Once upon a time, up on Blue Hill
Written by By Susan Misur
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In a time when women wore long, billowing skirts and carried parasols, and men gathered in smoking rooms, and more than 40 trains blew through Sunbury a day, the Hotel Shikellimy was the place to be and be seen in the Susquehanna Valley.
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Perched atop the highest point of Susquehanna Heights and overlooking the Susquehanna River in the 1890s, the burgeoning resort drew members of high society from across the East.
But less than eight years after it was built on the hill, the hotel burned to the ground in 1898 in a mysterious fire - the cause remains unknown. Nothing but memories remains of the Hotel Shikellimy, as it was spelled.
Today, Shikellamy State Park and its overlook continue to attract visitors wanting to hike, picnic and enjoy the scenery where the hotel used to tower 360 feet above the Susquehanna River.
On clear days in the late 1800s, the view from the lookout point of Susquehanna Heights, now called Blue Hill in Shikellamy State Park, went as far as the eye could see. It was prime real estate for the type of resort that brothers Seran, Oliver and Walter Drumheller wanted to build. They bought 40 acres and began construction in the summer of 1890.
Named for Chief Shikellamy, a famous Oneida Indian living near the river in the 1700s, the three-story hotel boasted gabled roofs; three rotundas; smoking, writing and billiard rooms; a bowling alley and 80 hotel rooms. An outlook on top of the building was almost 500 feet above the Susquehanna River and provided a view of nearby Northumberland and Sunbury, and even Selinsgrove, Danville, Lewisburg and Milton that were farther away.
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