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Planners for Snyder Township’s new Wreck-reation Park displayed plans for the new park project.

Denny Halmersteen, lead architect for the park project and owner of Denny’s Reconditioned Auto Parts Emporium, showed the group’s latest vision. “We are trying not just to give these kids a good time, we’re also offering them a piece of Snyder Township history,” Halmersteen said. “This township was built on the grit and grip of the scrap metal industry and we wanted to incorporate that into the design.”

“Many people do not know that 30 percent of the munitions fired by the Japanese in Pearl Harbor were made from scraps of metal disposed of right here in Synder Township,” Halmersteen continued.

Artistic renderings of the Wreck Park show a broad assortment of automobiles in various degrees of duress. A line of automobiles called, “Muscle Car Alley,” features old Trans Ams and Camaros. Most are on blocks to maintain Snyder Township historical accuracy.

The park also features mounds of used refrigerators, dishwashers, ice boxes and washers and dryers in an area called, Metal Mountain. “By God, the kiddies’ll love climbing around on that,” Halmersteen said.

The park will offer several educational features. “We’re going to offer classes in how to strip copper wiring from high voltage lines,” Halmersteen said. “And, we’ll even show how to recycle steel rails that one might find while, I don’t know, walking next to the train tracks.”

Kids can play on the swing set made from old steering wheels, lawn tractor seats, bicycle chains and circus tent poles left behind after the Walter L. Main circus train wreck.

Halmersteen completed his presentation with a wish: “We hope that, unlike my childhood that was spent under a railroad bridge sniffing glue and dancing for nickles at the saw mill, our children will have a chance to play, to grow, and to explore.”

Not all Snyder Township residents are happy with the park proposal. May Belle Carson, community activist, said that the recreation park is bound to upset the moral fabric of the community.

“Recreation is the devil’s workshop!” Carson shouted during the meeting. “The idle time of the youth should be spent in accordance to our cherished childhood laboring traditions.”

“Who will make the soap? The wonderful lye soap!” she said as she was escorted out. “Who will boil the crawfish and gut the carp? Who will pick the nettles from the tails of the hounds?”

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