Photo from the Warren Times-Mirror Above the fold coverage was given on several days to a proposal - detailed here - to build a $225,000 tavern and restaurant overlooking the Kinzua Dam. The U.S. Corps of Engineers ultimately bought the land where the facility was proposed.

Those of us born after 1970 know the Kinzua Dam and Allegheny Reservoir areas for what they are today.

(The one exception to that is the flap over the proposed resort).

But the more I learn, the more I realize the wild range of proposals there were to boost the tourism value of that area.

How about a restaurant and cocktail bar that would have looked out over the Kinzua Dam itself?

That was a proposal that was on the table for several months in 1964, before the work on the dam was even complete and the valley behind it inundated.

Photo from the Warren Times-Mirror As the Morrison Bridge over Route 59 is set to undergo a significant rehabilitation this summer, this photo published in the Warren Times-Mirror in 1964 announced that the steel work had been completed.

“A public hearing has been tentatively set by the State Liquor Control Board to determine if private interests will be allowed to open the first privately-owned tavern overlooking the Kinzua Dam and Reservoir,” the Times Mirror reported on Feb. 14.

The proposal was put forward by John and Katherin Condio, who had operated the Kinzua Inn.

“The property they plan to use to build a $225,0000 tavern and restaurant is located at Tuttle Creek on Route 59 just one quarter mile above the dam site,” the paper reported, “overlooking the reservoir which will be created when the dam is completed next year.”

Conveniently, the parcel was located outside both the land owned by the U.S. Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Forest Service. A description of the four-acre parcel placed it along Rt. 59. That means it was either the second parking lot on the left past the dam or the turnoff where the Bent Run waterfall is located.

While the historical record focuses on efforts to highlight the plight of people displaced by the creation of the dam and reservoir, there also appears to have been some structured organizing to attempt to shape the future of the reservoir area.

“Interest has centered on the Kinzua Inn due to recent controversy between private landowners and the government on recreational development and land acquisition around the Reservoir,” that same Times Mirror report detailed. “Representatives of the Kinzua Reservoir Citizens’ Association, a group of landowners seeking private development and orderly growth around the reservoir, were in Washington only last week to consult with Army Engineers.”

A New York State firm had proposed a hotel that would have been located on Corps land but pulled out at the prospect of having to operate the building under lease from the government.

“Land owned by the government is under its jurisdiction and accordingly persons desiring to build any type of facility must do so on the lease basis,” the paper reported. “Concessionaires are required to submit bids to the Corps. Low bids which meet Army Engineer requirements and specifications are usually granted the concession.”

While the Corps and the Forest Service couldn’t kill the project, they asked the county’s planning commission to weigh in and “lend its voice in restraint” of the liquor license transfer proposed for the site (it declined citing lack of jurisdiction in the area).

They weren’t the only organization that leveled some degree of protest – feedback was received from some church groups as well as the local temperance union.

Amid this discussion of the proposed Condio restaurant, local elected officials were implementing zoning regulations.

A study that focused on recreational development of the reservoir “strongly urged zoning as the only means to assure orderly development of private lands to be affected by the reservoir,” the Times Mirror reported.

“The study emphasized that to insure the highest and best use of such lands and to maintain environs favorable to the best use of the recreation area, sound zoning legislation was essential before the impounded waters start to rise.”

In March, the Forest Service formally took a position of being unopposed to the Condio proposal, kicking the decision to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board.

Several months later, the proposal would die.

The July 27, 1964 headline? “Corps To Purchase Condio Property Overlooking Reservoir.”

“The possibility that a privately owned and operated restaurant and tavern would be built overlooking the Kinzua Dam and Reservoir has dimmed,” the report said. “The local office of the U.S. Army of the Corps of Engineers has been directed to acquire the lands immediately to the east of relocated Route 59 at the dam site.”

More details about the restaurant had emerged by the time the Corps scuttled the project with the land purchase.

“Proposed was a one story frame structure with a stone exterior and plaster interior to include a dining room, service bar, kitchen, two storage rooms, lavatory facilities, entrance hall and a small lobby,” the Times Mirror reported.

It appears a setback issue killed the project.

According to the Times Mirror, there was a minimum requirement of 300 feet from “static pool” level of the reservoir. As a result, access to the property would have been “severely impaired or totally destroyed after application of the 300 foot criteria.”