One such once-isolated community is in southeastern Fayette County where, in one great loop, the Youghiogheny River drops 90 feet in less than two miles, first in spectacular falls and then in turbulent rapids. The loop cradles a wooded peninsula, Ferncliff, notable as a meeting place of southern and northern plants.

In 1754, when waterways usually afforded the best routes through the great forest, the youthful George Washington was dismayed, rather than impressed, by the falls and rapids. He had been counting on the Youghiogheny to provide easy transport for his guns and equipment to the Forks of the Ohio to confront the French. Instead, the turbulent water and rough terrain forced him to turn back and cross the river at Somerfield, a town now extinct but formerly located where the Yough Lake now meets U.S. 40. Other travelers from Virginia discovered that the best route to the west was an old animal trail, probably made by wood bison, which became the famed National Pike and later U.S. 40. Even before the Revolution, pioneer farmers began clearing and tilling lands on either side of this road. One such spot between the Pike and the falls was the beautiful ridge called Kentuck, shortened from the little Kentucky but the settlement of the small pocket at the falls did not begin until the middle 1800's. A grist mill was built at the falls, a tannery below, and a factory upstream. In 1871, the village ceased to be an isolated pocket hemmed in by mountains, for the Pittsburgh, Washington and Baltimore railroad (later the B&O) was completed, mostly following the east bank of the Youghiogheny, but here curving in a short cut across the neck of the peninsula. Farming, lumbering, and later coal mining provided jobs, but the railroad brought so many people that the town flowered as a cool, convenient resort where Pittsburghers could park their families for the summer and join them on weekends.

A local entrepreneur, Andrew Stewart, transformed a large farm building into a public house called the Ohio Pile (sic) House, location uncertain, but surely the forerunner of the "modern" structure of our memories that had amenities of indoor plumbing and furnace heat. The community continued to grow and was laid out as the village of Falls City in 1880 by Alfred Stewart.

The Ohio Pile House must have proved too small to accommodate all comers for in May, 1880, the Stewart estate opened the Fern Cliff Park Hotel on a commanding position at the entrance to the peninsula. It is described as a stately looking frame, four stories high, with 50 rooms "supplied with gas, water, and electric annunciators." It had no cellar but did have two fountains fed from a reservoir on the rising slope behind, filled from the river by a pump. There were flower beds in front and a bathhouse and dancing pavilion at the river's edge a short walk away.

Train-weary travelers walked up a handsome boardwalk from the station to the hotel, with lighted arches overhead and inviting seats alongside under the trees. The Fern Cliff Park catered to a wealthy clientele, transported there by regular passenger trains, or on Sunday excursions which also served to fill the park with picnickers. On the town side of the river, the Ranier, a more modest hotel but one equipped with a merry-go-round and a roller-skating rink, attracted younger vacationers.

The railroad was the lifeblood of the community and fear of customers going astray probably dictated incorporation of the borough of Ohiopyle September 7, 1891, to avoid confusion with another Falls City on the system. By 1900, Ohiopyle was described by contemporaries as one of the leading summer resorts of western Pennsylvania, with five hotels: Coughenour Inn, Excursion House, Hotel Williams, Fern Cliff, and the Ohiopyle House (licensed). Although the borough population was then estimated at only 400, summer visitors were said to average from ten to twelve thousand in the June-to-September vacation period.

It was not long, however, until automobiles began to replace horses and buggies, and the proud owners began taking Sunday drives (usually short) instead of train excursions. Ohiopyle, like most train-fed resorts, began to decline in popularity. The Ohiopyle House, heated for year-round occupancy and blessed with a liquor license, continued to serve travelers and vacationers in good numbers until World War II, when business deteriorated. Discriminating groups continued to utilize it, however; Dr. Otto Jennings maintained the long tradition of annual Botanical Society weekend trips to Ferncliff Park, and his evening recappings of the day's botanizing on the long veranda of the Ohiopyle House were always rewarding, after bounteous meals within.

Of the scores of participants in the creation of the great Ohiopyle State Park of today three vastly dissimilar persons deserve especial credit: Lillian McCahan, a spinster community champion; Edgar J. Kaufmann, a Pittsburgh business and community leader devoted to improving the quality of life; and Mrs. Albert F. Keister, a Sewickley socialite and patroness of music whose zest for natural area conservation equaled her great beauty. These three will be introduced chronologically as their involvement occurred.