Chimney Rocks Star Continues to Shine

Have you ever wondered how the star came to be up on top of Chimney Rocks? Shining brightly every Christmas season, the star that overlooks the borough of Hollidaysburg has an interesting story.

Between 1960 and 1964, the Hollidaysburg Jaycees was formed and local businessman Richard Meadows was elected to be the first president.

One of the first projects that they discussed doing was something for the community that everyone could appreciate. One of the topics that came up was putting a star up on Chimney Rocks.

"After the meeting, we were discussing it," Meadows, president of the Meadows Frozen Custard, said. "I said, 'You know my grandfather made a star that we used to put on top of the scrapple plant every year. Why don't we take that star, since it is already built and put it up on Chimney Rocks."

They soon realized that they didn't have electricity and no way to run it. They decided to get a generator for the first year and keep it full of gas.

"We would run it from dusk to midnight," Meadows said. "We would take turns making sure the generator would not run out of gas. We did that for two years."

The first star, which was about 10x10 feet, was Meadows' grandfather's. The second star, larger at 20x20 feet, was built out in the Loop area. Terry Wilt, who was an employee at Penelec, convinced the company to run an electrical line up to the star. Penelec donated the wiring and other hardware.

Bill Bottenfield, who owned Tel-Power, was willing to put up telephone poles to hang the star on, because there were no trees tall enough to hang it. Bottenfield took two telephone poles up, dug holes by hand, and plated the poles. Now, they had a way to display the new star.

After five years, a bigger star was built, followed by an even bigger star. Now, they are up to a 30x30 feet.

After 40 years, the Jaycees disbanded. The AMBUCS, which is a businessman's association, decided to take over the project of lighting the star. The last star built had a cross incorporated into it, so that they could light the cross at Easter and light the star at Christmas.

For some reason, the cross went by the wayside.

"I think that the cross is still incorporated into the star, but it would take changing the lightbulbs around to light the cross at Easter," Meadows said. "AMBUCS took it over and as far as I know, they are the ones who still light the star and maintain it."

Meadows remembers that in the beginning, all of the hunters would come along and shoot all of the light bulbs out of the star. They had to be replaced every year.

"I am sure that still happens to this day," Meadow said. "I am sure that there are a lot of light bulbs shot out by hunters."

"People would ask me 'How did the star get up on Chimney Rocks?' It's always been a question," Meadows said. "Every year for the last five years, I said to my brothers, who are in business with me, 'Why don't we have a placemat made up that we can put in restaurants and we will have the story of the star on it?'"

Recently, Meadows decided to write the story.

"It affects me when I look at the star now and think, 'Hey, that came from my family.' It really did. The original star came from God. It is an amazing feeling to look up there and see that every Christmas."

Meadows said that he hopes that people get the real meaning of Christmas.

"It's not about us. There is a higher being than us," Meadows said. "I would like to see people get saved over this. The story is really touching. I even get teared up, myself, when I am telling the story. Praise the Lord. That is exactly how I feel about it. It is all praise to the Lord that it even happened."

Note: The Herald's Hollidaysburg content is exclusively online this month. Head over to mcheraldonline.com to read about meetings and events going on in Hollidaysburg.