Posted on August 25, 2025
DEER LAKE — Dredging of a man-made lake in the Pine Creek basin, begun about 10 months ago, will not be complete for another year, a borough official reported.
“The project was held up by this spring’s unusually wet weather, but the recent hot temperatures have ‘baked the lake’ and made ideal conditions for desilting,” said David Crouse, Deer Lake borough council president.
Crouse posted an update to the dredging of Deer Lake, the 102-year-old body of water that shares the borough’s name, recently on Facebook.
At the dredging site, where a giant excavator ate into 17 years of sediment exposed by draining the lake, Crouse talked about the $1 million-plus project.
Guers Topsoil & Mulch Products removed an estimated 50,000 cubic yards of sediment, and in addition, the project involves extensive work to the gates at the dam’s breast.
The main sluice gates will be sandblasted and powder coated, and damaged trash cages welded together. The surface of the spillway is being reconditioned, the hand-operated system of controlling the dam’s gates is being automated and security fencing installed.
Doug Eckert with Guers Topsoil & Mulch Products and Deer Lake Council President David Crouse look out on the water at Deer Lake Pond, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025.
In a separate project, a silt basin near a bridge at the upper end of the lake channel will be torn out and replaced, Crouse said.
Water sits in a silt basin at Deer Lake Pond, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025.
Deer Lake, which covers about 14 acres, needs dredging about every 20 years, Crouse said. It was dredged in 1986 and 2007.
Though the reason is not entirely clear, it reached the dredging phase about three years earlier in the current phase.
Storied history
Deer Lake in the Pines was a project of Biever Realty Company in the early 1920s, Crouse said.
Pottsville Construction Company built cottages for well-to-do coal barons who spent summers at the southern Schuylkill County resort.
Among the amenities was the Deer Lake Playhouse, a summer theater that drew vaudeville headliners and actors on their way up.
Future Academy Award-winning actress Celeste Holm starred in “The Night of January 16” at the playhouse’s opening in 1936.
At one point, Crouse said, the park around the lake had a roller coaster.
Originally part of West Brunswick Twp., Deer Lake incorporated as a borough in 1936, Crouse said.
Located at the southern gateway to Schuylkill County, Deer Lake has 670 residents, according to the 2020 census.
Muhammad Ali began training at Pollack’s Mink Farm in Deer Lake, prior to building a training camp in the township in 1972. It is now Fighter’s Heaven, a historic site dedicated to the fighter’s memory.
Clean fill
What will happen to the estimated 75,000 tons of sediment removed from the lake’s bed?
Doug Eckert, Guers’ operations manager on the project, said it will be available for landscaping and fill at construction sites.
Doug Eckert with Guers Topsoil & Mulch Products scoops dirt with an excavator at Deer Lake Pond, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025.
Doug Eckert with Guers Topsoil & Mulch Products scoops dirt with an excavator at Deer Lake Pond, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025.
Some of it will be transported to Guers’ facility near New Philadelphia, where nutrients will be added to make it usable for landscaping.
Contractors can pick it up at the dredging site, if need be.
For information, call Guers at 570-277-0332.
