“I do not think I have ever seen anything more
beautiful than the bluebell I have been looking at. I know the beauty of our
Lord by it.”~ English poet & Jesuit priest
~ 1844 ~ 1889
A beguiling
bluebell softly blooms near the banks of the Swabia Creek at Lock Ridge Park
and Furnace Museum, Alburtis, Pennsylvania on a beautiful mid-April afternoon
when temperatures soared into the 80s and the chorus of spring peepers floated through the air.
The blooming of the multitude of Lock Ridge bluebells ~ also called grape hyacinth ~ is a clarion call of spring in the Lehigh Valley, drawing many people to photograph and glimpse their beauty in the span of the few weeks they bloom.
Lock Ridge is uniquely beautiful when the bluebells are in bloom. Bluebells are actually muscari, or grape hyacinth, a plant that produces spikes of blue flowers that resemble bunches of grapes in the spring.
The 59-acre park was opened in August 1976.
Lock Ridge Park is a park built around an historic iron ore blast furnace just outside Alburtis. The park preserves portions of the former Lock Ridge Iron Works, which dates back to 1868 and operated as an iron mill until 1921.
Acquired by Lehigh County in 1972, the Lock Ridge Furnace Museum was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1981 and is operated by the Lehigh County Historical Society.
