It’s a jewel that for 50-plus years I obviously overlooked, or never took advantage of.

Proverbially, right under my nose sits the Mauch Chunk Lake and its beautiful park, a place where through the years I cheated myself by not taking the advantage of it.

Built from 1972 until it formally opened in the summer of 1974, the facility is arguably the crown jewel of Carbon County, with its picturesque majesty and place where fishermen fish, walkers walk, swimmers swim and nature lovers love.

I was in my late teens when Agnes McCartney and Congressman Dan Flood envisioned the construction of the man-made reservoir by damming the White Bear Creek. The facility was aimed at serving two purposes, eliminating the continuing flooding that caused destruction on Broadway in nearby Jim Thorpe and providing a recreational facility for county residents and visitors, although the former entity, I think, deserves first preference with usage of the facility.

To say the project designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and built at a price tag of more than $3 million was a success is putting it mildly. The 50-foot-high dam certainly fulfilled its use many times in saving Jim Thorpe by holding back the floodwaters of the creek and the runoff of the adjoining mountainside.

Early on, when what had been Hurricane Agnes pounded our region in 1972 and brought with it a reported 18 inches of rain, the forward-thinking of Mrs. McCartney and Rep. Flood proved to be spot-on as Jim Thorpe survived what could have otherwise been a disaster.

But, as for its other use, Mauch Chunk Lake Park through the years became something to behold. Admittedly, I took the place for granted as county officials and parks directors (Dennis DeMara and Dave Horvath) continued to transform the place into one of the most beautiful recreational facilities in Northeast Pennsylvania.

Fifty-two years after it opened, I have to reveal that I for one missed the boat (no pun intended) and never took advantage of what Mauch Chunk Lake Park has to offer.

Oh, I do remember when I was in my early 20s, we (myself and colleagues) would once in awhile sit in the cove near the breast of the dam, throw a fish line with a bobber on it into the lake, light up a Swisher Sweet and, unbeknownst to authorities, break open a can on Schmidt’s in what were occasional pretentious fishing expeditions.

But that was the extent of my usage of the county park, and, after all these years, I have come to realize what I missed.

Just recently, as autumn brought out the splendor of colors on the mountainsides that sandwich the lake park property, my wife, Siobhan, and I took a walk along the trails there. It was picturesque.

As we walked the breast of the dam and observed the magnificent colors brought out in the trees, I couldn’t help but think what I was looking at was better than something out of a magazine.

I couldn’t help but to wonder how I had taken this great park for granted all these years. And it’s not just in the fall that its beauty shows. The facility offers everything one would want in passive recreation — walking, hiking, jogging, picnicking, bird-watching, nature study, fishing, boating, kayaking, canoeing, paddleboarding and even cross-country skiing, not that I’m a huge fan of some of those activities.

But I do know this: As we enter our eighth decade, we’ll surely put some of those activities on our schedules. And Mauch Chunk Lake Park will be the destination, but, of course, without the Schmidt’s.