Noted Financier Jay Cooke Once Had Hunting Lodge in Larry’s Creek Area

Jay Cooke was one of the leading American financiers of the mid- to late-19th century. A railroad baron and speculator, he is regarded as “financier of the Civil War” for his role in helping to secure loans from leading bankers and other investors in funding the Union war effort.

After the war he financed the construction of the Northern Pacific Railway in the Pacific Northwest. He went bankrupt in the “Panic of 1873” but picked himself up off the financial floor and regained much of his wealth.

This financial mover and shaker also had a Lycoming County connection. In 1884 he built a hunting and fishing lodge on the first fork of Larry’s Creek, about 4 miles from Salladasburg. He called this place of peace and nature “Ogontz Lodge,” naming it for an Indian chief who lived in the area of his native Sandusky, Ohio.

It served as a country retreat for him and he would visit about three or four times a year, often hosting fishing and hunting outings, some with noted captains of industry of the time.

Large fires burned invitingly in the fireplace of Ogontz and such delicacies as pheasant, venison and fish would often grace the tables there, along with kegs of the finest wines and whiskey.

He would offer boys in the area 25 cents for every rattlesnake they killed on his estate and perhaps hundreds of them were presented to him for payment.

In the winter 1992 issue of the Lycoming County Historical Society Journal, Jacob Metzger published a reminiscence from 1964 that looks back of the halcyon days at Ogontz.

He described all of the rooms at the lodge as being finished with pine—no plaster. The kitchen was large with a pine floor and equipped with a wood burning range at which Metzger’s uncle used to do the cooking. It had a well-stocked kitchen that was about 8 feet by 30 feet. The bathroom was 20 by 20 feet with a large ceiling and wood burning stove for heat.

The den, where guests went after dinner to play cards and engage in lively conversation and other diversions, was graced by a large Persian rug. Cooke could often be seen in his chair wearing his large, broad-brimmed hat presiding over some of these activities.

Not far from the lodge was dug into the side of a hill a cave with stone walls and a floor, about 18 feet by 12 feet. It was here that a large ice box was kept that held about one half ton of ice. Fish and other perishables were kept there.

On the grounds of the lodge was a large tank for raising trout that could be used to stock streams for the guests’ fishing enjoyment. Water was pumped into the tank from a nearby run.

After Cooke’s death in 1905 the Ogontz Lodge was acquired by whiskey distilling magnate Hays Carstairs, Cooke’s grandson, Jay Cooke III, and Horace Harding. Later it was owned by Laura and Barclay Harding, who were friends of legendary actress Katherine Hepburn, who stayed at the lodge on several occasions. President Herbert Hoover and Theodore Roosevelt Jr. also were guests at the lodge at various times.

The Ogontz Lodge has certainly had an interesting history with many interesting and notable persons having graced it and it is one of Lycoming County’s little known landmarks.