The flames flared, and the stench spread.
Pillars of smoke surged skyward, visible for miles. It was May 1967, and the landfill at Wildwood Park in Harrisburg was on fire again, one of the worst since open dumping began there about 20 years before.
More than half of Harrisburg’s firefighting force battled the half-mile-long blaze. Helped by strong winds, the conflagration consumed 30 acres in 15 minutes and lasted 16 hours.
Years before Harrisburg’s resources became tangled with its incinerator, causing $362.5 million in debt, the city also struggled with its predecessor: the Wildwood Park landfill.
Wildwood Park was a hallmark of the City Beautiful movement in Harrisburg. The initiative was an effort in early 20th-century America to modernize, clean up and beautify cities. Harrisburg was a national leader of City Beautiful.
During this time, the city purchased land that would become Wildwood Park.
One purpose of the park was practical: Harrisburg built a concrete channel there to tame the flood-prone Paxton Creek.
Another purpose was recreational. Residents could fish, play ball, walk trails and visit a zoo in the park.
But the main purpose of the Wildwood purchase was to provide Harrisburg with beauty. Local historians in the early 20th century emphasized Wildwood’s splendor. In 1927, George P. Donehoo labeled it “one of the most beautiful parks in America” and claimed that “Harrisburg never did anything better than the purchase of Wildwood Park.”
As midcentury approached, Wildwood declined. The park became a dump, putrid and prone to fires.
A city official interviewed in the Patriot story about the May 1967 blaze called it the third-worst conflagration in the dump’s history, indicating that fires at Wildwood were not unusual. Wildwood had become a burden for Harrisburg and an aggravation for the city fire department.
It had drawn the state’s attention, too. Two days before the May 1967 fire, the Pennsylvania Health Department ordered the city to close the dump and control “nuisances” there. Harrisburg would have to approve a $40,000 appropriation bill to manage health hazards.
The state said the city needed to end leaching of waste from the dump into Paxton Creek, cover all waste and control insects and rodents.
The state’s criticism was not the only motivation to phase out the landfill.
Harrisburg was moving ahead with plans to build an incinerator.
In the meantime, with the state’s order to close the dump and the incinerator years from construction, the city needed a temporary waste-disposal solution. It opted to use an abandoned clay pit in Susquehanna Township as a sanitary landfill.
Dumping began at the Susquehanna Township site in September 1967. A Patriot editorial lauded the end of the Wildwood dump but warned authorities to make sure they learned from its problems.
Wildwood likely would not have reached “crisis stage” if the city had carried out proper procedures, the newspaper said. If they cover the garbage, curb foul odors and prevent vermin infestation and the threat of fire, city authorities could bide time incident-free until the incinerator was ready.
Yet, two months later, the new landfill caught fire.
“Old story, new place – dump on fire again,” a Patriot headline read. Spread by the wind, the blaze burned “a large section” of the Susquehanna Township dump.
In an editorial, the newspaper said it appeared that the city had slid back into bad habits. Litter sprinkled a road leading to the landfill, and some of the trash made its way to neighboring state hospital property.
Harrisburg had spent about $200,000 in appropriations because of lax oversight of Wildwood, “and another emergency expenditure caused by another improper landfill operation would be doubly intolerable.”
But the city was not done with the Wildwood dump. Less than three months after the landfill closed, it failed an inspection by the state Health Department. The dump still contained rat burrows and evidence of underground fires, which the city would need to eliminate to pass inspection.
Pollution concerns also lingered. Officials worried that rainwater could cause fissures in the soil, contaminating groundwater that would enter Paxton Creek.
Expenses to close the Wildwood landfill were higher than expected, costing Harrisburg $75,000, and that number would rise to $103,000 over the next few months.
The city was funding three waste-disposal projects simultaneously: the upcoming incinerator, the temporary landfill and the Wildwood dump.
Wildwood Park, once the pinnacle of Harrisburg’s beauty, had become a wasteland.
At least Harrisburg could see hope on the horizon: a state-of-the-art incinerator that would be built in 1972. The solution to the city’s waste woes was mere years away.
“The incinerator planned for Harrisburg is described as a type which will establish the city as a pacesetter in American refuse disposal systems,” a Patriot editorial said. “It’ll be a welcome change.”