Benton had a dump once, Bob Sands remembers from his youthful days, south of Benton on the West side of Fishing Creek. Open dumps are places where garbage is piled in open air, using up valuable land, attracting rats, harming the environment, and they frequently smell less than wonderful. That dump went away a long time ago partly as a result of a bad flood in 1924. In fact, that flood was so bad that Dayne Kline and others had to be rescued by boat from what used to be called the "Raymond Baker" house. There is no record of that dump today, just as people always forget things like dumps.
There are only four basic ways to handle garbage: dump it, bury it, burn it, or recycle it. For many years, the area dumped it. The residents of Benton and surrounding areas later started throwing their trash over the bank at the top of the Dug Hill.
The folks over at the Environmental Resources Department fussed about the environmental problem and decreed that the dumping of trash at the top end of the Dug Hill, near the present Benton Township building, had to stop.
as the landfill slowly becomes a lookout. The year is 1972.
The trash had to be covered according to specifications someone in Harrisburg wrote, and heavy bulldozers began moving tons of shale and soil over the sides of the Benton Dump preliminary to the final closing of the facility.
Tons of cover material had been stockpiled during the construction of Route 487 into the south end of Benton in anticipation of covering up the unsightly mess.
Local pilots quickly found a new guide to the Benton airport. They had used the dump and other landmarks for years as a guide into the local field's landing pattern, using the ever-present trail of smoke.
In August of 1972, the year of a bad flood in Benton, about two-thirds of the dumping area was closed to dumping of waste. The intent was that a ledge would be built across the face of the dump well below the present dump area to retain as much of the refuse as possible near the top until it was closed.
State requirements called for a two-foot covering down the sides and a planting of a quick growing and spreading type of plant to keep the earth from eroding off the debris it covers. Several neighboring municipalities shared in the operation of the dump and sent equipment and operators to help haul shale, gravel and ground to the site for use in the cover work.
The cost of covering the dump cost several thousands of dollars to complete the work to the state environmental resources department's specifications, but the work was complete about the end of 1972.
View of Benton from the Dug Hill, near the lookout
A scenic lookout now occupies the "top of the Dug," where the dump used to be. From this vantage point, you can get a good look at the town of Benton. This land, owned by the Follmer Family for many years, provides a wonderful panorama of the Fishing Creek valley.
