It has taken 25 years, but volunteers who have helped clean up the Stonycreek River said the state-wide honor made it all worth it. 

"This river was filthy at that time. You couldn't use it. There were, to my knowledge, no fish able to live in it." 

Linda Russell is a Johnstown native. She moved away in 1982 to Michigan before returning back home 4 1/2 years ago.

She said she can remember what the river used to look like. 

"I think it was, if I remember correctly, like a rusty, dirty color. You wouldn't want to swim in it. You wouldn't want to get near it."

"The Stonycreek River.. you could tell there was something wrong with it by the color (the orange-ness and redness,) which is the iron and the sediment that dropped out from the historic mining operations and abandoned mines that had historically polluted the water," SCRIP Chairman Len Lichvar.

Experts said when the coal and steel industry moved in, the river was uninhabitable. 25 years and $10 million later, the water has been treated and it's giving new life to the community.

"Unintentionally or unknowingly destroyed it," Howard Picking said.

"But this river on the Stonycreek and tributaries that have been resurrected and approved would not have occurred, were it not for public investment." 

The treatment systems only last about 20 years and is coming to the end of its lifespan.

It will take maintenance and more funding to keep the water clean, but after the recognition of being named Pennsylvania's River of the Year, the visitors will keep coming.

"We see that here today (Saturday) with this being a destination point, not just for local people but people from all over the country come here to recreate," SCRIP Chairman Len Lichvar.

"[It's something to be] proud of, absolutely. And the Quemahoning Dam really helps out when they open up the valves and the rapids come down. So I think it's a joint effort with everybody, the community pitching in and making it what it is," Russell said.