a lot of ice fishing here in the winter time?

So this past winter was a good, good ice season for us. We had an abundance of ice. I had spoken to some ice anglers out on the lake, and at one time we had a maximum of about 10 inches or so of ice, so it was a good base layer of ice. I think at one time we had approximately 100 people out ice skating.

Nice,

yeah, they had packed up the vans and come out and as large group ice skating event that was really great to see, because not every winter do you build up that ice to see the various winter sports taking place. We had folks cross-country skiing out on the ice, we had ice fishing, we had ice skating. It was really great to see. I even got to see somebody having their dog pool them on skis.

Ice skating outside is such a different experience than being in an ice rink.

It's kind of magical.

It really is. It really is. And I think it's one of the benefits of those nice cold winters, because we don't get to do that very often anymore.

Yeah, it's a great little treat.

We're sitting here. Do you call this the conference room or the education center?

Typically, we call this the classroom, so we hold a lot of educational programs here in this space.

We're sitting next to a very active beehive,

that's right. This is the first year we've had a bee colony in here.

And are you looking to maybe using it for educational programming? Are you using it to make some honey.

Absolutely, they've got honey encapsulated on the top level here. Later on, we'll extract that honey, probably through a park program. We conducted one of those programs last year, where a bee specialist came in and extracted the honey, and then we sell some in our park office to benefit the friends group.

That is very cool. My husband and I are just getting into beekeeping, so maybe I'll mark that program.

It's a really neat hobby. I got to try on a beats bee suit last year.

And were you nervous or were you very zen and calm? Because I understand that the best way is to be zen.

I was very zen. The suit was reassuring. It made me feel a little safer.

I remember my first bee sting as a kid, so it's always in the back of your mind.

Sure. No, I played outside a lot when I was a child, and I have many stings to prove for it.

Yes, yes, but you recover, you know, it's that momentary, like being in the, like, okay,

that's part of the experience.

It's really, it is. I agree, I agree. If your first time visitor to Little Buffalo. What do you recommend people do, or where do you recommend that they start?

I always recommend that people stop at our visitor center here, talk to the staff, hear the recommendations from the folks that work here. They're going to give you the insider knowledge, they're going to, they're going to prepare you with all the brochures you need, set you up with a park map, point you out to the favorites, some of the hidden gems as well. So, come here, talk to a staff person, take a look around, check out our bees, check out the taxidermy here at the office. This is, this is a good starting point.

You mentioned hidden gems, are you willing to share what one of those might be?

Wow, I don't know if I can give away the secrets. My favorite hidden gem is at the upper end of the lake. It's what's referred to as kind of the pond area. It's what sits on the upper side of the bridge. As you cross Swimming Pool Road, you'll see different water fowl nestled in that hidden away spot. You'll see the turtles sunning themselves on the log, we. Have a lot of frogs in those wet spaces, so that's one of my favorite spaces, especially now here in the spring. We got a lot of wildlife centered on that area.

Maybe I'll make sure I slide up there. We walk, we did walk a little bit up in that area yesterday, and again saw some Orioles and some other fun birds. You mentioned that people bring their picnics and they come and picnic, but if people show up and they're hungry, is there a food concession here during the summer?

Sure, so over in the swimming pool complex, we have a concessionaire that operates inside the park, that's Tony's Concessions. He operates at multiple locations within the state park system, he's got ice cream, he's got prepared foods like hot dogs, hamburgers, things of that nature. He also operates a boat rental inside the park, so folks can, you know, they can come for food, but they can also take out a kayak, take out a rowboat, take out a canoe, get out under the water,

and your, your pool has a admission fee,

it does,

so people can come prepared.

Yeah, right now it's cash only, but we're working on that.

Okay, so there's lots of things. You don't necessarily have to have all the equipment that you need. You can come, you can rent, you know, water, craft, you can get your food while you're here, you can get into the park, and you can have an enjoyable afternoon day, or longer, because you also have overnight accommodations.

