Alvira

Overview

The village the war took

Alvira began in 1825 as Wisetown, a farming community in the White Deer Valley of Union County, a few miles south of Williamsport. By 1900 it had about 100 people, a blacksmith shop, a school, a post office, several shops and three churches. It was about the same size in 1942, when the war came for it.

That spring the federal government took about 8,500 acres by eminent domain for a TNT plant and munitions depot: 163 farms and 47 other properties in Gregg Township and three Lycoming County townships. Families were told they could buy their land back after the war. Almost every building was razed instead. Some 10,000 workers built more than 200 buildings and 149 concrete storage bunkers, designed to blow upward rather than outward. Wikipedia calls the plant the Susquehanna Ordnance Depot; other accounts call it the Pennsylvania Ordnance Works. The army needed far less TNT than planned, and the plant shut down within about a year. By 1945 only guards were left.

The land never went back to the families. In 1950 the Bureau of Prisons got 4,000 acres, now the Allenwood federal prison complex, and a golf course took another piece. The remaining 3,018 acres became State Game Lands 252. Alvira's cemeteries and foundations are there, among the numbered bunkers.

Video

Sealed doors and an open bunker

A YouTuber and a friend walk the game lands on a bright day before the leaves are out: moss-covered foundations and stone steps of the old village, graffiti-covered bunkers along the road with dirt piled against their doors, the gated roads now closed to cars, an open bunker deeper in the woods, a pond, the cemeteries with old and newer headstones, and a large house foundation with its doorway. They try the door of one sealed bunker before moving on; leave the sealed ones alone. The figure of 150 displaced families is the creator's own.

Play “GHOST TOWN of ALVIRA: Bunkers, Ruins & Lost History” from YouTube

Timeline

Farm village, ordnance works, game lands

1. 1825The settlement is founded as Wisetown in Gregg Township, Union County.
2. 1900Alvira has about 100 people, a blacksmith shop, a school, a post office, several shops and three churches.
3. Spring 1942The federal government takes about 8,500 acres by eminent domain for a TNT plant and munitions depot: 163 farms and 47 other properties in Union and Lycoming counties. Almost every building is razed, Alvira with them.
4. 1942–1943About 10,000 people build the plant, with more than 200 buildings and 149 concrete storage bunkers. TNT demand runs far below the estimate, and the plant closes within a year, by one account.
5. 1945Only guards remain. The Army later uses the land for testing.
6. 1950The Federal Bureau of Prisons gets 4,000 acres, including the plant site. Prisoners arrive in 1952, and the Allenwood Prison Camp opens in 1957.
7. LaterLand north of the creek becomes the White Deer Golf Course, and the remaining 3,018 acres become State Game Lands 252.
8. 2019A travel writer reports walking the game lands, finds open bunkers, a cemetery by the road and the old Alvira Cemetery at the end of Alvira Road.
9. May 2025A visitor reports the doors of the first three bunkers blocked with dirt.

What's left

What you'll see

Start at the parking lot on Alvira Road, beside bunker No. 1. Two gated dirt roads lead into the game lands from there; the right one reaches bunkers sooner. The bunkers are numbered and many are covered in graffiti, and several stand right beside Alvira Road, so you can see some without leaving the car. In 2019 a few were open. In May 2025 a visitor found the first three with their doors blocked by dirt.

Follow Alvira Road southeast for about 1.5 miles. It passes more bunkers and a small cemetery and ends at a gate; the land beyond belongs to the Allenwood federal prison. Just before the gate a trail leads left to the old Alvira Cemetery, still tended, though some stones are toppled and others hard to read. Another account describes two cemeteries with church foundations: the Washington Presbyterian church site just north of the prison fence, and the Alvira Cemetery about a quarter mile north on Alvira Road. Wikipedia adds that the Stone Church, northeast of the village on the old maps, still stands.

The maps tell the story. The 1924 Milton sheet shows Alvira as a string of houses on the state highway through the White Deer Valley, with the Stone Church to the northeast and schools scattered across the farms. By 1953 the same ground is a U.S. Military Reservation laid out in a grid of roads. The 1965 sheet labels it State Game Lands, with rows of storage huts and the cemeteries beside the road.

