"We want to see everybody enjoying this place. That's where it all comes to fruition."

Our host, Marci Mowery, sits down with Park Manager Mathias Weinzen to talk about one of Pennsylvania’s most ecologically distinctive parks: Black Moshannon State Park in Centre County.

"Black" describes the dark, tannin-stained waters of the 250-acre lake, colored as clear water flows through sphagnum moss and bog vegetation. It acts, as Mathias puts it, like a giant teabag. "Moshannon" comes from the Native American name for the watershed, traditionally meaning "moose stream."

At the heart of the park lies a remarkable bog, a vast natural wetland home to all three of Pennsylvania's carnivorous plants: pitcher plant, sundew, and bladderwort, alongside wild blueberries, cranberries, and a flyway for over 175 recorded bird species.

The fully accessible Bog Trail is Mathias’ top recommendation for first-time visitors, though his personal favorite is the Star Mill Trail, where he keeps a bench for reading.

Beyond the bog, the park offers 22 miles of trails, a sandy beach, campsites, and 23 roofed overnight facilities. These include deluxe cottages named Blueberry, Cranberry, and Winterberry in honor of what grows here.

The park's calendar runs from a winter festival on a frozen lake to Women in the Wilds, PA Wild Child, the Lumber Legacy event (complete with professional log burling demonstrations), and the wildly popular Haunted Lake Loop Trail each October.

History runs deep here, too. The area was a thriving lumber community in the late 1800s before being reforested by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, whose rustic cabins and pavilions (some now converted into warming huts in winter) still serve visitors today. The park is also a gateway to over 43,000 acres of surrounding Moshannon State Forest, including the 40-mile Allegheny Front Trail.

Mathias credits his staff above all else, and his message to anyone hesitating about a visit is to “trust us, come out, and we'll show you what it's about!”

Key Topics:

• Trails, Beach, and Recreational Amenities (02:10)
• The Loaner Program (05:10)
• Ice Fishing and Winter Recreation (06:31)
• Festivals and Events Throughout the Year (08:15)
• Park History: Logging Era and the CCC (11:28)
• Elevation, Climate, and What to Pack (13:44)
• Surrounding Moshannon State Forest (16:44)
• First-Timer Recommendations (19:10)

Resources:

• Black Moshannon State Park: https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dcnr/recreation/where-to-go/state-parks/find-a-park/black-moshannon-state-park
• Friends of Black Moshannon: https://www.facebook.com/friendsofblackmo
• Happy Valley Adventure Bureau: https://happyvalley.com/

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I think there's a preconceived notion sometimes about the outdoors, and if you're an outdoors you may not have that notion. But I think people who are just getting into it, they get it's daunting to go out to the outdoors, and I think that if they just came out, they'd see how accessible and how much we want them to be here, and all the different activities that we can provide we're here for them. Without them, we wouldn't be here. So I think just just getting out there and giving us a little bit of trust and and we will show you what it's all about and give you everything that you need.

You imagine a place where stress fades, fresh air fills your lungs and adventure waits around every corner.

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. I'm your host. Marcy Mowry, I had the opportunity last night to stay in a modern cabin here at Black ma'am State Park. And in true black Munn fashion, I was 64 when I arrived and I awoke to snow. So love it here. And I'm pleased to be speaking with Matthias weinson, who is the manager here at Black mashan. And so welcome

Matthias, thank you, Marcia. I'm happy to

be here. Can we just start with, what does the name black me Shannon mean?

Yeah. So there's, like, two parts to it. So we'll start with the first part is black. So the waters here are very dark, as you'll notice, and that comes from the tannins from the sphagnum moss and the bog. So it acts as like a giant tea bag, and it dyes the water is black. So that's where black comes from. And then me Shannon comes from the ancient from the Indians, they named it moose Creek michannon. So moss Hannah, our trail, and that's what that's named after. So Black michannon, wonderful.

