#1 - The Stone Arch Bridge
We are going to begin our tour in an unusual place - on the south side of the old Stone Arch Bridge. It is a rarely "visited" site, except for an occasional person fishing.
To get there, head into Kunkletown along Kunkletown Road. When you get to the Kunkletown General Store, known simply as Rachel's, you will see on the west side of her establishment a fairly modern bridge - this is Chestnut Ridge Road. Turn onto Chestnut Ridge Road and make the first left, a sharp left (watch for oncoming traffic of course - I'm just worried that you might be so preoccupied with "spotting" the old Stone Arch Bridge that you might not pay attention - keep your mind on the road throughout this tour).
By the way, if you are not sure that you found Rachel's, here is a hint - look for a parking lot where at any given time a multitude of utility truck drivers are returning to their vehicles with delicious hot hoagies in hand. At the same time, you will see an equal number of local folks rapidly licking at their cones of soft ice cream, with toppings, to keep them from dripping...lol.
After you turn, you will immediately be at the Stone Arch Bridge. Park and if you like, get out and stroll over to the bridge. When first built, this bridge was the only way to get across the Buckwha Creek in this area. The next bridge to the East was about six and a half miles away and the covered bridge in Little Gap almost four and a half miles away.
By the way, if you are new to the area, you might wonder about the origin of local road names. If the road is not named for the family whose farm was on it, it will most likely be named for a local town. In the early days, folks often only traveled as far as they could walk, or ride a horse in one day, so road names weren't needed - you grew up there and knew the area. With the invention of cars, people traveled beyond the areas they were familiar with and road names were needed. After years of someone saying "I'm going to Kunkletown", it was a no-brainer to name the road you took as "Kunkletown" Road. But what about folks traveling from Kunkletown? They were taking that same road - but not to Kunkletown, away from it. Often such roads "carried" both names such as "Effort-Neola Road".
But what if a town had several roads leading to it - would they all get named for the town? Until recently, the road now known as Silver Spring Blvd was named (on maps) as Kunkletown Road and Silver Spring Blvd. What was really hard to understand was that this north to south Kunkletown Road hit the east-west Kunkletown Road (going to Little Gap), at a right angle. House numbers were even more confusing. The numbers at the "bottom" of Church Road began low, then went up, but dropped again, then up again and then dropped again and then rose on the other end. It seems, folks posted whatever number they liked on their mailboxes and that created the confusion. All of this was cleared up about 5 or so years ago when the entire county came under review, duplicate names were eliminated and all the numbers were changed to logically rise or fall.
In 1976, a new bridge was built about 100 yards to the west of the Stone Arch Bridge (that is the one you just used) and the Stone Arch Bridge is now for pedestrians only.
Stop #2 doesn't require any driving - we are here already - the Buckwha Creek running under the Old Stone Arch Bridge.
