Lock Haven, Pennsylvania
Encyclopedia
The city of Lock Haven is the county seat
of Clinton County
, in the U.S. state
of Pennsylvania
. Located near the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River
and Bald Eagle Creek
, it is the principal city of the Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, micropolitan statistical area
, itself part of the Williamsport
–Lock Haven combined statistical area
. At the 2000 census, Lock Haven's population was 9,149.
Built on a site long favored by pre-European peoples, Lock Haven began in 1833 as a timber town and a haven for loggers, boatmen, and other travelers on the river or the West Branch Canal
. Resource extraction and efficient transportation financed much of the city's growth through the end of the 19th century. In the 20th century, a light-aircraft
factory, a college, and a paper mill, along with many smaller enterprises, drove the economy. Frequent floods, especially in 1972, damaged local industry and led to a high rate of unemployment in the 1980s.
The city has three sites on the National Register of Historic Places
—Memorial Park Site
, a significant pre-European archaeological find; Heisey House
, a Victorian-era
museum; and Water Street District
, an area with a mix of 19th- and 20th-century architecture. A levee
, completed in 1995, protects the city from further flooding. While industry remains important to the city, about a third of Lock Haven's workforce is employed in education, health care, or social services.
and 8000 BCE, when the glaciers of the Pleistocene Ice Age
were receding. Fluted point spearheads from this era, known as the Paleo-Indian Period, have been found in most parts of the state. Archeological discoveries at the Memorial Park Site 36Cn164
near the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Creek collectively span about 8,000 years and represent every major prehistoric period from the Middle Archaic to the Late Woodland period. Prehistoric cultural periods over that span included the Middle Archaic starting at 6500 BCE; the Late Archaic starting at 3000 BCE; the Early Woodland starting at 1000 BCE; the Middle Woodland starting at 0 CE; and the Late Woodland starting at 900 CE. First contact with Europeans occurred in Pennsylvania between 1500 and 1600 CE.
, headquartered in New York, ruled the Indian (Native American) tribes of Pennsylvania, including those who lived near what would become Lock Haven. Indian settlements in the area included three Munsee
villages on the 325 acres (1.3 km²) Great Island in the West Branch Susquehanna River at the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek. Four Indian trails, the Great Island Path
, the Great Shamokin Path
, the Bald Eagle Creek Path
, and the Sinnemahoning Path
, crossed the island, and a fifth, Logan's Path
, met Bald Eagle Creek Path a few miles upstream near the mouth of Fishing Creek
. During the French and Indian War
(1754–63), colonial militiamen on the Kittanning Expedition
destroyed Munsee property on the Great Island and along the West Branch. By 1763, the Munsee had abandoned their island villages and other villages in the area.
With the signing of the first Treaty of Fort Stanwix
in 1768, the British gained control from the Iroquois of lands south of the West Branch. However, white settlers continued to appropriate land, including tracts in and near the future site of Lock Haven, not covered by the treaty. In 1769, Cleary Campbell, the first white settler in the area, built a log cabin near the present site of Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania
, and by 1773 William Reed, another settler, had built a cabin surrounded by a stockade and called it Reed's Fort. It was the westernmost of 11 mostly primitive forts along the West Branch; Fort Augusta
, at what is now Sunbury
, was the easternmost and most defensible. In response to settler incursions, and encouraged by the British during the American Revolution
(1775–83), Indians attacked colonists and their settlements along the West Branch. Fort Reed and the other white settlements in the area were temporarily abandoned in 1778 during a general evacuation known as the Big Runaway
. Hundreds of people fled along the river to Fort Augusta, about 50 miles (80 km) from Fort Reed; some did not return for five years. In 1784, the second Treaty of Fort Stanwix
, between the Iroquois and the United States, transferred most of the remaining Indian territory in Pennsylvania, including what would become Lock Haven, to the state. The U.S. acquired the last remaining tract, the Erie Triangle
, through a separate treaty and sold it to Pennsylvania in 1792.
and Centre
counties. Incorporated as a borough
in 1840 and as a city in 1870, Lock Haven prospered in the 19th century largely because of timber and transportation. The forests of Clinton County and counties upriver held a huge supply of white pine and hemlock as well as oak, ash, maple, poplar, cherry, beech, and magnolia. The wood was used locally for such things as frame houses, shingles, canal boats, and wooden bridges, and whole logs were floated to Chesapeake Bay
and on to Baltimore
, to make spar
s for ships. Log driving
and log rafting
, competing forms of transporting logs to sawmill
s, began along the West Branch around 1800. By 1830, slightly before the founding of the town, the lumber industry was well established.
The West Branch Canal
, which opened in 1834, ran 73 miles (117 km) from Northumberland
to Farrandsville, about 5 miles (8 km) upstream from Lock Haven. A state-funded extension called the Bald Eagle Cut ran from the West Branch through Lock Haven and Flemington
to Bald Eagle Creek. A privately-funded extension, the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation
, eventually reached Bellefonte
, 24 miles (39 km) upstream. Lock Haven's founder, Jeremiah Church, and his brother, Willard, chose the town site in 1833 partly because of the river, the creek, and the canal. Church named the town Lock Haven because it had a canal lock
and because it was a haven for loggers, boatmen, and other travelers. Over the next quarter century, canal boats 12 feet (4 m) wide and 80 feet (24 m) long carried passengers and mail as well as cargo such as coal, ashes for lye and soap, firewood, food, furniture, dry goods, and clothing. A rapid increase in Lock Haven's population (to 830 by 1850) followed the opening of the canal.
A Lock Haven log boom
, smaller than but otherwise similar to the Susquehanna Boom
at Williamsport, was constructed in 1849. Large cribs of timbers weighted with tons of stone were arranged in the pool behind the Dunnstown
Dam, named for a settlement on the shore opposite Lock Haven. The piers, about 150 feet (46 m) from one another, stretched in a line from the dam to a point 3 miles (5 km) upriver. Connected by timbers shackled together with iron yokes and rings, the piers anchored an enclosure into which the river current forced floating logs. Workers called boom rats sorted the captured logs, branded like cattle, for delivery to sawmills and other owners. Lock Haven became the lumber center of Clinton County and the site of many businesses related to forest products.
The Sunbury and Erie Railroad
, re-named the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad in 1861, reached Lock Haven in 1859, and with it came a building boom. Hoping that the area's coal, iron ore, white pine, and high-quality clay would produce significant future wealth, railroad investors led by Christopher and John Fallon financed a line to Lock Haven. On the strength of the railroad's potential value to the city, local residents had invested heavily in housing, building large homes between 1854 and 1856. Although the Fallons' coal and iron ventures failed, Gothic Revival
, Greek Revival
, and Italianate
mansions and commercial buildings such as the Fallon House, a large hotel, remained, and the railroad provided a new mode of transport for the ongoing timber era. A second rail line, the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad
, originally organized as the Tyrone and Lock Haven Railroad and completed in the 1860s, linked Lock Haven to Tyrone
, 56 miles (90 km) to the southwest. The two rail lines soon became part of the network controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad
.
