Name Revealed: Preston's Pearl to cruise waters of Lake Arthur
Shannon Williams, a resident of Butler, has taken her three boys to Moraine State Park to hike and fish for years.
When the Moraine Preservation Fund opened a naming contest for its new tour boat, her knowledge of the park and its history came in handy.
On Thursday, the fund unveiled its new tour boat to officials and group members, and it came adorned with Williams' submission of “Preston's Pearl.”
“I looked up Frank Preston and had seen what exactly he had done with the park,” she said. “I thought of 'Pirates of the Caribbean' for 'Pearl,' so I came up with 'Preston's Pearl.'”
Frank W. Preston helped to found the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy and played a role in the creation of Moraine State Park.
More than 1,100 people submitted names for the new pontoon boat, which the organization purchased to replace its old vessel, the Nautical Nature.
This new boat has a larger capacity than the Nautical Nature, able to hold more than 40 people, and it has larger engines as well as an upper deck area, according to David Murray, Moraine Preservation Fund president. Its pontoons are 40 inches in diameter, and it has an upgraded engine that makes it more fuel-efficient.The Nautical Nature brought in tens of thousands of visitors since 1989, said Jack Cohen, Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau president. After 25 years it was due for an upgrade, and Cohen and the Moraine Preservation Fund was confident in future success.“We knew because of the clientele and, plus, how many people want to come out on the lake, we need a bigger boat,” Cohen said. “I knew that everybody would want to come out here and see this.”<iframe width="100%" height="450" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SvXh1t20psQ" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>The boat will be maintained by the nonprofit, and its captains and crew are all volunteers, according to Murray. He also said the boat will continue to be used for educational tours, as well as for recreational events.“This is a huge event for us; we're very excited,” Murray said. “We've really been looking forward to the arrival of this new boat to really get us into the future,” he said.In addition to Cohen and Murray, Cindy Dunn, secretary of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, spoke at Thursday's dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony.
Dunn said naming the boat after Preston was a fitting tribute because he was important to establishing Moraine State Park, but his story is not that well-known.“Dr. Frank Preston, he was the person, the scientist who really studied and knew this place and really looked at the hydro geology,” Dunn said. “He was a true renaissance person, someone with multilayers of talents and multilayers of information that he very generously shared.”The boat is scheduled to officially launch public tours Memorial Day weekend and can also be chartered. Ticket information will be released on the organization's website, https://morainepreservationfund.org/, before Memorial Day weekend.Cohen said the boat will not only be a fun attraction for visitors of Moraine, but it will be a tool for environmental education as well.“This beautiful boat is going to welcome families into the park,” Cohen said, “and certainly teach them all about stewardship of the land and the water here at Moraine.”
