When Marci Lynn McGuinness was a child her grandmother, Laura (Nanny) Marietta ran the Ohiopyle Hotel. Week ends and summers were spent swimming in the river and enjoying "Nanny’s" home baked rolls, orange cookies, and hand rolled noodles. Life was good. This was during the late fifties and early sixties-a time when the first transactions that born Ohiopyle State Park were taking place.

In 1991 McGuinness and her daughters moved into Nanny’s old house on Grant Street in Ohiopyle. Nanny had passed away, but left behind a love of Ohiopyle and family that McGuinness carries on. McGuinness had written several books by now and was looking for a new project when her cousin Charlotte Fosbrink prompted her to put together a cook book of Nanny’s scrumptious recipes. Nanny’s Kitchen Cookbook was published with several pages of old photographs found in Nanny’s box of pictures. (Nanny was a shutter bug). This nostalgia touched the hearts of many locals who began offering McGuinness the use of their vintage photos of the area for future projects. The Yesteryear series of calendars, books, videos, and newspapers began.

Yesteryear Pictorial Calendars included fourteen photos and a detailed town history. Books, Yesteryear in Ohiopyle, Volume I, Yesteryear in Ohiopyle, Volume II, Yesteryear in Masontown, and Yesteryear in Smithfield & Point Marion had over two hundred priceless photographs in addition to histories, stories, and poems. Yesteryear at the Uniontown Speedway 1916-1922, her first hard back, was leather bound with high gloss paper. The famous board track was depicted through over one hundred photos and detailed stories about each race. Prior Summit Mountain Hill Climbs, and later Uniontown Speedways were also chronicled.

McGuinness filmed a video in conjunction with the Uniontown Public Library called Yesteryear in Ohiopyle-The Movie. A chronological history of the town is shown with old photos and McGuinness narrating at the famous Ohiopyle Falls.

So many people continued to contribute to McGuinness’ local history projects that she opened a small museum. As she collects more and more information and artifacts, this museum has become more of a storage place in waiting for more appropriate housing. At present, McGuinness takes her museum collection into schools and speaks on local history showing students the way things were before MTV and the Internet. The prolific author also speaks to clubs and organizations on colorful local characters, Ohiopyle’s formidable history, and more.

Her most recent book came out July 1, 1998. Stone House Legends & Lore is a one hundred page history of the Stone House Restaurant & Inn on Route 40 in Chalk Hill, Pennsylvania. The National Registry listed building was built in 1811 by Congressman Andrew Stewart, who also developed Falls City-later becoming Ohiopyle. Stories of owners Stewart, George Titlow, and Fannie Ross take readers through time with chapters like, "Fannie Get Your Gun".

Along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from Cumberland to Uniontown by McGuinness is being published in Arcadia Publisher’s Images of America series this fall. This will be the first in a two volume set. The second will be Along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad from Connellsville to Pittsburgh.

A new upcoming guidebook series is now being developed for Ohiopyle travelers. McGuinness is also working on her second screenplay as she strives to sell the first, set in a town very much like our Ohiopyle paradise.