During the era of log floating, logjams sometimes occurred when logs struck an obstacle. Log rafts floating down the West Branch had to pass through chutes in canal dams. The rafts were commonly 28 feet (9 m) wide—narrow enough to pass through the chutes—and 150 feet (46 m) to 200 feet (61 m) long. In 1874, a large raft got wedged in the chute of the Dunnstown Dam and caused a jam that blocked the channel from bank to bank with a pile of logs 16 feet (5 m) high. The jam eventually trapped another 200 log rafts, and 2 canal boats, The Mammoth of Newport and The Sarah Dunbar.
In terms of board feet
, the peak of the lumber era in Pennsylvania arrived in about 1885, when went through the boom at Williamsport. These logs produced a total of about (533,000 m3) of sawed lumber. After that, production steadily declined throughout the state. Lock Haven's timber business was also affected by flooding, which badly damaged the canals and destroyed the log boom in 1889.
The Central State Normal School, established to train teachers for central Pennsylvania, held its first classes in 1877 at a site overlooking the West Branch Susquehanna River. The small school, with enrollments below 150 until the 1940s, eventually became Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania. In the early 1880s, the New York and Pennsylvania Paper Mill in Castanea Township near Flemington began paper production on the site of a former sawmill; the paper mill
remained a large employer until the end of the 20th century.
As older forms of transportation such as the canal boat disappeared, new forms arose. One of these, the electric trolley
, began operation in Lock Haven in 1894. The Lock Haven Electric Railway, managed by the Lock Haven Traction Company and after 1900 by the Susquehanna Traction Company, ran passenger trolleys between Lock Haven and Mill Hall, about 3 miles (5 km) to the west. The trolley line extended from the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad
station in Lock Haven to a station of the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania, which served Mill Hall. The route went through Lock Haven's downtown, close to the Normal School, across town to the trolley car barn on the southwest edge of the city, through Flemington, over the Bald Eagle Canal and Bald Eagle Creek, and on to Mill Hall via what was then known as the Lock Haven, Bellefonte, and Nittany Valley
Turnpike. Plans to extend the line from Mill Hall to Salona, 3 miles (5 km) miles south of Mill Hall, and to Avis
10 miles (16 km) northeast of Lock Haven, were never carried out, and the line remained unconnected to other trolley lines. The system, always financially marginal, declined after World War I. Losing business to automobiles and buses, it ceased operations around 1930.
William T. Piper
, Sr., built the Piper Aircraft Corporation factory in Lock Haven in 1937 after the company's Taylor Aircraft manufacturing plant in Bradford, Pennsylvania
, was destroyed by fire. The factory began operations in a building that once housed a silk mill. As the company grew, the original factory expanded to include engineering and office buildings. Piper remained in the city until 1984, when its new owner, Lear-Siegler, moved production to Vero Beach, Florida
. The Clinton County Historical Society opened the Piper Aviation Museum at the site of the former factory in 1985, and 10 years later the museum became an independent organization.
The state of Pennsylvania acquired Central State Normal School in 1915 and renamed it Lock Haven State Teachers College in 1927. Between 1942 and 1970, the student population grew from 146 to more than 2,300; the number of teaching faculty rose from 25 to 170, and the college carried out a large building program. The school's name was changed to Lock Haven State College in 1960, and its emphasis shifted to include the humanities, fine arts, mathematics, and social sciences, as well as teacher education. Becoming Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania in 1983, it opened a branch campus in Clearfield
, 48 miles (77 km) west of Lock Haven, in 1989.
An 8 acres (3.2 ha) industrial area in Castanea Township adjacent to Lock Haven was placed on the National Priorities List of uncontrolled hazardous waste sites (commonly referred to as Superfund
sites) in 1982. Drake Chemical, which went bankrupt in 1981, made ingredients for pesticides and other compounds at the site from the 1960s to 1981. Starting in 1982, the United States Environmental Protection Agency
began a clean-up of contaminated containers, buildings, and soils at the site and by the late 1990s had replaced the soils. Equipment to treat contaminated groundwater at the site was installed in 2000 and continues to operate.
, on the main stem
of the Susquehanna about 120 miles (193 km) miles downstream from Lock Haven, occurred in 1784, 1865, 1889, 1894, 1902, 1936, and 1972. Readings from the Williamsport stream gauge
, 24 miles (39 km) miles below Lock Haven on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, showed major flooding between 1889 and 1972 in the same years as the Harrisburg station; in addition, a large flood occurred on the West Branch at Williamsport in 1946. Estimated flood-crest readings between 1847 and 1979—based on data from the National Weather Service
flood gauge at Lock Haven—show that flooding likely occurred in the city 19 times in 132 years. The biggest flood occurred on March 18, 1936, when the river crested at 32.3 feet (9.8 m), which was about 11 feet (3.4 m) above the flood stage of 21 feet (6.4 m).
The third biggest flood, cresting at 29.8 feet (9.1 m) in Lock Haven, occurred on June 1, 1889, and coincided with the Johnstown Flood
. The flood demolished Lock Haven's log boom
, and millions of feet of stored timber were swept away. The flood damaged the canals, which were subsequently abandoned, and destroyed the last of the canal boats based in the city.
The most damaging Lock Haven flood was caused by the remnants of Hurricane Agnes
in 1972. The storm, just below hurricane strength when it reached the region, made landfall on June 22 near New York City. Agnes merged with a non-tropical low on June 23, and the combined system affected the northeastern United States until June 25. The combination produced widespread rains of 6 to 12 in (152.4 to 304.8 mm) with local amounts up to 19 inches (483 mm) in western Schuylkill County
, about 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Lock Haven. At Lock Haven, the river crested on June 23 at 31.3 feet (9.5 m), second only to the 1936 crest. The flood greatly damaged the paper mill and Piper Aircraft.
Federal, state, and local governments began construction in 1992 of barriers to protect the city. The project included a levee of 36000 feet (10,973 m) and a flood wall
of 1000 feet (305 m) along the Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Creek, closure structures, retention basin
s, a pumping station
, and some relocation of roads and buildings. Completed in 1995, the levee protected the city from high water in the year of the Blizzard of 1996, and again 2004, when rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Ivan
threatened the city.
, the city has a total area of 2.7 square miles (7 km²), 2.5 square miles (6.5 km²) of which is land. About 0.2 square mile (0.517997622 km²), 6 percent, is water.
