The Kishacoquillas Valley, known locally as both Kish Valley and Big Valley, is an enclosed anticlinal

Anticline

In structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is convex up and has its oldest beds at its core. The term is not to be confused with antiform, which is a purely descriptive term for any fold that is convex up. Therefore if age relationships In structural geology, an anticline is a fold that is...

 valley in the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians

Ridge-and-valley Appalachians

The Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians, also called the Ridge and Valley Province or the Valley and Ridge Appalachians, are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division and are also a belt within the Appalachian Mountains extending from southeastern New York through northwestern New...

 of Central Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, lying between Stone Mountain

Stone Mountain (Pennsylvania)

Stone Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States, trending northwest of the Jacks Mountain ridge and Jacks Mountain Anticline. The ridge line separates Kishacoquillas Valley from the Seven Mountains area...

 ridge to the north and Jacks Mountain

Jacks Mountain

Jacks Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States, trending southeast of the Stone Mountain ridge and Jacks Mountain Anticline. The ridge line separates Kishacoquillas Valley from the Ferguson and Dry Valleys...

 ridge to the south. The valley is located in Mifflin County

Mifflin County, Pennsylvania

Mifflin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of 2010, the population was 46,682. Its county seat is Lewistown. It is named after Thomas Mifflin, the first Governor of Pennsylvania.-Geography:...

 and Huntingdon County

Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania

Huntingdon County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. In 2010, its population was 45,913.Huntingdon County was created on September 20, 1787, from part of Bedford County. Its county seat is Huntingdon.-Geography:According to the U.S...

. Many Amish

Amish

The Amish , sometimes referred to as Amish Mennonites, are a group of Christian church fellowships that form a subgroup of the Mennonite churches...

 and Mennonite

Mennonite

The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...

 people also live in the valley. Kishacoquillas Valley is home to the Nebraska Amish

Nebraska Amish

The Nebraska Amish are perhaps the most conservative group of Old Order Amish, descendants of the Anabaptists and Mennonites.The present Nebraska Amish districts are found in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, with small extensions into Centre, Huntingdon, and Union counties. The Amish came into this...

, one of the most conservative Amish groups. The valley drains via the Kishacoquillas Creek

Kishacoquillas Creek

Kishacoquillas Creek is a tributary of the Juniata River in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, in the United States.Kishacoquillas Creek drains the Kishacoquillas Valley, running along the foot of the Jacks Mountain ridge where it intersects with Honey Creek before passing through the Mann Narrows...

 through the Mann Narrows water gap

Water gap

A water gap is an opening or notch which flowing water has carved through a mountain range. Water gaps often offer a practical route for road and rail transport to cross mountain ridges.- Geology :...

 in Jacks Mountain to the Juniata River

Juniata River

The Juniata River is a tributary of the Susquehanna River, approximately long, in central Pennsylvania in the United States. The river is considered scenic along much of its route, having a broad and shallow course passing through several mountain ridges and steeply-lined water gaps...

. U.S. Route 322

U.S. Route 322

U.S. Route 322 is a long, east–west United States Highway, traversing Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The road is a spur of U.S. Route 22 and one of the original highways from 1926...

 follows the creek though the gap, and is the main travel route across the valley, running from Harrisburg

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

Harrisburg is the capital of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 49,528, making it the ninth largest city in Pennsylvania...

 to State College

State College, Pennsylvania

State College is the largest borough in Centre County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the principal city of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of Centre County. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 42,034, and roughly double...

. The Mifflin County Airport

Mifflin County Airport

Mifflin County Airport is a public-use airport in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in Reedsville, northwest of Lewistown. The airport lies in the Kishacoquillas Valley, south of Stone Mountain and north of Jacks Mountain in the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. It is owned...

 also lies in the valley.

Kishacoquillas Valley has many similarities to the Lancaster

Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...

 region. Like Lancaster, many Amish people reside in the valley. Accents identical to those heard in the Lancaster region are also frequently heard in the valley.

Principal towns

• Belleville
  Belleville, Pennsylvania
  Belleville is a census-designated place in the Kishacoquillas Valley of Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,386 at the 2000 census.-General information:*ZIP Code: 17004*Area Code: 717*Local Phone Exchange: 935...
  
  
• Milroy
  Milroy, Pennsylvania
  Milroy is a census-designated place in the Kishacoquillas Valley of Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,386 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Milroy is located at ....
  
  
• Reedsville
  Reedsville, Pennsylvania
  Reedsville is a census-designated place in the Kishacoquillas Valley of Mifflin County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 858 at the 2000 census...
  
  
• Barrville
• Allensville
• Airydale

History

John Armstrong named the Valley in 1759 after a friendly Shawnee

Shawnee

The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...

 chief. His Indian name translates to "The snakes are already in their dens."http://kishvalley.com/

Joseph Yoder

Joseph Yoder

Joseph Yoder was an educator, musicologist, and writer, the first successful Mennonite literary figure in the United States, especially known for his semi-fictional account of his mother's life, Rosanna of the Amish , and for his investigation of the sources of the Amish tunes of the Ausbund,...

portrays the late nineteenth-century Valley in his semi-autobiographical Rosanna of the Amish (1940).

External links

• Kishacoquillas Valley Historical Society
• Kishacoquillas Valley R.R. historical site