Enlow Fork Revisited ~ State Game Lands #302

Upon the advice of an acquaintance, I visited Enlow Fork back in 2011 and didn't think much of the place.  It's scenic, but haunted by the sinister sounds of the Enlow Fork Mine, which is hard by.

This place belongs to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, and it's also known as PA Game Lands #302.  I believe that this is the foundation of an old farmhouse; it's too small to be a barn, and the rectangle is too oblong to be an outbuilding.  Plus, you can kind of tell what a nice place it once was from its vantage point above the valley in the first photo.

To get to this very remote location, you go almost to Ryerson Station State Park, but turn into the old mining country just on the other side of the village of Windy Ridge.  Evil-looking mineworks dominate the countryside, that should have been beautiful otherwise.

This shabby old farmhouse is near the entrance to the game lands.  It looks occupied--at least as a hunting camp.  I'm so jealous... 

The wicked racket from the coal mine adds to the spookiness when you hear pheasants calling in the brush alongside the once-public roadway that winds through the little valley.  This place is overrun with pheasants, but I couldn't get any good photos of them.  Their eerie call sounds like the brakes going out in a car--metal grinding metal.

But the redtail hawks were calling, and after walking about a mile away from the parking area, the noise from the mine becomes indistinct.  Old public bridges still span the Enlow Fork, which is a tributary to the Wheeling Creek.

Nebo Methodist Church isn't anything all that special to look at, but as I've been saying, I'm more and more interested in the history and architecture of rural churches.  Enlow made a good enough destination for a day-off trek, but I don't think I'll bother to come back for a while.  There are better places nearer to the city.