Elon Musk turned this once-popular Pennsylvania tourist destination into a ghost town

Memorial Day traffic plummeted at one of Pennsylvania’s largest lakes thanks to Elon Musk and DOGE’s cuts to the US Army Corps of Engineers.

Raystown Lake, a popular tourist destination in Huntingdon County, and its surrounding area have become a ghost town thanks to cuts from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

The lake is the largest in Pennsylvania due  to a dam—controlled by the US Army Corps of Engineers—and it is one of the commonwealth’s most popular places for outdoor recreation such as camping, boating, hiking and hunting. 

Raystown Lake was created by a hydroelectric dam in 1973 to manage flooding in the Juniata and Susquehanna River valleys, according to Army Corps of Engineer records. It includes three campgrounds with over 380 campsites.

Axios reported in March that the Army Corps of Engineers, which operates under the US Department of Defense, closed hundreds of campgrounds and canceled reservations around the lake and other parts of the commonwealth due to spending cuts and hiring freezes initiated by Musk’s DOGE. 

Judy Norris, an 81-year old business owner, has owned a store on the lake for 49 years, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. She stated that her business was down to nearly half its normal traffic over Memorial Day weekend. 

“We’re way off, maybe 40 to 50% down,” Norris told the Inquirer. “This is Memorial Day weekend. You normally can’t move in here. The parking lot is usually jammed.”

Brian Patterson, owner of Backwoods Smoke Shack, described the scene around the lake as a “ghost town.” 

“Without this lake out here, we would just be a blimp on the map, it would be a ghost town, Huntington County would cease to exist. I think, personally, the whole county is going to be hurt bad by this if we don’t get these campgrounds open,” Patterson told WJAC. 

Over 1.2 million people visited Raystown Lake in 2023, and, according to Army Corps of Engineers data, visitors spent $62.7 million and generated $36.8 million in sales within 30 miles of the lake, and it supports close to 400 jobs within that area. 

“That’s hundreds of families not coming through here every weekend,” Patterson added. “This will put a hurting on us. If they don’t do anything soon, this summer is ruined.”