Five generations of my family have enjoyed this area of the "Perky".

I can remember my Grandmother, Eunice Patterson Roediger, talking about IndianHead dam.  She told stories about driving her horse and buggy across the road on -top of the dam so she could visit her boyfriend in Oaks.  This occurred between 1910-1915.  "Patterson Hill" on Arcola road in Lower Providence is named for her family. 

My Father, William, used to visit his Uncle "Funtz".  He lived on the Upper Providence side of the dam - He would boat and fish in this area.

I used to visit friends along the "Perky" when I was in high school - My husband Harry has lived here since 1959.  We moved here in 1968.

Harry and I raised 3 girls here.  Our girls learned how to swim before they went to school.  The rule along the "creek" was - unless you could swim across the creek, rest, and swim back, you had to wear a life jacket.  They loved catching sunfish right from our dock.

We had a neighbor, Jack Ulrich, who lost many a pole to the carp.  He would just lay the pole down for a minute.  Carp are quick, the pole ended up in the "Perky".  Jack fed the ducks.  We had the same duck return each year, she even brought young.  Jack swore she said "jack" not quack!

This past year, Harry took 4 of our grandchildren fishing.  That, is a whole other story!  It was an unforgettable experience.

Two of our girls now have houses here.  They would like to see their children and grandchildren enjoy the "Perky" as much as they have.

Help us preserve the IndianHead dam and Perkiomen Creek for these future generations.

Michael Geiger:

I live in Wellsboro, which is in north central Pennsylvania. The bulk of my family live in the Montgomery and Berks County areas of Pa; where I was born. We left over 30 years ago to ecape the massive population growth in the area. Habitat for wildlife had started to be replaced with apartments and parking lots and it appeared to be an irreversible process.

This year at Easter time we make the trek south to visit our family and friends from what we still refer to as "down-home."

What I saw along the Arcola area of Perkiomen Creek, just above the IndianHead Dam, was a sight I was sure I would only see here at home where I live in Tioga County, Pa,. A full-grown Bald Eagle, the very symbol of America itself was hunting and fishing the area right in front of my brother-in-law and sister-in-law Harry and Linda Hall's house. This is a very rare sight even here at home with only an occasional sighting of this majestic bird. We  watched in awe as it effortlessly flew from side to side and tree by tree along the Perkiomen, using binoculars to closely observe its every move. What a wonderful proof that the area has turned the tide and cleaned up their act enough that this American "Icon", the Bald Eagle, have decided to once again call this place its home. Our forefathers and conservationists such as Teddy Roosevelt, and our own William Penn, would be very proud to see the progress we've accomplished at reversing the effects of man.

Now, I am looking forward to our annual visit not only to see family and friends but also to try to catch a glimpse of the Bald Eagle along with Perkiomen Creek.

Paul Beck:

In the mid 1950's I got a brief glimpse of this area from a train window.  My well to do grandfather bought tickets for the entire family for the "Country Side Steam Train Ramble".  A wonderful trip that begun in North Philidelphia and ended in Schenksville with the residents turned out in the 18th contury clothing.  BBQ chicken for everybody and a contest between an antique steam pumper and the steam engine that brought us, who had the loudest whistle?.  Well it was like comparing apples and oranges.  The huge steam engine made your stomach vibrate and the polished ornate pumper was shrill and hurt your ears.

On the way back to Philadelphia, I grabbed a seat on the left side so I would not miss the Perkiomen.  Having grown up in Drexil Hill, which had already become so congested from the post WWII boom, the little creek we played in is now paved over and running through a sewer pipe.

On the way back I saw this area, I know it because I saw what I now know as the Skippack creek joining the Perkiomen and then boats and little houses and then the falls.  "I would like to live here, have a woman, a boat and maybe some children."  I was 17 and thought "fat chance", I'll never find this place in a million years. 

To me it is stranger then fiction that I live here.  When I was 12 or 13, I had recurrent dreams about a small gray house with a red roof built into a hillside.

By 1965 I had acquired 3 small children and lived in 4 rooms over a drunken landlord on a horse farm in Newtown Square, Bishop Hollow rd.  I had been working 12 and 16 hour days at GE in Valley Forge.  I was very tired.  Around 3am Mr. Tinny would throw empty beer cans at the walls of his kitchen, and it was my job to go down and calm him before the children woke.  He would ramble on for up to an hour and then pass out.  It was the same story every night, about how our boys hit them hard at the Marne River and Chateau Theory and how he was sprayed with mustard gas and had to leave the front.

      I was desperate to move, I was so tired.  I took a day off, packed the whining kids in the car and drove everywhere to places I had never seen.  The realtor in Conshocken handed me a big stack of polaroid’s.  When I told him how much I wanted to spend, he handed me a couple of polaroid’s.  In that pile of 2 was a small house on a hillside.  Of course the realtor almost couldn't find it, but when we drove up it was small, gray and had a red roof.

      A month went by and Mr. Tinny with tears said goodbye to our little family and we moved into our new house.  There was so much to do, so many repeat trips to Fannaroe's store.

      After 3 or 4 days I said to myself "why am I hearing the sound of chain saws all day.  Are the people around here clear cutting the woods?".  The noise seemed to be coming from down the road, so I walked down Tyson Mill Rd.  I was dumbstruck, there was water, lots of water!  There were boats, some with motors that sounded like chain saws.  I was in heaven!  I had brought a house in Heaven!  There is a God and he is smiling and laughing at me.

      Another month went by, I now realized from the rumble around 4 o'clock that there were train tracks on the other side of the creek and later discovered they went to Schwenksville.  Then I found the falls one day on a walk with my son Max.  I still didn't get it because my boyhood memory was looking down at this place from a moving train.  One day my son wanted to see the train tracks so we walked from the Arcola Post Office on the tracks to Oaks and I guess as far as Reber Road.

That’s when I knew I had found the place that I didn't think I would find in a million years.