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Brookville's Scripture Rocks Gets National Coverage


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Brookville’s Scripture Rocks Gets National Coverage

9c6109b99e85ae121f5747d1b249576e.jpegBROOKVILLE, Pa. (EYT) – Scripture Rocks outside Brookville is gaining national attention and bringing in thousands of visitors.

According to its website, Scripture Rocks was created by Douglas M. Stahlman. Stahlman carved the rocks in the early 1900s after living a life of faith and scandal. He was born in Jefferson County and moved around the country. He got involved with the teachings of John Alexander Dowie, a faith healer and evangelist. Since Dowie was a faith healer, when Stahlman’s wife got sick, he ended the care she had been receiving and attempted to heal her through faith. She later died, and Stahlman was arrested for her death. After the arrest, his children were taken away from him.

Leaving prison, Stahlman came back to Brookville and became an evangelist. When that ended, he became a hermit living on Altar Rock, writing his books and carving the stones. He was committed to a mental institution in 1915 and died there in 1942.

Stahlman’s tortured life is one of the reasons Scripture Rocks’ Ken Burkett feels the park is so popular.

“I think it’s the mystery and the intrigue of the park that brings people here,” Burkett said. “He dedicated this area as a place to pray and connected it to some of the changes in the non-Catholic religions going on at the time. We talk a lot about what Stahlman would think about the park, but he created these rocks for people to see.”

Burkett came to the Jefferson County Historical Center in 2008 with a background in archeology. He made a plan to take people outside the museum and experience history in the community. When they opened the Scripture Rocks Heritage Park, Burkett hoped to pull in 1,000 visitors a year. He soon found that his expectations were low.

“We’ve been open a little over two years and we’re just under 20,000 visitors to the park,” he said. “Many historical societies, especially at the county level, usually have one museum focused on one aspect of history in the area. Here, we have two.”

The second “museum” is the hiking trails around Scripture Rocks. The uniqueness of the attraction, some say created by a madman in the 1900s, gained the attention of the American Association of State and Local History.

“The association gave us an award for the park,” Burkett said. “Now, they want to feature us in their magazine. The fact that it was picked to be in a magazine that goes out all across the country is an additional honor. It shows that a small town can do things on a national level.”

The only concern Burkett had for starting the park was how it had the potential of drawing funds away from the museum. He soon discovered that it was not an issue.

“We did what we could to make the park self-sufficient,” he said. “The donations still come into both places.”

While the park is gaining national attention, Burkett, the archeologist, sees it as gaining archeological attention in the future.

“I have worked with Native American engravings before,” he said. “They’re over 1,000 years old. I believe that the Scripture Rocks here will be around forever, outlasting Brookville.”

Visitors can see Scripture Rocks until the snow makes the paths too dangerous, and Burkett closes the gates in the winter.

There is more information at the Jefferson County History Center’s website.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                http://www.explorejeffersonpa.com/brookvilles-scripture-rocks-gets-national-coverage/

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