Lock Haven is at 561 feet (171 m) above sea level near the confluence of Bald Eagle Creek and the West Branch Susquehanna River in north-central Pennsylvania. The city is about 150 miles (241.4 km) northwest of Philadelphia and 140 miles (225.3 km) northeast of Pittsburgh. U.S. Route 220
, a major transportation corridor, skirts the city on its south edge, intersecting with Pennsylvania Route 120
, which passes through the city and connects it with Renovo
in northern Clinton County. Other highways entering Lock Haven include Pennsylvania Route 664
and Pennsylvania Route 150
, which connects to Avis
.
The city and nearby smaller communities—Castanea
,
Dunnstown, Flemington, and Mill Hall—are mainly at valley level in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians
, a mountain belt characterized by long even valleys running between long continuous ridges. Bald Eagle Mountain
, one of these ridges, runs parallel to Bald Eagle Creek on the south side of the city. Upstream of the confluence with Bald Eagle Creek, the West Branch Susquehanna River drains part of the Allegheny Plateau
, a region of dissected
highlands generally north of the city. The geologic formations in the southeastern part of the city are mostly limestone
, while those to the north and west consist mostly of siltstone
and shale
. Large parts of the city are flat, but slopes rise to the west, and very steep slopes are found along the river, on the university campus, and along Pennsylvania Route 120 as it approaches U.S. Route 220.
Under the Köppen climate classification
, Lock Haven is in zone Dfb with warm summers and a humid continental climate
. The average temperature in Lock Haven in January is 25 °F (-4 °C), and in July it is 72 °F (22 °C). The highest recorded temperature for Lock Haven was 104 °F (40 °C) in 1988, and the lowest recorded temperature was -19 °F in 1982. The average wettest month is June. Between 1926 and 1977 the mean annual precipitation was 38.8 inches (985.5 mm), and the number of days each year with precipitation of 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) or more was 77. Annual snowfall amounts between 1888 and 1996 varied from 0 in several years to 64.5 inches (163.8 cm) in 1942. The maximum recorded snowfall in a single month was 38.4 inches (97.5 cm) in April 1894.
of 2000, there were 9,149 people, 3,306 households, and 1,659 families living in the city. The population density
was 3,643.9 people per square mile (1,407.4/km2). There were 3,565 housing units at an average residential density of 1,419.9 per square mile (548.4/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 96.3% White, 1.4% African-American, 0.2% Native American, 0.8% Asian, <0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.4% from other races, and 0.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.1% of the population.
There were 3,306 households out of which 24.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.0% were married couples living together, 14.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.8% were non-families. 37.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.2 and the average family size was 2.9.
The city's population included 16.7% under the age of 18, 33.2% from 18 to 24, 20.3% from 25 to 44, 14.4% from 45 to 64, and 15.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median
age was 25 years. For every 100 females there were 82.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.5 males. Students at the university accounted for about a third of the city's population.
The median income for a household in the city was $20,731, and the median income for a family was $28,619. Males had a median income of $27,310 compared with $18,463 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $11,948. About 18.6% of families and 30.2% of the population were below the poverty line
, including 35.4% of those under age 18 and 11.2% of those age 65 or over.
Lock Haven's economy, from the city's founding in 1833 until the end of the 19th century, depended heavily on natural resources, particularly timber, and on cheap transportation to eastern markets. Loggers used the Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Creek to float timber to sawmills in Lock Haven and nearby towns. The West Branch Canal, reaching the city in 1834, connected to large markets downstream, and shorter canals along Bald Eagle Creek added other connections. In 1859, the first railroad arrived in Lock Haven, spurring trade and economic growth.
By 1900, the lumber industry had declined, and the city's economic base rested on other industries, including a furniture factory, a paper mill, a fire brick plant, and a silk mill. In 1938, the Piper Aircraft Corporation, maker of the Piper Cub
and other light aircraft, moved its production plant to Lock Haven. It remained one of the city's biggest employers until the 1980s, when, after major flood damage and losses related to Hurricane Agnes
in 1972, it moved to Florida. The loss of Piper Aircraft contributed to an unemployment rate of more than 20% in Lock Haven in the early 1980s, though the rate had declined to about 9% by 2000. Another large plant, the paper mill that had operated since the 1880s in Castanea Township, closed in 2001. By 2005, 32% of the city's labor force was employed in health care, education, or social services, 16% in manufacturing, 14% in retail trade, 13% in arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation, and food services, and smaller fractions in other sectors. The city's biggest employers, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania and Lock Haven Hospital, are among the seven biggest employers in Clinton County.
(Jaycees) chapter sponsors an annual boat regatta
on the river. The city sponsors a festival called Airfest at the airport in the summer, a Halloween
parade in October, and a holiday parade in December. Light-airplane pilots travel to the city in vintage Piper planes to attend Sentimental Journey Fly-Ins
, which have been held each summer since 1986. Enthusiasts of radio-controlled model airplanes meet annually at the William T. Piper Memorial Airport
to fly their planes.
The central library for Clinton County is the Annie Halenbake Ross Library in Lock Haven; it has about 130,000 books, subscriptions to periodicals, electronic resources, and other materials. Stevenson Library on the university campus has additional collections.
The Piper Aviation Museum exhibits aircraft and aircraft equipment, documents, photographs, and memorabilia related to Piper Aircraft. An eight-room home, the Heisey House
, restored to its mid-19th century appearance, displays Victorian-era
collections; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and is home to the Clinton County Historical Society. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
has placed three cast aluminum markers—Clinton County, Fort Reed, and Pennsylvania Canal (West Branch Division)—in Lock Haven to commemorate historic places. The Water Street District
, a mix of 19th- and 20th-century architecture near the river, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Memorial Park Site 36Cn164, an archaeological site of prehistoric significance discovered near the airport, was added to the National Register in 1982.
The city's media include The Express, a daily newspaper, and The Eagle Eye, the student newspaper at the university. Radio stations WBPZ
(AM
) and WSQV (FM
) broadcast from the city. A television station, Havenscope, and a radio station, WLHU, both managed by students, operate on the university campus.
. Hanna Park includes tennis courts, and Hoberman Park includes a skate park
. The Lock Haven City Beach, on the Susquehanna River, offers water access, a sand beach, and a bath house. In conjunction with the school district, the city sponsors a summer recreation program.
A 25 miles (40 km) trail hike and run, the Bald Eagle Mountain Megatransect, takes place annually near Lock Haven. The local branch of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) offers a wide variety of recreational programs to members, and the Clinton Country Club maintains a private 18-hole golf course in Mill Hall.
form of government. The council, the city's legislative body, consists of six members and a mayor, each serving a four-year term. The council sets policy, and the city manager oversees day-to-day operations. As of 2009, the mayor is Richard P. Villelo, Jr., and the manager is Richard Marcinkevidge.