So a big overview of the park. I was kind of intrigued. You mentioned a bog. So if you could give our listeners a big overview of what they would find here, yeah.

So the bog area is a 2000 acre natural wetland, and it has all kinds of different vegetation in it. So the difference between like a bog and a swamp or a marsh is just going to be what is primarily there. So in a bog, we have mainly sphagnum moss, so you'll see a lot of sphagnum moss. And then we also have three carnivorous plants. And then in addition to that, we also have blueberry and cranberry plants, which is wonderful in July, you can come out and pick them on the bog trail. And then it's also very good for our ecosystem. So right now, you have the migration taking place, and just seeing all of the over 200 species of birds flying over and landing in the in the wetland is wonderful, nice.

I noticed that the, I guess the deluxe camping cottages were, one was blueberry and one was cranberry, yes,

and then we have our our cabin 20. It's newly named Winterberry Lodge.

Okay, so you have Winterberry as well. Yes, I love how it reflects what you can find here at the park. So in addition to the bog, what other things would people find here at the park?

Yeah, so we have 22 miles of trails, and they range from all different difficulty levels. So we have some really easy trails. Our feature trail, like I mentioned, was the bog trail. It's about a quarter mile. Highly recommend to everybody. It's fully accessible. And then we have some longer ones, like our Monsanto Trail, which is seven miles. And then we have some with our elevation, with the ski slope trail. In addition to that, we also have a beach. On the beach, we have concrete, cornhole boards, volleyball net. The beach is about 200 yards, or about 200 yards long, fully sanded. And then there's also a playground. And then we have approximately 80 campsites, differences of water, electric tent sites. And then we have 23 roofed overnight facilities. And then this is also a CCC era Park. So we have 30 facilities that were built by the CCC and still maintained and actively used, and most of those are our overnight facilities as well. So really unique thing that we have going on here, lot of history. In addition to that, you have your fishing, kayaking, hunting. This lake is about four to six feet deep in most areas. So it's really big with the kayakers and paddle boarders. And if somebody

doesn't have their own Kayak or paddle board, is there opportunities for them?

Yeah, yeah. So we have a bunch of programs throughout the summer that they can come out and learn how to use the kayaks and paddle boards with our parks educator, and then that'll get. Them started, and then if they choose to go on with that activity, then they can purchase their own. And then we also have mooring rails and kayak rails that are for loan. Over the summer,

you mentioned the mileage of hiking trails, and I used to come up here with some friends, and we would do cross country skiing. And I noticed in the lobby of your office, you have a very robust loaner program. Could you talk a bit

about that? Yeah, absolutely. So our loaner program, it's amazing. I think it's one of the best loaner programs in the state. We have ice skates. We have cross country skis, snow shoes in the summertime, we have fishing rods, puzzles for people who's staying in the campground or cabin area. We have all different types of sports equipment, and then we also have the Enchroma color blind glasses for the accessibility purposes. Everything that we have is completely free. Some of the larger items, like the mainly the winter equipment, you need to have a ID of some sort just to check it out, but completely free. Just has to be back before you leave, which is four o'clock for when a park office closes. But if you're staying in a cabin, we allow you to keep it for the entire stay.

That's amazing. And I imagine it's well loved. Oh, it

is so much. It is so loved. We had about 16 inches of ice this year. So the ice skates every weekend were fully rented out. And then we also have a Winter Festival, which is is amazing. And everybody was out here using all of the equipment

before we jump to some of the festivals. Because I know you do a lot of festivals education with 16 inches of ice, I imagine that ice fishing was very popular

this year. Yes, it was extremely popular. So I live close to the park, and when I would come to work in the morning, the ice fishermen were out on the lake. When I would come home from work, the ice fishermen were out on the lake. When I would go to the store, they were out on the lake. They absolutely love it. They are it couldn't be me. It's a little too cold out there, but they love it. And yeah, they fish for the chain, pick, roll, the crappy, the bass, perch, so they're out there. 24/7, when there's ice.

