At Old Alvira, today Game Lands 252

January 2, 2011

We live fairly close to the game lands near Elimsport, where the bunkers remain from World War II.  This is a somewhat regular hike for us.  We spend so much time here that I sometimes forget that not everyone knows where all the trails are.    There are several lakes and ponds here, lots of bird houses and bird habitats..  in addition to a shooting range, trails for hiking, and several geocaches.

The first question most ask is where to see the bunkers.

Everywhere.  You can see the bunkers everywhere.  Each S on the above map is a bunker.

If you enter the game lands on Alvira Road, off Elimsport road, you can park right at one of the bunkers.  

 Read the history and see photos of the bunkers being built, here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-alvira-bunkers.html

Alvira Before The Bunkers	History Of Alvira & The Bunkers	The Stone Church
Shooting Range At The Game Lands	There are frequently sunflower fields in the Game Lands, great places to take photos!  Where exactly they are located changes from year to year.  This was where to find them in 2020.	Here Lies A Confederate Bullet

Watch A Trailer for the movie

The Matthew Brown  Memorial

This rocking chair is made, at least in part, from an explosives crate from the Ordnance Works

Alvira Cemetery Right along the south side of Alvira Road, past the maintainance sheds.

Pine Knot, or Messiah Church Cemetery  Hidden from the road, this older cemetery is just barely south east of the newer Alvira Cemetery

Washington Presbyterian Cemetery At the end of Alvira Road when you come to the prison gate, the cemetery is on the left [north]

On the 2024  Driving Tour

2018 Candelight Christmas At The Stone Church

Surrender shown at the Campus Theater 2019

2021 Walk In The  Bunkers

2019 Fire

Photos From The Prison Grounds

Daniel Shuey,  148th Pa Infantry, in the old Washington Presbyterian Church Cemetery. Daniel has this marker here, and also a larger monument at Boalsburg.  He died June 3rd 1874, from injuries sustained at Gettysburg.

The Government also took over a steel plant in Danville

 

 

For the past couple of years, the game commission has been gating the road, so it's a longer walk back to the cemeteries, but the gate is open in hunting season.

  The bunkers are the "item of interest" here.  During World War II, this was a TNT depo.

Some of the bunkers are empty

Some are full of trash.

There's SO much more to see here than the bunkers. Beautiful trails, with ponds, fields of flowers, and lots of wildlife.

And there are plenty of ruins too.  

One of many wide trails.

This pond is right along Alvira Road, just after you enter the Game Lands.  It's just one of many here  - but I often see egrets here.

Wildflowers