Lock Haven is the county seat of Clinton County and houses county offices, courts, and the county library. Three elected commissioners serving four-year terms manage the county government. Adam Coleman, chairman; Joel Long, vice-chairman, and Tom Bossert, have terms running through 2011.
Michael K. Hanna
, a Democrat
, represents the 76th District, which includes Lock Haven, in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
. John N. Wozniak, a Democrat, represents Lock Haven as part of the 35th District of the Pennsylvania State Senate
.
serves most of Clinton County, including Lock Haven, as well as parts of Centre County and Potter County. The district's administration building is in Lock Haven as are three of the district's elementary schools, Dickey Elementary, Robb Elementary, and Woodward Elementary, all for children enrolled in kindergarten through fifth grade. The total enrollment of these three schools combined in 2002–03 was 790. Central Mountain Middle School in Mill Hall is the nearest public middle school, for grades six to eight. The nearest public high school, grades nine to twelve, is Central Mountain High School
, also in Mill Hall. The city has two private schools, Lock Haven Christian School, with about 80 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and Lock Haven Catholic Elementary School, with about 190 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania
, offering a wide range of undergraduate studies as well as continuing-education
and graduate-school programs at its main campus, occupies 175 acres (70.8 ha) on the west edge of the city. Enrollment at this campus was about 4,400 in 2003.
s for hire. Fullington Trailways
provides daily intercity bus service between Lock Haven and nearby cities including State College
, Williamsport, and Wilkes-Barre
. Charter and tour buses are available through Susquehanna Trailways, based in Avis, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Lock Haven. Pennsylvania Bicycle Route G follows Pennsylvania Route 150 and links to the Pine Creek Rail Trail
at the eastern end of the county near Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania
. A 2.5 miles (4 km) walking trail on the levee along the river is restricted to pedestrian use.
The Norfolk Southern Railway
mainline from Harrisburg to Buffalo, New York
, runs through the center of Lock Haven. On the east side of town, it connects to the Nittany and Bald Eagle Railroad
, a short line. Trains serving Lock Haven carry only freight. The City of Lock Haven operates the William T. Piper Memorial Airport, a general aviation
facility with a paved runway, runway lighting, paved taxiways, a tie-down area, and hangar
spaces. No commercial, charter, or freight services are available at this airport.
Electric service to Lock Haven residents is provided by PPL
(formerly known as Pennsylvania Power and Light), the gas division of which provides natural gas to the city. Verizon Communications
handles local telephone service; long-distance service is available from several providers. Comcast
offers high-speed cable modem connections to the Internet. Several companies can provide Lock Haven residents with dial-up Internet access. One of them, KCnet, has an office in Lock Haven. Comcast also provides cable television.
The City of Lock Haven owns the reservoirs and water distribution system for Wayne Township
, Castanea Township, and the city. Water is treated at the Central Clinton County Water Filtration Authority Plant in Wayne Township before distribution. The city also provides water to the Suburban Lock Haven Water Authority, which distributes it to surrounding communities. Lock Haven operates a sewage treatment plant for waste water, industrial waste, and trucked sewage from the city and eight upstream municipalities: Bald Eagle Township, Castanea, Flemington, Lamar, Mill Hall, Porter Township
, Woodward Township
, and Walker Township
in Centre County. Storm water runoff from within the city is transported by city-owned storm sewers. Curbside pickup of household garbage is provided by a variety of local haulers licensed by the city; recyclables are picked up once every two weeks. The Clinton County Solid Waste Authority owns and operates the Wayne Township Landfill, which serves Lock Haven.
Lock Haven Hospital is a 77-bed hospital with a 120-bed extended-care unit. It offers inpatient, outpatient, and 24-hour emergency services with heliport
access. Susque-View Home, next to the hospital, offers long-term care to the elderly and other services including speech, physical, and occupational therapy for people of all ages. A 10-physician community-practice clinic based in the city provides primary care
and specialty services. A behavioral health clinic offers programs for children and adolescents and psychiatric outpatient care for all ages.
, a U.S. Senator
for Arkansas
was born near Lock Haven in 1832. Artist John French Sloan
was born in Lock Haven in 1871, and cartoonist Alison Bechdel
, author of Dykes to Watch Out For
and Fun Home
, was born in Lock Haven in 1960. Other notable residents have included diplomat and Dartmouth College
president John Sloan Dickey
and federal judge Kermit Lipez
of the U.S. Federal First District Court of Appeals
.
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
of Clinton County
Clinton County, Pennsylvania
As of the census of 2000, there were 37,914 people, 14,773 households, and 9,927 families residing in the county. The population density was 43 people per square mile . There were 18,166 housing units at an average density of 20 per square mile...
, in the U.S. state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of 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...
. Located near the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River
West Branch Susquehanna River
The West Branch Susquehanna River is one of the two principal branches, along with the North Branch, of the Susquehanna River in the northeastern United States. The North Branch, which rises in upstate New York, is generally regarded as the extension of the main branch, with the shorter West Branch...
and Bald Eagle Creek
Bald Eagle Creek (West Branch Susquehanna River)
Bald Eagle Creek is a tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River mostly in Centre County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It runs through the Bald Eagle Valley at the foot of the Bald Eagle Mountain ridge to Lock Haven....
, it is the principal city of the Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, micropolitan statistical area
United States micropolitan area
United States Micropolitan Statistical Areas , as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget, are urban areas in the United States based around a core city or town with a population of 10,000 to 49,999. The micropolitan area designation was created in 2003...
, itself part of the Williamsport
Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Williamsport is a city in and the county seat of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the United States. In 2009, the population was estimated at 29,304...
–Lock Haven combined statistical area
Combined Statistical Area
The United States Office of Management and Budget defines micropolitan and metropolitan statistical areas. Metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas consist of one or more counties...
. At the 2000 census, Lock Haven's population was 9,149.
Built on a site long favored by pre-European peoples, Lock Haven began in 1833 as a timber town and a haven for loggers, boatmen, and other travelers on the river or the West Branch Canal
Pennsylvania Canal (West Branch Division)
The West Branch Division of the Pennsylvania Canal ran from the canal basin at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, at the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River with the main stem of the Susquehanna River, north through Muncy, then west through Williamsport, Jersey Shore, and Lock Haven to its...
. Resource extraction and efficient transportation financed much of the city's growth through the end of the 19th century. In the 20th century, a light-aircraft
Light aircraft
A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a maximum gross take-off weight of or less.Many aircraft used commercially for freight, sightseeing, photography and scheduled flights are light aircraft.Examples of light aircraft include:...
factory, a college, and a paper mill, along with many smaller enterprises, drove the economy. Frequent floods, especially in 1972, damaged local industry and led to a high rate of unemployment in the 1980s.