Yeah, that's correct. We're not only a day-use park, we do have overnight facilities.

Can you talk a little bit about what you have here at the park?

Sure, so again, we're a relatively small park in the state park system. We're about 1000 acres of park, and our campsite is conversely also very small. We're sitting at about 50 campsites. We've got everything from your full hookup RV sites to your walk-in campsites,

and you also have a modern cabin.

We do, we like to call it the lodge, because much fitting in the spirit of state parks, it's a log cabin-esque building. It really makes you feel like you're in the woods, you get that log cabin vibe, but it's got all the comforts of a home inside. For we like to accommodate all levels of camping, so if you don't want to be out there with the bugs and the raccoons, you can stay inside the lodge and be a little more comforts of home type of vibe,

or you could sit out around the campfire,

that's always a good time, as long as you're not getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Well, and you do the lodge is ADA accessible,

that's right. Yeah, no, that's a big emphasis we have here at Little Buff Lewis, making sure that folks kind of enjoy as much of the park as possible. We like to make things accessible and open to all,

and I appreciate that, and that we really are trying to help people find those places within our state park and state forest system where they have access, or where they can make a decision, you know, challenge by choice. You know, we all have different levels of comfort with what we do, whether it be a challenging trail or a flat trail, or, you know, do we like to sweat in the middle of the afternoon or not. You know, we all have different challenges.

No, not me. I like an easy hiking trail.

I see also that you have archery equipment here.

We do, so that's again, look out calendar DC in our calendar of events. We have a lot of great programming in the area. Our educators will run beginning intro to archery programs. These are not hard to pull back. These are beginner bows.

Yeah, I remember doing archery and being sore in the shoulder, like as if in the really hard pull. I also want to mention, not far from Little Buffalo State Park, while it's not in the park, it's part of Tuscarora State Forest, is the box Huckleberry Natural Area, and I noticed that you also mentioned that on your map, for people are unfamiliar with that, it's a very ancient, very large single plant that covers, I don't remember how many acres, but covers a substantial size, and so you know if you're here at the park, it's what, maybe 1015, minutes from here,

it's not all that far, the Tuscarora State Forest and State Forest in general are sometimes hidden gems. They don't get as much publicity as state parks, but the folks out at the Tuscarora State State Forest office, they're great. They'll be just as happy to talk to you stopping in as we are here at the state park office. So, and talking about hidden gems, state forests are full of hidden gems, so please explore those forests,

that was a nice pitch for State Forest. Thank you, Jim.

We're all part of the same team here.

I agree, I agree. I know that you have some unique geology. Was reading a little bit about that on your map.

Yeah, no, geology isn't my forte exactly, but we do have some rock formations that come close to the surface here, where you can find some fossil evidence of shells and small animal life. Again, not a geology major, it's mostly shale, from what I can gather,

but shale, I think, is one of the substrates that actually captures fossils very well.

Yeah, no, it's beginner, it's beginner geology, where you. And find those fossils close to the surface near our campground. Yes,

that sounds very cool. I mean, my one great nephew used to love to go fossil hunting. We had a lot of fun with that.

It's a nice treat. It's, it really, it's, it's almost unbelievable that you're touching the past in that way

while looking towards the future.

That's right.

I love it. I love it. Well, Jim, I appreciate you taking the time to meet with me. I know you guys have a busy day, and that the season's about to kick off. So, thank you for being here, and we'll be sure to link not just your Facebook page, but your website page and the calendar of events for DCNR.

Hey, thanks for having me. We're looking to see everybody this summer.

Thank you. Bye. thank you for listening to Think Outside, where every episode invites you to discover new places, build confidence, and find inspiration in nature. Love the show. Subscribe for more inspiration, share with a fellow explorer, and let's keep thinking outside together, for more resources and inspiration, visit Think Outside podcast.org