The Sand Dunes Of Montandon Pa

Geologists tell us that more than 18,000 years ago, glacial activity pushed sand down the Susquehanna River. When the river was low, the sand was picked up by the wind, and deposited across from Lewisburg, leaving a ridge of sand dunes in Montandon.

Locals to the area are well aware of the dunes, as sand mine plants have operated there for decades.  But did you know that in 1877, Captain Bly from Watsontown discovered 4 acres of high quality sand while exploring over the White Deer Mountains?

Captain Bly's Discovery

In mid November 1877, while Capt. Bly was exploring "over the White Deer Mountains", he discovered on one of them a bed of nearly white glass sand.  The sand covered an area of nearly 4 acres, and was found about four inches below the surface.

Captain Bly brought about a quart of it home, dried it thoroughly, and then had it melted down and blown into glass.  "A fine quality of glass was blown from it."  The local newspapers reported that it was a sand of finer quality than that being used at Pittsburgh and other glass-ware manufacturing cities.

"Captain Bly" was the owner, and captain, of the ferry between Watsontown and White Deer.  

The Bly Farm was located on the east bank of the river just north of the present day river bridge in Watsontown.

"Over the White Deer Mountains" is not what I would think of as Montandon, so I tend to think this was a field on the West side of the river, but I could be wrong, about that, the article could still be referring to Montandon. Or perhaps, there were sand deposits blown to both sides of the river.

White Deer Creek is a tributary of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. It flows through White Deer & West Buffalo Township, all the way to Centre County.  (The creek, for a good bit of it's length, runs along I80 today.)

How Montandon Came To Have Sand Dunes

According to a DCNR report from June 1977, "Along the east bank of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River opposite Lewisburg is a sand dune field, created during the Wisconsin age, the latest of several periods of glaciation that covered parts of Pennsylvania. Although the Wisconsian glacier halted several miles to the north of the West Branch, large amounts of its sedimentary debris were flushed into the river and deposited on the flood plains downstream."

Geologists tell us that 250 million years ago, the area was surrounded by much higher mountains, a result of various geologic pressured.  Over time, the mountains were worn down by weather, including a number of ice ages.  During those ice ages, glaciers came through the area and ground down the remains of the mountains, leaving the ridges we see today.

The last glaciers through the area were about 18,000 years ago, in the Wisconsin Age,  and the heavy ice came to just north of Williamsport, pushing huge quantities of rock, gravel and sand.  The ice stopped north of Williamsport, but the debris traveled on down the river.

River levels in our area vary, and when the river was low, the winds blew the sans into dunes, which could have been as much as 25 or 30 feet high.  Over time those dunes were covered with vegetation, allowing them to blend in with the surrounding areas.  

The sand dunes are part of an area known as the Montandon Marsh. The receives most of its water form an underground flow coming from Montour Ridge, to the east.  According to one local geologist, the Marsh itself is situated in a former channel of the river.

Central Builders, who operate the sand mine there today,  works with local conservation groups to preserve the area.  They agreed to operate their mine without pumping out the water.  In fact, their operation may help restore portions of the marsh area, as about 15% of the sand and gravel they extract is not suitable for use.  That portion is pumped back into already mined areas, which will help grass and trees take root once again.

Montandon's Sand Plant

The Montandon Sand & Gravel Processing Plant

The first mention I found of the Montandon Sand Plant is in 1953, when a worker from Central Builders Supply of Selinsgrove was injured there.

 In 1957 an advertisement for lumber states that you can call "at the Yocum Sand Plant, South Of Milton".

In the 1960's, it was owned by Lawrence Wilson, as shown on these matchbook covers (found on ebay).  Wilson also owned the Bucknell View Trailer Court.  

 
In the 1970s, the land was purchased by Tony Markunas, for his family's business, Central Builders Supply Company. Central Builders still mines sand there today.

===========

More Local History & Stories

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/history.html

==========
READ MORE
===========

Within the field of vision from various parts of the valley is also the line of that wonderful phenomenon, The Terminal Moraine, or foot of the great sheet of ice that once covered the whole upper part of the North American continent to the supposed depth of several thousand feet, just as a similar ice-sheet now covers nearly all of Greenland. It is simply a more or less irregular line of bowlders [sic], gravel, deposits of unstratified earth, and drift-hills, the debris which for unknown centuries was with a mighty force brought down over valleys and mountains by the immense glacier. The line of the Moraine takes in all of the North Mountain, crosses the Muncy Creek below Tivoli, creeps up to the crest of the Allegheny, and then trends on over valley and mountain to the northwest, into the State of New York, back again into Pennsylvania, down into Ohio, over into Kentucky, and up again through Indiana. The part of Lycoming County above the line of the Moraine is in many places scratched by the pressure of the moving ice-mass, and covered with Drift. The Moraine has been carefully examined across the State from New Jersey to Ohio. It tells the story of a severe and killing Winter that endured for ages, and that ended a long cosmic Summer, during which Mastoden roamed over the same regions as the Elephants now range over the jungles of Africa. What caused this extraordinary change of climate is a riddle not yet positively solved. One entire volume of the many reports of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania is devoted to a detailed description of this marvel of a long past age. It is a most interesting romance of nature to the student of God's handiwork. When Agassiz came to America almost the first thing he looked for was for evidence of glacial action, and he soon found what he looked for, and what he had already become so familiar with in Europe. He had eyes, and could see things in nature quicker and better than most mortals.

Gernerd, J. M. M., The Muncy Valley: Snap-Shots of Scenery, Geology and History, 1909, Press of the Gazette and Bulletin, Williamsport PA

===============

In July of 1991, Kevin Hurley of 11th Street in Riverside took 3rd Place in the Sunbury Daily Item's Fishing Contest. He caught a  2 lb 10 ouncer in the Montandon Sand Pit, using a rubber worm.

The Montandon Wetlands complex encompasses 500 acres along the West Branch of the Susquehanna.  It's wetlands consists of sand dunes interspersed with swamps and marshes. According to  a 2003 Keystone Fund report, "There is nothing like it in 50 miles in any direction"

The Eastern Spadefoot Toad
https://www.fishandboat.com/Resource/AmphibiansandReptiles/Documents/11spade.pdf

In 2014, plans were discussed for building "frog tunnels" under Marsh Road, so that proposed truck traffic would not disturb the frogs.

More about the vegetation and habitat of the Montandon Marsh:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44149059?read-now=1&seq=8#page_scan_tab_contents

1961 Mineral Report

==========
Authors Note
===========

I grew up outside of Montandon, and throughout my life I have heard of the "pure white beach sand" there.  There's a pond that can be seen along the road from Lewisburg, to the south, well west of the railroad tracks in town.  There I've been told scuba divers have enjoyed diving, and that they have found an old car, and that a full sized crane is sunk in there.  I do not know if these stories are true, or just legends that  been repeated over the years.  My husband and I bought our first home in Montandon in the 90's, and there we had sandy soil  in our garden that although not white in color, grew the absolute best melons. Since moving to the farm here outside of Watsontown, I've never been able to grow cantaloupe and watermelon as well as we could there in Montandon.   It was also great for putting in a fence, there was little resistance, and no rocks, when we dug the holes.  (but the ground was firm enough to hold the posts - not pure sand)