The city has three sites on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
—Memorial Park Site
Memorial Park Site
The Memorial Park Site, also known as Memorial Park Site 36Cn164, is an archaeological site located near the confluence of Bald Eagle Creek and the West Branch Susquehanna River in Lock Haven in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania...
, a significant pre-European archaeological find; Heisey House
Heisey House
Heisey House was the first brick dwelling in Lock Haven, a city built along the West Branch Canal in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Constructed in 1833, the building served as a tavern and inn in its early days, and the town's founder, Jeremiah Church, boarded there...
, a Victorian-era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
museum; and Water Street District
Water Street District
The Water Street District, a large part of downtown Lock Haven in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, is an historic district added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The district includes the city's entire central business district as well as many homes and churches constructed in...
, an area with a mix of 19th- and 20th-century architecture. A levee
Levee
A levee, levée, dike , embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels...
, completed in 1995, protects the city from further flooding. While industry remains important to the city, about a third of Lock Haven's workforce is employed in education, health care, or social services.
Pre-European
The earliest settlers in Pennsylvania arrived from Asia between 12000 BCECommon Era
Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
and 8000 BCE, when the glaciers of the Pleistocene Ice Age
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
were receding. Fluted point spearheads from this era, known as the Paleo-Indian Period, have been found in most parts of the state. Archeological discoveries at the Memorial Park Site 36Cn164
Memorial Park Site
The Memorial Park Site, also known as Memorial Park Site 36Cn164, is an archaeological site located near the confluence of Bald Eagle Creek and the West Branch Susquehanna River in Lock Haven in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania...
near the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Creek collectively span about 8,000 years and represent every major prehistoric period from the Middle Archaic to the Late Woodland period. Prehistoric cultural periods over that span included the Middle Archaic starting at 6500 BCE; the Late Archaic starting at 3000 BCE; the Early Woodland starting at 1000 BCE; the Middle Woodland starting at 0 CE; and the Late Woodland starting at 900 CE. First contact with Europeans occurred in Pennsylvania between 1500 and 1600 CE.
Eighteenth century
In the early 18th century, a tribal confederacy known as the Six Nations of the IroquoisIroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
, headquartered in New York, ruled the Indian (Native American) tribes of Pennsylvania, including those who lived near what would become Lock Haven. Indian settlements in the area included three Munsee
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
villages on the 325 acres (1.3 km²) Great Island in the West Branch Susquehanna River at the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek. Four Indian trails, the Great Island Path
Great Island Path
The Great Island Path was a major Native American trail in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania that ran from the village of Shamokin along the right bank of the West Branch Susquehanna River north and then west to the Great Island .The village of Shamokin was just south of the "forks of the...
, the Great Shamokin Path
Great Shamokin Path
The Great Shamokin Path was a major Native American trail in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania that ran from the native village of Shamokin along the left bank of the West Branch Susquehanna River north and then west to the Great Island...
, the Bald Eagle Creek Path
Bald Eagle Creek Path
The Bald Eagle Creek Path was a major Native American trail in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania that ran from the Great Island on the West Branch Susquehanna River southwest to what is now the village of Frankstown on the Frankstown Branch Juniata River...
, and the Sinnemahoning Path
Sinnemahoning Path
The Sinnemahoning Path is an ancient trail which passes through what will be called Keating on its way to the upper Alleghenies. The Sinnemahoning Path followed the West Branch of the Susquehanna from “the Great Island” at Lock Haven to the Sinnemahoning Creek at Keating, to Portage Creek, then to...
, crossed the island, and a fifth, Logan's Path
Logan's Path
Logan's Path was the name of two major Native American trails in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania that ran from two locations on the West Branch Susquehanna River in what is now Clinton County to the native village of Kishacoquillas on the Juniata River...
, met Bald Eagle Creek Path a few miles upstream near the mouth of Fishing Creek
Fishing Creek (Bald Eagle Creek)
Fishing Creek is a tributary of Bald Eagle Creek in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, in the United States.Fishing Creek passes through a water gap in Bald Eagle Mountain at Mill Hall, and joins Bald Eagle Creek near the borough of Flemington.-References:...
. During the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
(1754–63), colonial militiamen on the Kittanning Expedition
Kittanning Expedition
The Kittanning Expedition, also known as the Armstrong Expedition or the Battle of Kittanning, was a raid during the French and Indian War that led to the destruction of the American Indian village of Kittanning, which had served as a staging point for attacks by Delaware warriors against...
destroyed Munsee property on the Great Island and along the West Branch. By 1763, the Munsee had abandoned their island villages and other villages in the area.
Treaty of Fort Stanwix
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was an important treaty between North American Indians and the British Empire. It was signed in 1768 at Fort Stanwix, located in present-day Rome, New York...
in 1768, the British gained control from the Iroquois of lands south of the West Branch. However, white settlers continued to appropriate land, including tracts in and near the future site of Lock Haven, not covered by the treaty. In 1769, Cleary Campbell, the first white settler in the area, built a log cabin near the present site of Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania
Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania
Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, commonly abbreviated LHU, is a state university in Lock Haven, in central Pennsylvania located along the Susquehanna River, and is roughly from the major towns of Williamsport and State College. Lock Haven University is one of the fourteen members of the...
, and by 1773 William Reed, another settler, had built a cabin surrounded by a stockade and called it Reed's Fort. It was the westernmost of 11 mostly primitive forts along the West Branch; Fort Augusta
Fort Augusta
Fort Augusta was a stronghold in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, in the upper Susquehanna Valley from the time of the French and Indian War to the close of the American Revolution. The fort was erected by Col...
, at what is now Sunbury
Sunbury, Pennsylvania
Sunbury is a city in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city is located on the east bank of the Susquehanna River, just downstream of the confluence of its main and West branches. The population was 9,905 at the 2010 census...
, was the easternmost and most defensible. In response to settler incursions, and encouraged by the British during the American Revolution
American Revolution
The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...
(1775–83), Indians attacked colonists and their settlements along the West Branch. Fort Reed and the other white settlements in the area were temporarily abandoned in 1778 during a general evacuation known as the Big Runaway
Big Runaway
The Big Runaway occurred in 1778, during the American Revolutionary War, when settlements throughout the West Branch Susquehanna Valley in Pennsylvania in what became the United States were attacked by Loyalists and Native Americans allied with the British...
. Hundreds of people fled along the river to Fort Augusta, about 50 miles (80 km) from Fort Reed; some did not return for five years. In 1784, the second Treaty of Fort Stanwix
Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784)
The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was a treaty signed in October 1784 at Fort Stanwix, located in present-day Rome, New York, between the United States and Native Americans...
