Plan announced to preserve history at Bentleyville exit

The state wants to preserve the historical significance of the site where it’s reconfiguring the Bentleyville interchange with a plan to protect the nearby cemetery’s headstones, catalogue unmarked graves and preserve any Native American artifacts unearthed during the reconstruction project.
The memorandum of agreement proposed last week by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and the Federal Highway Administration would outline how to preserve anything historical found at the site and even relocate remains disturbed nearly 60 years ago during construction of Interstate 70.
If agreed upon, the stipulations would mandate the state Department of Transportation avoid any impacts on the NewKirk Cemetery by installing temporary fences around the property to keep construction crews and equipment from accidentally entering the site. An archaeological monitor would be on site when the former Gibson Methodist Church is demolished and the site is excavated, according to the plans.
There would also be a “public education component” to include an exhibit placed in a regional location easily accessible to residents to “in some way illustrate the prehistory of the region.” If a sufficient site cannot be found, the proposal states, it could be transformed into a mobile exhibit operated by PennDOT that would travel as an “educational instrument” for at least five years.
Historical data documented at the site would also be disseminated through various journals, lectures and other reports.
Marla Stankus, secretary of Bentleyville Historical Society who participated in meetings about the design, lauded the proposals.
“I think they’re doing what they can do,” Stankus said. “It is an interchange that does need a lot of help. We see that, but we want to make sure history isn’t destroyed.”
She especially liked the idea of a regional education center or traveling exhibit that would help to tell the story of the area and the historical significance of that site.
“I think it would be a great idea because we do have a lot of people who are interested in the history, and especially the history that goes back that far,” Stankus said.
PennDOT cultural resources professional Ryan Rowles could not be reached for comment.
The construction project has been a controversial topic with the Bentleyville and Charleroi historical societies and Delaware and Seneca nations requesting to be “consulting parties” during the planning stages.
A portion of the NewKirk Cemetery, which straddles Bentleyville and Fallowfield Township, was bulldozed over when the I-70 interchange was built there in the 1950s. The Gibson Methodist Church, most recently owned by Debra Hardy of Rostraver, who operated the King of the Hill Steakhouse there, will be demolished.
Preconstruction archaeology surveys also unearthed stone artifacts in nearby Somerset Township that show American Indians occupied a site near the I-70 east ramps at Route 917 about 10,000 years ago.
PennDOT plans to construct a higher bridge along Route 917 over I-70 in the area with construction expected to begin in September. The mitigation plan is not expected to delay the project.