Graham Acres
- by Lou Bernard
- February 21, 2023
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If you’ve been to any of the PA Wilds state parks, it’s a reasonable assumption that you’ve picked up one of those little green park maps. Personally, I love those things. They’re pocket-sized, and they contain all the information you need for a visit. They have a map of the park and pertinent phone numbers. And there’s another detail they all include: The location of the nearest hospital. Nobody wants to have to use this, of course, but it’s important to know in case of an emergency.
If you’re at one of the wonderful state parks in southern Clinton County, on the east end of the PA Wilds I-80 Frontier landscape, this would be Lock Haven Hospital. And, while not exactly a tourist attraction, the Lock Haven Hospital does have an interesting history behind it, a history that even connects with Hollywood movies.
The Lock Haven Hospital sits at the top of a hill in the western portion of Lock Haven. Once upon a time, that hill was a horse farm. It was known as Graham Acres and owned by a married couple named Lee and Bessie Graham.
The Grahams had managed their farm for decades, but as they got older, they felt it was more work than necessary. They decided to sell most of their horses and retire, leaving them with the whole 14-acre ranch. They wanted to donate it and make their donation mean something.
They offered the land to a local doctor to build a clinic. The doctor responded that he had no plans to begin a clinic, but he was on the board of the Lock Haven Hospital. At the time, the hospital was along Susquehanna Avenue, just above the river, and the operations had outgrown the building. He suggested that the Grahams offer their property as a new hospital. They did that… and the offer was accepted.
Construction on the hospital began in 1959, and a photo of Lee Graham turning the first shovel of earth made the front page of the local paper. As the hospital was built, the Grahams continued to live on a small slice of property they’d kept, and they took care of the only three horses they hadn’t sold. Their names were Sandy, Silver Pal, and Tina Kay. Sandy was a palomino and had something of an important lineage: His grandfather had been Trigger, the horse from the Roy Rogers movies. So, if you’re hurt in the I-80 Frontier, Roy Rogers won’t be riding to your rescue, but he does have a connection with the place you’ll be going for help, which is pretty interesting.
The hospital opened on October 8, 1961, with Lee and Bessie cutting the ribbon in front of a crowd of five thousand people. Both Lee and Bessie passed away in that hospital in the early Sixties, and are buried in Highland Cemetery. A monument to their memory stands on the hospital grounds, made of stone hauled out of Bald Eagle Creek nearby.
Obviously, nobody wants to go to the hospital, and if you’re visiting the Pennsylvania Wilds, I hope you never have to go. But if you should, for some reason, wind up at the Lock Haven Hospital, just remember that you’re on a historic site with a connection to a famous Western actor. It’s a fascinating place, just like the rest of the Pennsylvania Wilds.
