To Ken Bisbee, it seems like just yesterday that he took over as manager of Ohiopyle State Park. Bisbee, who retired from the park in April, came to Ohiopyle from Yellow Creek State Park, a almost 3,000-acre park in Indiana County that attracted less than 250,000 visitors annually. He’d worked there for 34 years before coming to the Ohiopyle park with its 20,500 acres attracting between more than 1 million visitors annually.
“It was a really big jump,” said Bisbee, recalling that Ohiopyle was and is the largest state park in Pennsylvania at 32 square miles. In addition, at Yellow Creek he managed 10 employees; at Ohiopyle that jumped to 40. Named to the position by the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in 2014, Bisbee said it was a very smooth transition.
Soon after settling in, Bisbee, his wife and their four children fell in love with the park and the town. But, Bisbee said, he really didn’t have much time to ease into the job. Not only did mountain biking and bicycling reach all new levels with the opening of the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail in the park the year before, but the new $7 million Ohiopyle State Park office and Laurel Highlands Falls Area Visitors Center was being completed just as he began his role.
Bisbee said the building’s central location in the “hub” of the park enables visitors paddling the Yough to congregate in one spot. It’s also located close to the bike trail. Ohiopyle is a unique park because of the number of ri.