Roaring Run Resort facts for kids
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| Private company | |
| Industry | Recreational campground |
| Predecessor | Camp Aliquippa |
| Founded | 1927 |
| Headquarters |
194 Tannery Road, Champion, Pennsylvania
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United States
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Area served
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Laurel Highlands, Southwestern Pennsylvania |
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Key people
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Jay Corl, CEO |
| Products | Private-membership RV vacations |
| Revenue |  US$2,420,000 |
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Number of employees
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25 |
| Divisions | Roaring Run Resort Club; Roaring Run Sales |
Roaring Run Resort is a special place for camping and RV vacations. It's located in the beautiful Laurel Highlands area of Southwestern Pennsylvania. This resort is between two popular spots: Seven Springs and Hidden Valley Golf & Ski Resort.
What makes Roaring Run Resort unique? It used to be a Boy Scout camp way back in the 1920s! It was even mentioned in famous newspapers like USA Today and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Some of its history has also been shared in the Journal of Economic History. Roaring Run was one of the very first Boy Scout camps in Pennsylvania. It also once had one of the oldest blast furnaces in the state.
Many buildings and landmarks at the resort are from the 1920s. These include The Trading Post and Hoyt Lodge. Hoyt Lodge was named after a kind person called "Mr. Hoyt." He was an important leader at the Jones and Laughlin Steel Company. You can also see old stone buildings and walls around the resort.
Discover Roaring Run Resort: Fun & Nature
USA Today once wrote about Roaring Run Resort's rental cabins. They said it was a great place to stay in the Laurel Highlands. Besides cabins, there are many fun things to do. You can play basketball, go fishing, or hike on nature trails. There's also horseshoes, miniature golf, and ping pong. You can go swimming, play tennis, volleyball, bocce ball, and shuffleboard.
The resort is right next to the Roaring Run Natural Area. This is a huge area of land, about 3,600 acres, owned by the state of Pennsylvania. A stream called Roaring Run also runs nearby. This stream drops 1,200 feet down Laurel Ridge. It's a special stream known for trout fishing and its excellent water quality. Roaring Run stream flows into Indian Creek, which is also close to the resort.
A Look Back: Roaring Run's Past
The story of this property goes back to 1923. At that time, a local Boy Scout group, Troop 5, had a camp called Camp Confluence. Frank Werner was the scoutmaster. He was also one of the first counselors at Camp Aliquippa. When President Warren G. Harding passed away in 1923, his body was carried by train through Pennsylvania. Frank Werner gathered over 200 Boy Scouts from Camp Confluence. They saluted the president as his train went by.
Five years later, in 1927, the McKeesport Boy Scout Council moved the camp. They moved it to a new spot in Champion, Pennsylvania. They renamed it Camp Aliquippa. It was named after Queen Alliquippa, a leader of the native American Seneca tribe. Camp Aliquippa later became Roaring Run Resort. But from 1927 to 1974, it was only used for Boy Scouts.
In the 1940s, the local Kiwanis Club built a lodge at Camp Aliquippa. By 1974, the Boy Scouts no longer used Camp Aliquippa. It then became a recreational campground where people could buy memberships. In 1980, a local real estate developer bought the property. He renamed it Roaring Run Resort. In 2017, a businessman named Jay Corl bought the property. He is still the owner today.
There was once an old furnace called Mt. Hope Furnace, also known as Hopewell Furnace. It was a coke-burning furnace located behind the caretaker's house at the original Camp Aliquippa. This furnace was built in 1810. By 1965, it had mostly turned into a pile of stones about 10 feet high.
In 1989, a local woman wrote to a newspaper columnist. She asked for advice about accepting free gifts to visit Roaring Run. The columnist checked and confirmed that Roaring Run Resort had a good reputation. They had no complaints with the Better Business Bureau.