, between the Iroquois and the United States, transferred most of the remaining Indian territory in Pennsylvania, including what would become Lock Haven, to the state. The U.S. acquired the last remaining tract, the Erie Triangle
Erie Triangle
The Erie Triangle is a tract of American land that was the subject of several competing colonial-era claims and which was eventually acquired by the U.S. federal government and sold to Pennsylvania so that the state would have access to a freshwater port on Lake Erie...
, through a separate treaty and sold it to Pennsylvania in 1792.
Nineteenth century
Lock Haven was laid out as a town in 1833, and it became the county seat in 1839, when the county was created out of parts of LycomingLycoming County, Pennsylvania
-Appalachian Mountains and Allegheny Plateau:Lycoming County is divided between the Appalachian Mountains in the south, the dissected Allegheny Plateau in the north and east, and the valley of the West Branch Susquehanna River between these.-West Branch Susquehanna River:The West Branch of the...
and Centre
Centre County, Pennsylvania
Centre County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010, the population was 153,990....
counties. Incorporated as a borough
Borough
A borough is an administrative division in various countries. In principle, the term borough designates a self-governing township although, in practice, official use of the term varies widely....
in 1840 and as a city in 1870, Lock Haven prospered in the 19th century largely because of timber and transportation. The forests of Clinton County and counties upriver held a huge supply of white pine and hemlock as well as oak, ash, maple, poplar, cherry, beech, and magnolia. The wood was used locally for such things as frame houses, shingles, canal boats, and wooden bridges, and whole logs were floated to Chesapeake Bay
Chesapeake Bay
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It lies off the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by Maryland and Virginia. The Chesapeake Bay's drainage basin covers in the District of Columbia and parts of six states: New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West...
and on to Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, to make spar
Spar
In sailing, a spar is a pole of wood, metal or lightweight materials such as carbon fiber used on a sailing vessel. Spars of all types In sailing, a spar is a pole of wood, metal or lightweight materials such as carbon fiber used on a sailing vessel. Spars of all types In sailing, a spar is a...
s for ships. Log driving
Log driving
Log driving is a means of log transport which makes use of a river's current to move floating tree trunks downstream to sawmills and pulp mills.It was the main transportation method of the early logging industry in Europe and North America...
and log rafting
Timber rafting
Timber rafting is a log transportation method in which logs are tied together into rafts and drifted or pulled across a water body or down a flatter river. It is arguably the second cheapest method of transportation of timber, next after log driving...
, competing forms of transporting logs to sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
s, began along the West Branch around 1800. By 1830, slightly before the founding of the town, the lumber industry was well established.
Pennsylvania Canal (West Branch Division)
The West Branch Division of the Pennsylvania Canal ran from the canal basin at Northumberland, Pennsylvania, at the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River with the main stem of the Susquehanna River, north through Muncy, then west through Williamsport, Jersey Shore, and Lock Haven to its...
, which opened in 1834, ran 73 miles (117 km) from Northumberland
Northumberland, Pennsylvania
Northumberland is a borough in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 3,714 at the 2000 census.-History:Northumberland was founded in 1772. The land that became Northumberland was purchased from the Iroquois in the first Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, and the...
to Farrandsville, about 5 miles (8 km) upstream from Lock Haven. A state-funded extension called the Bald Eagle Cut ran from the West Branch through Lock Haven and Flemington
Flemington, Pennsylvania
Flemington is a borough in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, USA. The population was 1,319 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Flemington is located at , along the Bald Eagle Creek and the remnant of the Bald Eagle Crosscut Canal.According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of...
to Bald Eagle Creek. A privately-funded extension, the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation
Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation
The Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Company was a canal company in central Pennsylvania intended to link the iron industry of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, with the Pennsylvania canal system. Opened for half its length in 1837, the remainder of the canal was not completed until 1848...
, eventually reached Bellefonte
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
Bellefonte is a borough in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It lies about twelve miles northeast of State College and is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area...
, 24 miles (39 km) upstream. Lock Haven's founder, Jeremiah Church, and his brother, Willard, chose the town site in 1833 partly because of the river, the creek, and the canal. Church named the town Lock Haven because it had a canal lock
Lock (water transport)
A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...
and because it was a haven for loggers, boatmen, and other travelers. Over the next quarter century, canal boats 12 feet (4 m) wide and 80 feet (24 m) long carried passengers and mail as well as cargo such as coal, ashes for lye and soap, firewood, food, furniture, dry goods, and clothing. A rapid increase in Lock Haven's population (to 830 by 1850) followed the opening of the canal.
A Lock Haven log boom
Log boom
A log boom is a barrier placed in a river, designed to collect and or contain floating logs timbered from nearby forests sometimes called a fence or bag. The term is also used as a place where logs were collected into booms, as at the mouth of a river...
, smaller than but otherwise similar to the Susquehanna Boom
Susquehanna Boom
The Susquehanna Boom was a system of cribs and chained logs in the West Branch Susquehanna River, designed to catch and hold floating timber until it could be processed at one of the nearly 60 sawmills along the river between Lycoming and Loyalsock Creeks in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania in the...
at Williamsport, was constructed in 1849. Large cribs of timbers weighted with tons of stone were arranged in the pool behind the Dunnstown
Dunnstown, Pennsylvania
Dunnstown is a census-designated place in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,365 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Dunnstown is located at ....
Dam, named for a settlement on the shore opposite Lock Haven. The piers, about 150 feet (46 m) from one another, stretched in a line from the dam to a point 3 miles (5 km) upriver. Connected by timbers shackled together with iron yokes and rings, the piers anchored an enclosure into which the river current forced floating logs. Workers called boom rats sorted the captured logs, branded like cattle, for delivery to sawmills and other owners. Lock Haven became the lumber center of Clinton County and the site of many businesses related to forest products.
The Sunbury and Erie Railroad
Philadelphia and Erie Railroad
The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania between 1861 and 1907. It was subsequently merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad .-History:...
, re-named the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad in 1861, reached Lock Haven in 1859, and with it came a building boom. Hoping that the area's coal, iron ore, white pine, and high-quality clay would produce significant future wealth, railroad investors led by Christopher and John Fallon financed a line to Lock Haven. On the strength of the railroad's potential value to the city, local residents had invested heavily in housing, building large homes between 1854 and 1856. Although the Fallons' coal and iron ventures failed, Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
, Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...
, and Italianate
Italianate architecture
The Italianate style of architecture was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. In the Italianate style, the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian Renaissance architecture, which had served as inspiration for both Palladianism and...
mansions and commercial buildings such as the Fallon House, a large hotel, remained, and the railroad provided a new mode of transport for the ongoing timber era. A second rail line, the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad
Bald Eagle Valley Railroad
The Bald Eagle Valley Railroad was a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad which owned several rail lines in central Pennsylvania. It had its genesis in the Tyrone and Lock Haven Railroad, a financially-troubled railroad chartered in 1857, which was unable to complete more than a small portion of...
