Welcome to the Scripture Rocks Heritage Park

Welcome to the Scripture Rocks Heritage Park. . , The Scripture Rocks Heritage Park was dedicated June 2016 by the Jefferson County History Center as a public access site where visitors can explore 4.5 acres of a forested hillside near Port Barnett containing the largest rock art site known in this country. Although not dedicated as a religious park, it contains 64 sandstone boulders engraved by Douglas M. Stahlman circa 1910-1913 detailing his perception of religion and personal aspects of his life and his relationship to the community. The Park is the location of Altar Rock, the largest boulder, which Stahlman converted into an open air chapel for community worship and upon which he later built his cabin wherein he penned his journal. The park also contains a small prehistoric Native American rock shelter, evidence of mid-nineteenth century quarrying, and a failed coal mine., Douglas Monroe Stahlman , Stahlman was born on August 17, 1861 on a farm near Kirkman, in Warsaw Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania. He was the fifth child out of ten brothers and sisters., He attended Erie Commercial School and became a schoolteacher, teaching for a time at the Clear Creek School near Sigel. He also worked for a time as a book agent, meeting his wife, Marion Alsobrook, whom he married in Dyer County, Tennessee on November 4, 1897., The newly-married Stahlmans moved to Valpariso, Indiana where Douglas began attending classes at the Northern Indiana Normal School. Their first son Glen Davis was born on September 26, 1898., In February 1901, Douglas became entangled in a national headline-making scandal that revolved around the religious faith-healing movement of John Alexander Dowie. Applying the Dowieties beliefs to his ailing wife, he prevented her care by a physician and she died from blood poisoning after giving birth to their second son, James M. Douglas was then incarcerated and declared insane. During the trial, his children were removed to his wife's family, thus beginning a lifelong quest by him for their return., Early in 1907, Douglas returned to Brookville permanently. Shortly afterward, he began praying upon what would become Altar Rock, and began his public outdoor sermons and rock dedications. In fall 1911, he began engraving them, while recording his thoughts and ideas in a series of journals., Not surprisingly, Douglas Stahlman's role within the community and his unusual behavior generated both support and disdain for his cause. His legacy today continues to invoke intrigue, speculation, and discussion., Uncovering the Rocks , Beginning May, 2009, members of the North Fork Chapter 29 of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology began a systematic effort to find and record as many of the Scripture Rocks as could be found. Gleaning information from Stahlman's handwritten journals along with directions from local informants, the survey was successful in finding and documenting 151 inscribed rocks comprising eight separate groups around Brookville., The Port Barnett Rock group is the most significant because of the location where Stahlman first developed the concept of dedicating rocks and it is the largest concentration of engraved rocks. This group contains the first and last of his engravings and can be used to best tell his personal story., In 2011, a special Keystone Preservation Grant provided by the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission to the Jefferson County History Center furthered the project by funding a formal mapping of the Port Barnett group location and outlining potential plans for development of a Heritage Park., In the fall of 2014 the park concept became reality with the Jefferson County History Center undertaking the construction of the park through the cooperation of the landowners and financial assistance of numerous grants and private donors., There are still more rocks to be discovered. To report a finding of a new unrecorded Scripture Rock at any of the locations around Brookville, please contact the Jefferson County History Center.