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Buttermilk Falls is Currently part of the County Park System

Homewood Falls This striking waterfall is the result of geologic activity some 18,000 years ago. Immense glaciers covering this region began melting, sending floodwaters down Clarks Run. Eventually, the creek cut deeply through the overlying rock and soil until it encountered an especially resistant rock layer geologists named Homewood Sandstone. As the canyon deepened downstream, a ledge formed over which Clarks Run flowed. Because the layers beneath the Homewood Sandstone are softer, the falling water undercut the ledge above, causing pieces of the harder rock to break away. This created the sharp lip and spectacular drop of the waterfall you see today. Historically, the falls were an important source of water power for a sawmill located here as well as a nearby stone quarry and provided a scenic location for local recreation. Did You Know? For many years, this waterfall was known as Buttermilk Falls. The name was apparently given in 1870 by a group of Civil War veterans and their lady friends who came here on a picnic. As they prepared to leave, one of the party proposed a toast to the occasion and the beautiful setting using the primary beverage of the group: buttermilk. Thereafter, locals referred to this place as Buttermilk Falls. Do You Remember? A reminiscence of interesting happenings of the early years of the Upper Beaver Valley towns by T. Frank Covert. Directly back of the old Fort Wayne R.R. Station at Homewood, Beaver County, the waters of Clark's Run, the small brook that rises to the north of Summit cut and follows generally the line of the railway eastward into the village, then suddenly over a cliff of sandstone rock with a sheer drop of about 35 feet into a stony gorge leading to the Beaver river. The falls thus formed are not visible from the highway, nor the railroad coaches, nor are they to be seen from the cars of the Harmony interurban line, but must be beheld from some other vantage point in the hamlet. Bob Burdette, the noted humorist and writer made the falls the subject of one of his serious articles. In the old days when marble topped tables in the parlor were graced or disgraced with stereoscopic views to be looked at through an arrangement with a handle and a slide on it to hold the pictures that usually fell off, and a shade for the eyes that left marks on one's forhead, Buttermilk Falls, as the cascade is known, was usually found among any large collection of such photographs. Not only locally, but throughout the country wherever else they were civilized enough to permit such views to be extended for the temporary entertainment of guests or callers. Numerous visitors from distances came to view the cataract and it was a plce where local picnics were held. According to the Hon. I. F. Mansfield, of Beaver, deceased, it received its name as the result of a picnic party. It is a preety little story nevertheless and it is quoted as written, omitting a portion containing some quite apparent errors:- "In 1870 a number of civil war veterans with their ladies arranged for a picnic at the Falls on the 4th of July. At the station, veterans so busy assisting ladies overlooked baskets and they were carried west by the train. Conveyances secured and from the farmers eatables and buttermilk obtained. The table was spread under the cliff back of the falls and everything enjoyed." "Several good speeches were made and war experiences related, interspersed with songs by the ladies. As they rose to depart, each one was handed a glass of buttermilk and the following toast proposed: "Here's to the romantic picnic and we christen the same Buttermilk Falls". He suggest further that forty-six were present."

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