, originally organized as the Tyrone and Lock Haven Railroad and completed in the 1860s, linked Lock Haven to Tyrone
Tyrone, Pennsylvania
Tyrone is a borough in Blair County, Pennsylvania, northeast of Altoona, on the Little Juniata River. Tyrone was of considerable commercial importance in the twentieth century. It was an outlet for the Clearfield coal fields, and it was noted for the manufacture of paper products. There were...
, 56 miles (90 km) to the southwest. The two rail lines soon became part of the network controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad
Pennsylvania Railroad
The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the "Pennsy", the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania....
.
During the era of log floating, logjams sometimes occurred when logs struck an obstacle. Log rafts floating down the West Branch had to pass through chutes in canal dams. The rafts were commonly 28 feet (9 m) wide—narrow enough to pass through the chutes—and 150 feet (46 m) to 200 feet (61 m) long. In 1874, a large raft got wedged in the chute of the Dunnstown Dam and caused a jam that blocked the channel from bank to bank with a pile of logs 16 feet (5 m) high. The jam eventually trapped another 200 log rafts, and 2 canal boats, The Mammoth of Newport and The Sarah Dunbar.
In terms of board feet
Board foot
The board-foot is a specialized unit of measure for the volume of lumber in the United States and Canada. It is the volume of a one-foot length of a board one foot wide and one inch thick....
, the peak of the lumber era in Pennsylvania arrived in about 1885, when went through the boom at Williamsport. These logs produced a total of about (533,000 m3) of sawed lumber. After that, production steadily declined throughout the state. Lock Haven's timber business was also affected by flooding, which badly damaged the canals and destroyed the log boom in 1889.
The Central State Normal School, established to train teachers for central Pennsylvania, held its first classes in 1877 at a site overlooking the West Branch Susquehanna River. The small school, with enrollments below 150 until the 1940s, eventually became Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania. In the early 1880s, the New York and Pennsylvania Paper Mill in Castanea Township near Flemington began paper production on the site of a former sawmill; the paper mill
Paper mill
A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier machine or other type of paper machine.- History :...
remained a large employer until the end of the 20th century.
Twentieth century
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
, began operation in Lock Haven in 1894. The Lock Haven Electric Railway, managed by the Lock Haven Traction Company and after 1900 by the Susquehanna Traction Company, ran passenger trolleys between Lock Haven and Mill Hall, about 3 miles (5 km) to the west. The trolley line extended from the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad
Philadelphia and Erie Railroad
The Philadelphia and Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in Pennsylvania between 1861 and 1907. It was subsequently merged into the Pennsylvania Railroad .-History:...
station in Lock Haven to a station of the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania, which served Mill Hall. The route went through Lock Haven's downtown, close to the Normal School, across town to the trolley car barn on the southwest edge of the city, through Flemington, over the Bald Eagle Canal and Bald Eagle Creek, and on to Mill Hall via what was then known as the Lock Haven, Bellefonte, and Nittany Valley
Nittany Valley
The Nittany Valley is an eroded anticlinal valley in the central portion of Centre County, Pennsylvania in the United States. It is separated from the Bald Eagle Valley by Bald Eagle Mountain and from Penns Valley by Mount Nittany. The valley is closed to the north by a high plateau that joins...
Turnpike. Plans to extend the line from Mill Hall to Salona, 3 miles (5 km) miles south of Mill Hall, and to Avis
Avis, Pennsylvania
Avis is a borough in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,492 at the 2000 census. Avis elected a Libertarian as mayor in the 2007 election...
10 miles (16 km) northeast of Lock Haven, were never carried out, and the line remained unconnected to other trolley lines. The system, always financially marginal, declined after World War I. Losing business to automobiles and buses, it ceased operations around 1930.
William T. Piper
William T. Piper
William Thomas Piper Sr. was an American airplane manufacturer, and founder, eponym, and 1st president of Piper Aircraft Corporation 1929-1970. He graduated from Harvard University in 1903, and became known as "the Henry Ford of Aviation". The William T...
, Sr., built the Piper Aircraft Corporation factory in Lock Haven in 1937 after the company's Taylor Aircraft manufacturing plant in Bradford, Pennsylvania
Bradford, Pennsylvania
Bradford is a small city located in rural McKean County, Pennsylvania, in the United States 78 miles south of Buffalo, New York. Settled in 1823, Bradford was chartered as a city in 1879 and emerged as a wild oil boomtown in the Pennsylvanian oil rush in the late 19th century...
, was destroyed by fire. The factory began operations in a building that once housed a silk mill. As the company grew, the original factory expanded to include engineering and office buildings. Piper remained in the city until 1984, when its new owner, Lear-Siegler, moved production to Vero Beach, Florida
Vero Beach, Florida
Vero Beach is a city in Indian River County, Florida, USA. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2006 estimates, the city had a population of 16,939. It is the county seat of Indian River County...
. The Clinton County Historical Society opened the Piper Aviation Museum at the site of the former factory in 1985, and 10 years later the museum became an independent organization.
The state of Pennsylvania acquired Central State Normal School in 1915 and renamed it Lock Haven State Teachers College in 1927. Between 1942 and 1970, the student population grew from 146 to more than 2,300; the number of teaching faculty rose from 25 to 170, and the college carried out a large building program. The school's name was changed to Lock Haven State College in 1960, and its emphasis shifted to include the humanities, fine arts, mathematics, and social sciences, as well as teacher education. Becoming Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania in 1983, it opened a branch campus in Clearfield
Clearfield, Pennsylvania
Clearfield is a borough in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 6,631 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Clearfield County.-Geography:Clearfield is located at ....
, 48 miles (77 km) west of Lock Haven, in 1989.
An 8 acres (3.2 ha) industrial area in Castanea Township adjacent to Lock Haven was placed on the National Priorities List of uncontrolled hazardous waste sites (commonly referred to as Superfund
Superfund
Superfund is the common name for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 , a United States federal law designed to clean up sites contaminated with hazardous substances...
sites) in 1982. Drake Chemical, which went bankrupt in 1981, made ingredients for pesticides and other compounds at the site from the 1960s to 1981. Starting in 1982, the United States Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
began a clean-up of contaminated containers, buildings, and soils at the site and by the late 1990s had replaced the soils. Equipment to treat contaminated groundwater at the site was installed in 2000 and continues to operate.
Floods
Pennsylvania's streams have frequently flooded. According to William H. Shank, the Indians of Pennsylvania warned white settlers that great floods occurred on the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers every 14 years. Shank tested this idea by tabulating the highest floods on record at key points throughout the state over a 200-year period and found that a major flood had occurred, on average, once every 25 years between 1784 and 1972. Big floods recorded at HarrisburgHarrisburg, 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...
