In 1942, while standing atop Dunbar's Knob and looking out from the mountaintop, Rev. Will Hogg conceived the idea of a giant cross rising from the peak of Chestnut Ridge. Though he feared the dream was too large to propose, it was warmly accepted, a Cross Committee was formed, and children and youth of the conference were invited to contribute a dime to have their names placed in the foundation, helping raise nearly $9,000. Work began on a concrete foundation anchored into the mountain rock, and on a windy day in September 1949 Hogg placed a box into the foundation representing the faith and prayers of those who loved the Lord there. The structure was secured with 183 tons of concrete, its main shaft weighed about 47,000 pounds, its arms stretched 33 feet, and its internal bracing was hidden within a clean-cut steel surface designed to withstand 100-mile-per-hour winds and the torsion of a whirlwind. Its steel plate surface, nearly half an inch thick, was originally coated with Gilsonite and white mica. The Cross of Christ on Dunbar's Knob was dedicated on September 9, 1950, in a celebration attended by an estimated 6,000 people. Two years later, after seeing slides of the cross in the clouds and at sunset, and of young people kneeling at its foot to receive Holy Communion, Mr. Steiner offered to pay the entire $24,000 cost of erecting it, and with the Cross Fund his gift covered the cross, its foundation and floodlights, and the resurfacing of the road to the mountaintop. The cross came to stand at Jumonville as its spiritual symbol and as a witness to Christian instruction and worship.
