SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 40 years ago, the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad yards in Downtown Scranton were in rough shape and practically abandoned, but instead of tearing it down, Congress decided to build it back up.<\/p>\n
On October 30, 1986, Congress established Steam National Historic Site \u2013 designating it as part of the National Parks Service \u2013 and on Friday, local leaders and park officials celebrated the site\u2019s storied history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Congress came in and the Park Service came in, what we were able to do was tie all of our history here in Northeast Pennsylvania with the railroads to what railroading did in the United States,” explained Steamtown Superintendent Jeremy Komasz. “So what we get to do and what we\u2019re honoring here at our 40th anniversary is what Congress told us to do, which was preserve railroading history in America and do it right here in Northeast Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with their usual exhibits and displays showcasing over 200 years of railroading tech and history, to celebrate the anniversary, there’s the Steamtown at 40 exhibit, special events, free train rides, and free entrance to the park until November 1st.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands come experience the site every year, but to local leaders, Steamtown is more than just a museum.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our history here, and it was, this place was in rough shape,” said Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak. “And over time, they\u2019ve really done a tremendous job, even just recently cleaning up just the grounds alone. So, it\u2019s just, it\u2019s a jewel here. And we just got to keep it going and just love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steamtown is coming off a record-breaking year after celebrating America 250, Scranton\u2019s 160th, The Big Boy train reunion, Railfest and more \u2013 for Steamtown staff, the historic site is in its renaissance, and they say there\u2019s more to look out for in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re looking at doing more of that,” Komasz teased. “I can’t say exactly what’s going to happen. But I will tell you that we are looking at similar types of, visitation in the future. And I really think that that this is just the beginning of the next 40 years for Steamtown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the last 40 years, a practically abandoned site has become one of the area’s top attractions educating millions along the way, and it shows no signs of getting derailed as it keeps on chugging for the next 40 years, and even more decades to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 40 years ago, the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad yards in Downtown Scranton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-313024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}