Fifteen years ago, the Wildlife Information Center decided it needed a new home and a new name.

After checking several pieces of land, Grant White and others of the Center’s board of directors decided it made sense to buy the mountain in Lehigh Gap, outside Slatington.

They had ideas how the land could be made alive again after the devastation from chemicals released by the New Jersey Zinc Company.

And as they visited the site, an osprey flew along the Lehigh River. That gave them the name for the building - the Osprey House - that would have offices and the beginnings of educational materials at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center.

On Aug. 18, Program specialists Chad Schwartz and Brian Birchak provided a documentary of the past 15 years, which actually included many years before that.

There was another special event for the day.

Photographer Lynn Shupp had received permission to go with her husband and take pictures of the West Plant of New Jersey Zinc Company.

On the last day of their photo shoots they were allowed to take artifacts off the property.

Husband Marty Wambold made a video while she took still photos.

Shupp said Palmerton is dear to her heart as her grandfathers worked at the Zinc Company.

“Why are we here?” Schwartz asked.

“To eat ice cream,” came one reply.

But the ice cream and cookies were only a small part of the celebration.

“The main purpose is to celebrate the phenomenal job that has been done in the 15 years,” Schwartz said.

Birchak said the opening of the Lehigh Gap Nature Center helped people to return to nature.

“We depend on you for support,” Schwartz said.

“We have an update on what we’ve done,” Birchak said.

“The West Plant will soon be out of mind,” Schwartz said. “Shupp’s photos will keep it in mind.”

The film they showed as they bantered back and forth is what they use for groups on field trips.

“It’s the only place in the country where a nature center is built on a Superfund site, but we’ll be just as happy if another one comes along,” Schwartz said.

Lehigh Gap Nature Center Director Dan Kunkle received the Excellence in Site Reuse Award from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2014, during the inaugural presentation of the award.

“We’ll go back in time,” Schwartz said.

The first color picture of the Lehigh Gap is from 1846. It was one of five gaps used as transportation corridors with the canal, rail lines and the chain bridge.

At that time, Native Americans had already been there for 13,000 years.

In 1898, New Jersey Zinc Company came to Palmerton. A picture from 1950 was shown.

The zinc was melted and poured into molds. The chemical pollution caused degradation on the mountain.

Kunkle has always been quick to say there was no way the company could prevent the pollution at that time.

“It just fell out of the sky and people thought it would be that way forever,” he said.

The company treated its employees well and was way ahead of its time as it built the town of Palmerton.

By 2002, the mountain looked like Mars even though by then 99.5 percent of what came out of the smokestacks could be recaptured.

The Gap provided a natural funnel to carry the pollution to the mountain. Trees died without decaying because of the heavy metals in the soil leaving only skeletal remains. The soil washed away.

In a short time, with the planting of native grasses and the use of lime, compost and fertilizer the green returned. The top of the mountain was planted using a crop duster..

“We were told it wouldn’t work but it did,” Schwartz said.

Wildlife and people soon returned to the mountain.

Kunkle took over and thanked the many people who contributed to the effort and had faith in it: Peter Kern, Diane Husic, EPA and New Jersey Zinc, which worked together, Anita Collins, Jose Reyes from the Color of Nature program, citizen scientists, gardeners, Allentown Hiking Club, which designed and cares for trails, Jim Gabovitz, Barbara Wiemann, Jane Borbe, Marilyn Jordan, foundation, Times News/Northwestern Press newspapers, Ed Wanamaker and Bob Hoppes.

Schwartz said 10,000 students came to the center. Many of the volunteers who help with the programs are retired teachers who also help design the programs.

There is a laboratory downstairs and there are programs for preschool to graduate students.

“The library is one of the best if not the best conservation library in the country,” he said.