This winter was so good for people who enjoy outdoor sports. Yes, yes, we had a true winter.

It was the first time that I've seen the snow shoes really get used. Typically, we just only have, you know, four inches or so. And the the snowshoes really don't get used that much, but there was a lot of people getting to learn how to snowshoe and use them appropriately. So that was awesome.

And that's what I think is great about your loaner program, is that it introduces people to an activity before they invest in it. Or in the case of snow shoes, maybe you don't want to invest because it's so hit or miss, but if there's a place where you can go and borrow them or take a program and learn, that's really

helpful, absolutely. And it's just getting the word out. There's so many people that don't know that we have this Learner Program, and when they learn about it, it's like eye opening, and they're here all the time. So we try all the time putting it out on Facebook and out on our pages, just to get that out there, because that's what it's here for. It's to get people out here and get them in the park and be more accessible and inclusive.

Well, we're getting it out there right now, right there on the podcast you had mentioned the festival. So can you share a little bit about some of the events that you have here? I like thinking of women in the wild wild child. You have summer festivals.

Yes, I'll go from like the start of the year to the end of the year, just to make it flow better. So we have our winter fest, which I mentioned, if we have good ice, which we have the last two years. The festival is pretty much entirely on the lake. So we have ice bowling, ice mini golf, ice skating. We had Penn State curling club out here teaching people how to curl we have an ice hockey rink. And it's just, it is amazing. It just to see all the people out here and enjoying it. Most of them have never been on a lake when it was frozen, so it's just great. And then moving on from that, then we had the women in the wilds, which you mentioned, which is amazing. We typically have over 150 to 200 women here. And what that is is they get to pick four programs throughout the day, each about an hour long, and they're all outdoor related, and they get to learn and just get a little taste of how to do those things, whether it's arts and crafts or it's there's been someone like martial arts types of things, like trying to, like self protective techniques and whatnot. And then we offer the same thing for the PA Wild's child. So that's the only one that I know of that exists, and it's specifically for children, and it's to get them and introduce them into the outdoors and the different things that we have to offer, and the outdoors have the offer, and they get to come out with their friends and get to learn those things in a safe environment. And then jumping forward to July, we have our lumber legacy event, and that really highlights the. Lumber history here in the park, we'll have a couple different lumber heritage people come out, and we'll have cross cut saws. They'll we'll do some demonstrations, some safer demonstrations, of some of the woodworking. We'll have craft vendors and food vendors, and that's a really nice event, just showcasing how the Park became the park, and then in October, we have our haunted Lake Loop Trail. That's our most popular event. We typically see a few 1000 people show up for that, and it's a haunted walk around our lake Loop Trail. And it's just an amazing event, and it's all volunteer based. And I want to mention that you know all of these events, besides women in the wilds and be a wild child, they're all free. And even those ones, it's just because of your registration and the packet that you'll receive with your shirt and the other items.

Nice. I did the lake walk last night, and it was very un scary, so I'll have to come up and enjoy it during the haunted walk. You had mentioned that the lumber Festival, the lumber Heritage Festival, is what you called it, lumber legacy. Lumber legacy. Do you do Burling?

Yes, yes, we do. So we have a demonstration for the log Burling on the water. And we are professional burlers Come out, and it's awesome. It's just seeing them just run on on the log the whole time. It's, it's great.

