Former Pocono drag strip becomes 278 acres of preserved land

Pocono Drag Lodge opened in the 1960s and went on to host some of the top drivers in the country, filling the woods around Bear Creek Township in Luzerne County with roars and buzz each Sunday and drawing big crowds such as when legendary racer Richard Petty showed in his ‘64 Barracuda.

The quarter-mile track and its operations, however, closed in 1972, reverting back to the quietude of woods in subsequent decades.

Now, the 278-acre parcel on Meadow Run, not far from Route 115, will be permanently preserved. Natural Lands, a large conservation land trust based in Media, announced earlier this week that it had purchased the property and turned it over to Pennsylvania Game Commission to be folded into State Game Land No. 91, opening it to the public for hunting and recreation.

“We’re delighted these 278 acres will never be developed and will be enjoyed by generations to come,” Todd Sampsell, vice president of conservation for Natural Lands, said in the announcement.

The game commission plans to raze old buildings on the site, including the concession stand and starting gate. Nature has reclaimed most of the areas used for the old strip.

Natural Lands said the property is 90% wooded, and it provides wildlife habitat and absorbs stormwater. Pine, oak, teaberry, witch hazel, and mountain laurel now fill the gaps. The property also includes two tributaries to Bear Creek, a a feeder of the Lehigh River.

David J. Gustafson, director of the Game Commission’s Bureau of Wildlife Habitat Management, said the addition will allow the commission to expand conservation efforts in the area.

John Levitsky, 62, a descendant of the Perugino family that founded Pocono Drag Lodge, said the venue was developed when drag racing was at a peak. The track closed, he said, after Hurricane Agnes flooded the area in late June and early July 1972, one of the worse hurricanes on record at the time. Then, the Peruginos had full-time jobs as contractors. They not only had to tend to their own flooded property, but were busy renovating others as a result of the storm.

The family never reopened the track and began using it as a getaway.

“It become became a place to hunt, blueberry pick, and mushroom pick,” said Levitsky, a biologist with the Luzerne Conservation District, a local government agency responsible for soil and water conservation.

Levitsky’s mother owned the land with other family members until the sale to Natural Lands, which received the $692,000 for the purchase from the Game Commission, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, and the Open Space Institute.

Levitsky, who was not an owner, said Natural Lands approached the family about preserving the property. He thought it a good fit.

Once, he said, the Poconos seemed filled with endless woods. Now, there’s a housing development next to the old drag strip property, he said, and more and more land is being developed. The family thought it was a good time to ensure the land remained open space.

“It’s a beautiful piece of land,” Levitsky said. “I’m thrilled that it’s going to be game lands. The Game Commission is a very good steward of property.”

The sale formally ended, however, a slice of Poconos history.

Levitsky, who worked at the track as youth, said races were held on Sundays from June through September on the National Hot Rod Association sanctioned drag strip. At one point, the family opened the track to local racers on weeknights in an effort to keep illegal drag races off the streets.

Pocono Drag Lodge became a premier drag track for the region, hosting famed drivers such as Arnie Beswick, the duo Ronnie Sox and Buddy Martin, Red Lang, and Butch Leal. The opening of the drag racing season often made local newspapers.

The Peruginos hosted events other than drag racing, such as demolition derbies and a jet car. A news account from 1966 boasted that a Corvair pickup truck would be on hand to wow an opening day crowd with long wheel stands.

A 2009 reunion organized by a lodge fan Charlie Hulsizer drew 3,000 people to the strip. Fans continue to post to Facebook pages devoted to the Pocono Drag Lodge.

“Five-time top fuel dragster racer Joe Amato cut his teeth at the lodge,” Hulsizer recalled in an email. “He was a huge competitor at the lodge.”

Hulsizer, who organized the reunions from 2009 to 2016 and hosts two of the Facebook pages, has fond memories of the track and said he’s glad to see the land being preserved.