A complete history of Wopsononock, the area of the Allegheny Mountains located west of Altoona, Pennsylvania, began long before the purchase of more than 400 acres of mountain land by a group of local capitalists in 1886.

Adam Holliday, together with his brother William, settled in what was then Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, and in 1796 laid out the town that became known as Hollidaysburg.

Near the end of the 18th century, John Holliday, Adam Holliday’s son, received a land warrant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and, on February 21, 1793, purchased 400 acres. The tract was then located in Huntingdon County, though it later became part of Blair and Cambria Counties. This acreage eventually became known as the Wopsononock Tract. It is believed that Holliday intended to use the land for lumbering.

Ownership of the Wopsononock Tract later passed to John Holliday’s son, Alexander L. Holliday, although no will or deed transfer documenting the conveyance has yet been located.

Alexander L. Holliday was born in Hollidaysburg on May 7, 1814, and died there on August 24, 1903. His obituary in the Altoona Mirror and the Altoona Tribune provides useful information about his connection to Wopsononock.

The names “A. L. Holliday” and “Wopsononock House” appear on the 1859 map of Blair County in Logan Township, indicating that a hotel or boarding house already existed on the mountain at that time.

Mr. Holliday is also mentioned in an Altoona Mirror column dated June 19, 1916:

“The first house put up at Wopsy as a hotel was built by Alexander Holliday of Hollidaysburg. The second was owned by Thomas Keyes and the third one, containing seventy-six rooms, was burned a few years ago.”

In 1869, A. L. Holliday sold the 433-acre Wopsononock Tract to Thomas Keyes. The Blair County deed transfer is dated March 5, 1869, and records a purchase price of $3,000.
Thomas Keyes and his wife, Christiana maintained the Wopsononock Hotel until Mrs. Keyes’ death in 1885.

The Keyes ownership ended on October 2, 1886, when the Wopsy acreage was sold to a group of Altoona businessmen: G. A. Patton, William F. Gable, C. A. Wood, and Edmund Shaw.
These investors hoped to capitalize on the mountain’s scenery and its cooler summer temperatures by developing a larger hotel and resort community. Their plans also included the construction of a railroad originating in Juniata and running to the mountaintop resort and eventually to Dougherty in Cambria County. A large vein of coal had recently been discovered in that area, and the promoters expected that the railroad would also haul coal to Altoona.

Two local vintage maps provide information about Wopsy’s history. The Geil & Freed 1859 Blair County map in the Logan Township northwestern-most section, it states, Wopsononock House, A. L. Holliday. The road shown nearby was the Altoona and Clearfield Plank Road & Turnpike and was incorporated by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1853.

By 1873, the Pomeroy Atlas of Blair and Huntingdon Counties map of Logan Township displayed the name “T. Keyes” and “Wapsononic House” at the Wopsononock location.

Years ago, these two maps added helpful puzzle pieces for this editor’s research into Wopsy history!

The Turnpike of 1853 provided a route from Altoona to Cambria and Clearfield counties and put Wopsononock on the map long before the final Wopsy Hotel was opened in 1889, and the narrow-gauge 2-6-0 Mogul climbed to the mountain tableland in 1891.