It's, yeah, I enjoy watching that. I don't know if it's something that I'd want to try. I'm not too sure either. So you mentioned a little bit about history. I was reading a panel on the lake loop yesterday about this as like a bustling community, you have an old school house. Could you talk a little bit about the history here at

the park? Yeah. So the the late 1800s early 1900s this was the lumber place. I mean this at one point in time. This was the area for all of the lumber coming out of this area in center County. So the entire park was pretty much completely logged out, and sitting at 2000 feet elevation, it was a perfect place. They could float everything through the stream and take it down through the Susquehanna. And that's where the schoolhouse came in, because this was a great community. So we have the star mill trail. Well, that was the star mill, and that's where the old school house sat. Was over at the star mill, and that is the oldest building that we have in the park. It is from the late 1800s when we're we continue to preserve it. We want to keep it open for the public and be able to view it when we can. So that's a constant project that we have going on, and then that gets us into the CCC, or the Civilian Conservation Corps, because there was a lot of camps that came here, and they pretty much reforested the entire park with red pines and white pines and hemlocks and whatnot. And that's when they also built all of our facilities that we have here. Are all of our rustic cabins, most of our pavilions, and so that's where all of that heritage comes in. And we're still keeping those buildings up to date and using them, and hope to get a lot more years out of them.

Yeah, and some of them are very unique. I was taking some pictures yesterday, and I'll attach them to the podcast, and I noticed that one of them you convert into a warming hut during this time of year.

Yes, we do. So that's pavilion four, and we put a warming hut around it, and then we put a wood stove in the middle of it, and that's really where we do the base of our winter fest from too. But it's great for those people going out on the ice, because our ice rink is right there. They can go and get the learner equipment and then go in there, start a fire, and they can be out there all day.

Yeah, that's it's nice hot chocolate, perhaps, absolutely, you mentioned you're in an elevation of 2000 feet. Yes. How does that affect the climate of the park and how people might want to think about preparing to visit the park.

Yeah. So it definitely affects the climate of the park. Just being up 2000 feet, I typically tell people it's about five degrees colder. So if you're looking at State College weather or Phillipsburg weather, anticipate that it's going to be five degrees colder in black mashan. And once we get up here at this elevation, we're also in a little bit of a bowl, so that just helps enclose us into this weather gap. So if it's 37 degrees and raining, it's probably 32 degrees and snowing here at the park. So I always tell some people to bring an extra, extra layer of clothes, because you never know what you're going to expect. And like you mentioned, you woke up this morning and there was snow on the ground, and you came up here yesterday and it was 60 degrees. So it changes really quick. We are kind of protected, and that's that's how the park actually we were formed. We were saved by the ice age because of the Allegheny front. So it was a great entrance into our park, and it keeps us here and helps us keep this ball. Yeah, but it definitely is a different weather climate, yeah.

And I imagine that has both benefits as well as challenges for you, absolutely. As a manager, yes, you have a friends group here, friends of black mashan and State Park. What kind of projects are they involved in? How do they help here at the park? Yeah.

So they're always involved in different projects, and they help with our events as well. So for the project wise, they help us fund different things. So most recently, in 2022 I believe, we started a trail crew, which is a counterpart to the Friends of black with Shannon. But they help fund it, and they provide resources to it, and they recently received a grant from the Happy Valley adventure Bureau, which helped the trail crew get all the necessary tools and materials that they need to continue their trail crew effort days throughout the summer. So we typically have one trail crew every month, and that grant helped us get all of that, that funding, and get those tools in place so that we can continue this, this great thing. So the trail crew has been wonderful with the 22 miles of trails. And then in addition to that, anytime that we need educational supplies, typically the friends group there is to step in and help us. So we recently replaced all of our archery targets. So throughout the summertime, our education specialist, she does a bunch of archery programs so they replace all the archery targets. And then we also recently received a bike repair stand that we'll be placing in the park so that the mountain bike community and other bikers alike can repair their bikes and pump up their tires when they

need to. Yeah, and I think we should point out that you have, while you have 22 miles of trail in the park all varying degrees of challenge and length, you are surrounded by the machine and State Forest. So this actually serve as a springboard to engaging in longer hikes, different types of

activities, absolutely. Yeah. So there's 44,000 acres of michannon State Forest that surround us, and most notably they have the Allegheny front Trail, which is 41 miles long, and about four of those miles are within the park, but it's a great area for you to come and park and then go explore those trails, and you

mentioned the bike repair station. And I think about camping, and not just your campground, but in other State Park campgrounds, I love watching the kids. They'll just ride loop and loop and loop, and it's just such a safe place for them to to be, gets

it is it is it's awesome, and that's why we do what we do, right? Because we want to see that. We want to see everybody enjoying this area, and that's where it all comes to fruition, when we're here in the summertime and we get to see everybody doing everything that they love and participating in new activities, and seeing those kids ride those bikes, loop after loop after loop.

