Click Here to Return to Index

Click Here to Return to Milestones

Past Shredded in Center Township

By Charles Townsend

Milestones Vol 34 No. 3

If you peek over the east side of the Lowe's parking lot, you will see a rather large scale operation going on in the valley below. This is a super fund encapsulation and reclamation of the old Phoenix Glass dump on Wagner Road.

According to longtime resident Bob Davis, chemicals have been seeping from this dump for generations, some even reaching the Ohio River. Mr. Davis understands that the reclamation process involves digging up all the old glass, crushing and grinding it, mixing this pulverized glass with other materials and chemicals that neutralize the "evil" glass, then burying all this on site and putting a protective dirt cover over everything. If you are interested, this process can be observed from Lowe's

The other item of historical interest in this area is that this process is proceeding at the head of the section of Old Brodhead Road that in the 1700's led the soldiers and others to the Ohio River so they could cross to Ft. McIntosh.

This was Beaver County's first highway constructed in 1778 by General Lachlan McIntosh as a supply route from Fort Pitt to Fort McIntosh. Col. Daniel Brodhead succeeded the command of the Fort in 1779, and his name is associated with the road.

This section of the road remains visible in winter from the Lowe's parking lot and from across the river in Beaver.