• Numbered concrete bunkers of the 1942 depot (149 built)
• Small cemetery along Alvira Road
• Old Alvira Cemetery, by trail near the end of Alvira Road
• Church and house foundations
• Stone Church, northeast of the old village

Historic maps

Alvira on USGS maps, 1924–1994

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

19241:62,50019531:62,50019651:24,00019841:100,00019941:24,000

Map & directions

Getting there

Williamsport is the nearest city. Take PA 554 south to Elimsport Road and Alvira Road. From Harrisburg, follow US 11 and US 15 north up the Susquehanna, then PA 44.

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

Directions go to the bunker parking lot on Alvira Road, where the drive ends, not to the townsite.

Photos

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Visitor reports

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Nearby

Other sites near Alvira

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Pennsylvania index.

• Masten26.7 mi N · Lycoming
• Celestia29.9 mi NE · Sullivan
• Ingleby32.0 mi SW · Centre
• Alaska36.3 mi SE · Northumberland
• Fallbrook37.5 mi N · Tioga
• Laquin37.9 mi NE · Bradford
• Centralia39.3 mi SE · Columbia
• Ricketts39.4 mi NE · Sullivan

Sources

Sources and credits

1. Wikipedia, "White Deer Hole Creek", retrieved October 2026, section "Ordnance plant to federal prison and game lands": Wisetown founded 1825, 100 people by 1900, the 1942 evictions (163 farms and 47 other properties, 8,500 acres), the razing, the Susquehanna Ordnance Depot ($50 million, 10,000 builders, over 200 buildings, 149 bunkers), only guards by 1945, the 1950 prison transfer, 1952 and 1957, the golf course, the 3,018 acres of State Game Lands 252, the Stone Church and cemeteries.
2. Wikipedia, "List of ghost towns in Pennsylvania": Alvira (Wisetown), Union County, Gregg Township.
3. ghosttowns.com, "Alvira": the farming community, its blacksmith shop, school, post office, shops and three churches, the promise of repurchase, bunkers built to blow upward, the cemeteries and church foundations (the Washington Presbyterian site north of the prison fence and the Alvira Cemetery a quarter mile north), the road, climate and best time.
4. Jim Cheney, "Exploring the Abandoned Alvira Bunkers from World War 2," Uncovering PA, May 22, 2019, updated April 10, 2023: about 100 residents in 1942, the parking lot and its coordinates, bunker No. 1, the gated roads, numbered and graffitied bunkers, open bunkers, closed areas, orange, the road to the prison gate and the old Alvira Cemetery. Reader comments of August 25, 2022 (navigation into prison roads; PA 44 and Mill Road) and May 23, 2025 (bunker doors blocked with dirt).
5. Rusty Glessner, PA Bucket List, "The 19 Spookiest-Sounding Places in Pennsylvania": the 1942 eminent-domain sale, the plant shut down less than a year after opening, 149 bunkers, the cemetery on SGL 252.
6. USGS GNIS via TopoQuest, "Alvira (historical)": the populated-place point in Union County.
7. Historic maps: USGS Milton 1:62,500 (1924, 1953), Montoursville South 1:24,000 (1965, 1994) and Williamsport East 1:100,000 (1984). Current topographic map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map.
8. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.
9. Jennsylvania, "GHOST TOWN of ALVIRA: Bunkers, Ruins & Lost History", YouTube, posted April 9, 2026: the bunkers by the road sealed with dirt, an open bunker deeper in the woods, the cemeteries and foundations (the video on this page, and a status source for what it shows); checked against its captions and storyboard frames.

Photo and map credits

• Top photo: Ruhrfisch, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
• Topo map, area base map and aerial imagery: USGS The National Map (public domain).
• Historic maps: USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (public domain): Milton 1924, 1:62,500; Milton 1953, 1:62,500; Montoursville South 1965, 1:24,000; Williamsport East 1984, 1:100,000; Montoursville South 1994, 1:24,000.