If you told them they were going to ride that long, they'd be like No. But if I'd be curious to have a counter on see how far they ride in a day, what would you like people to know when they're coming here? If they take one thing away from our conversation, what would that be?

I think I would gear towards the fact that we're here for everybody, and that they should really just come out and see what it's about. Because I think there's a preconceived notion sometimes about the outdoors, and if you're an outdoor Doris, you may not have that notion, but I think people who are just getting into it, they get it's daunting to go out to the outdoors, and I think that if they just came out, they'd see how accessible and how much we want them to be here, and all the different activities that we can provide. I think that would be the biggest thing. And I think that can be said for all state parks and forests throughout Pennsylvania is that we're here for them. Without them, we wouldn't be here. So I think just just getting out there and giving us a little bit of trust and and we will show you what it's all about and give you everything

that you need. And if you are a first time visitor, what do you recommend?

I always recommend the ball trail that is absolutely our, our forefront of the park, and it gets to show you everything that we have to offer here, to some extent, like I said, it's fully accessible. You get to see the blueberry and the cranberry plants, depending on the time of the year, the three carnivorous plants, the diverse wildlife that we have, the hemlocks driving back into there. So it's just a really unique spot in the park. My personal favorite would be the star mail trail. You just go through a bunch of different ecosystems through it in the star mail trail. So that's mine, and there's a bench that I like to sit at and read. So personally, that's where I would go. But the bog trail is absolutely where, where everybody needs to go if it's their first time here.

Yeah. And I'm glad you you mentioned that you like to sit and read, because we all use the outdoors differently. We all experience it differently. So if it's reading or writing in your journal, or being inspired by to create a poem or art, all of those activities are welcome, and they can be inspired by being in a place like black mashan And absolutely, and

we're always looking to increase what we're offering, too, with our education. So we see somebody doing something out there that's different, you know, that's a time for us to increase what we have and what we're offering, so that there's more accessible means to those activities.

Yeah, and you mentioned the three carnivorous plants, let's just, you know, like, reduce fear and say that they're not human eating. In fact, they're probably tinier than than you you realize, because I remember looking at for them one time, like, is it the Sundew? Yes, very tiny.

Yes, the sun do the bladder wart and the pitcher plant. And yes, they are all very tiny. Super unique, really cool to look at, but you really have to get close and maybe even take a picture with your camera and zoom in, and that's when you'll see the little hairs on them. Or each one is different, but and how they they eat the the flies and mosquitoes and whatnot.

Yeah, they're very it's very unique to see, and I do recommend the bog trail as well. Yes, so black me Shannon State Park is our park of the year. So congratulations. Thank you on that. We'll be celebrating in May. But I think you described very well why it was selected. You have such a diverse amount of programming. You You've your loaner program is top notch. You're doing things here to really create a welcoming environment for visitors and, you know, maintaining this special place for all of Pennsylvanians now and for future generations. So thank you for the work that you and your team do here at Black and Shannon State Park.

Yeah. Thank you, Marcy. I just want to mention that it's the staff. The staff is absolutely amazing. So they do everything that they can to make this place as accessible and and make everybody happy. Yeah, I think that

state park staff, State Forest staff, are top notch. They understand that these places are where people are vacationing, and they understand their role as stewards, yes, and we can all be thankful for that absolutely yes. Well, thank you. Matthias, is there anything else that you'd like to add before we wrap up?

I don't think so. Just wanted to thank you for your time and thank you for interviewing me.

Yeah, great. Thank you. 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.