The Lightner Family’s Choice

Bob Lightner’s great grandfather was a Hessian. He emigrated from Germany to fight the Revolutionary War, but he forgot about battle when he fell in love with the Pennsylvania landscape. “He saw the land and said ‘this place is great. I think I’ll stay – the heck with the war,” Bob said. “He bought land at the foot of the Blue Mountain and my family has never left.”

For more than 200 years the Lightner brothers, sisters, sons and daughters farmed here. George and Dotty Lightner, Bob’s parents wouldn’t consider selling the land, not even a sliver.

“After my father died, people would ask mom if they could buy just a small piece of our land,” Bob said. “Mom would say, ‘It’s not my land to sell. That’s for the deer and other animals’”.

Bob shared his mother’s feelings. When he read a newspaper article about the Central Pennsylvania Conservancy’s Witmer project, just up the road from his property – he talked to his sisters about selling at a discount to the Conservancy.

Thanks to the family’s generosity, the Lightner tract became the Conservancy’s second project on Blue Mountain.

“I had a good life,” Bob said. “The Valley gave me a lot. I would like to give it something back.”