, on the main stem
Main Stem
"Main Stem" is 1942 instrumental by Duke Ellington and His Famous Orchestra. Although recorded in 1942, the single would not be released until 1944 where it was Duke Ellington's last of four number one's on the Harlem Hit Parade. "Main Stem" would also peak at number twenty on the pop chart"Main...
of the Susquehanna about 120 miles (193 km) miles downstream from Lock Haven, occurred in 1784, 1865, 1889, 1894, 1902, 1936, and 1972. Readings from the Williamsport stream gauge
Stream gauge
A stream gauge, stream gage or gauging station is a location used by hydrologists or environmental scientists to monitor and test terrestrial bodies of water. Hydrometric measurements of water surface elevation and/or volumetric discharge are generally taken and observations of biota may also be...
, 24 miles (39 km) miles below Lock Haven on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, showed major flooding between 1889 and 1972 in the same years as the Harrisburg station; in addition, a large flood occurred on the West Branch at Williamsport in 1946. Estimated flood-crest readings between 1847 and 1979—based on data from the National Weather Service
National Weather Service
The National Weather Service , once known as the Weather Bureau, is one of the six scientific agencies that make up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States government...
flood gauge at Lock Haven—show that flooding likely occurred in the city 19 times in 132 years. The biggest flood occurred on March 18, 1936, when the river crested at 32.3 feet (9.8 m), which was about 11 feet (3.4 m) above the flood stage of 21 feet (6.4 m).
The third biggest flood, cresting at 29.8 feet (9.1 m) in Lock Haven, occurred on June 1, 1889, and coincided with the Johnstown Flood
Johnstown Flood
The Johnstown Flood occurred on May 31, 1889. It was the result of the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam situated upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, USA, made worse by several days of extremely heavy rainfall...
. The flood demolished Lock Haven's log boom
Log boom
A log boom is a barrier placed in a river, designed to collect and or contain floating logs timbered from nearby forests sometimes called a fence or bag. The term is also used as a place where logs were collected into booms, as at the mouth of a river...
, and millions of feet of stored timber were swept away. The flood damaged the canals, which were subsequently abandoned, and destroyed the last of the canal boats based in the city.
Hurricane Agnes
Hurricane Agnes was the first tropical storm and first hurricane of the 1972 Atlantic hurricane season. A rare June hurricane, it made landfall on the Florida Panhandle before moving northeastward and ravaging the Mid-Atlantic region as a tropical storm...
in 1972. The storm, just below hurricane strength when it reached the region, made landfall on June 22 near New York City. Agnes merged with a non-tropical low on June 23, and the combined system affected the northeastern United States until June 25. The combination produced widespread rains of 6 to 12 in (152.4 to 304.8 mm) with local amounts up to 19 inches (483 mm) in western Schuylkill County
Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
-Notable people:*Boxing heavyweight great Muhammad Ali had his training camp in Deer Lake.*Charles Justin Bailey, commanding general of the 81st Division in World War I, was born in Tamaqua on June 21, 1859....
, about 75 miles (121 km) southeast of Lock Haven. At Lock Haven, the river crested on June 23 at 31.3 feet (9.5 m), second only to the 1936 crest. The flood greatly damaged the paper mill and Piper Aircraft.
Federal, state, and local governments began construction in 1992 of barriers to protect the city. The project included a levee of 36000 feet (10,973 m) and a flood wall
Flood wall
A flood wall is a primarily vertical artificial barrier designed to temporarily contain the waters of a river or other waterway which may rise to unusual levels during seasonal or extreme weather events...
of 1000 feet (305 m) along the Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Creek, closure structures, retention basin
Retention basin
A retention basin is used to manage stormwater runoff to prevent flooding and downstream erosion, and improve water quality in an adjacent river, stream, lake or bay. Sometimes called a wet pond or wet detention basin, it is an artificial lake with vegetation around the perimeter, and includes a...
s, a pumping station
Pumping station
Pumping stations are facilities including pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure systems, such as the supply of water to canals, the drainage of low-lying land, and the removal of sewage to processing sites.A pumping station...
, and some relocation of roads and buildings. Completed in 1995, the levee protected the city from high water in the year of the Blizzard of 1996, and again 2004, when rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Ivan
Hurricane Ivan
Hurricane Ivan was a large, long-lived, Cape Verde-type hurricane that caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and United States. The cyclone was the ninth named storm, the sixth hurricane and the fourth major hurricane of the active 2004 Atlantic hurricane season...
threatened the city.
Geography and climate
Lock Haven is the county seat of Clinton County. According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 2.7 square miles (7 km²), 2.5 square miles (6.5 km²) of which is land. About 0.2 square mile (0.517997622 km²), 6 percent, is water.
U.S. Route 220
U.S. Route 220 is a long U.S. Route in the eastern United States.US 220 is a spur route of U.S. Route 20 but at present, the two routes do not intersect nor do they connect via other spurs of US 20. The former U. S. Route 120, which was signed in Pennsylvania between 1926 and 1967, intersected...
, a major transportation corridor, skirts the city on its south edge, intersecting with Pennsylvania Route 120
Pennsylvania Route 120
Pennsylvania Route 120 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, running from U.S. Route 219 in Ridgway east to U.S. Route 220 in Lock Haven.-Bucktail State Park Natural Area:...
, which passes through the city and connects it with Renovo
Renovo, Pennsylvania
Renovo is a borough in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, northwest of Lock Haven. Deposits of bituminous coal and fire clay are in the region. In 1900, 4,082 people lived there, and in 1910, 4,621 lived there...
in northern Clinton County. Other highways entering Lock Haven include Pennsylvania Route 664
Pennsylvania Route 664
Pennsylvania Route 664 is a long state highway located in Clinton and Lycoming counties in Pennsylvania. The southern terminus is at State Route 120 in Lock Haven, while the northern terminus is at State Route 44 on the Clinton-Lycoming county line in the community of Haneyville...
and Pennsylvania Route 150
Pennsylvania Route 150
Pennsylvania Route 150 is a 41.10-mile-long highway in Central Pennsylvania. Its northern terminus is at U.S. Route 220 in Avis, Pennsylvania...
, which connects to Avis
Avis, Pennsylvania
Avis is a borough in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,492 at the 2000 census. Avis elected a Libertarian as mayor in the 2007 election...
.
The city and nearby smaller communities—Castanea
Castanea, Pennsylvania
Castanea is a census-designated place in Castanea Township, Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,189 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Castanea is located at ....
,
Dunnstown, Flemington, and Mill Hall—are mainly at valley level 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...
, a mountain belt characterized by long even valleys running between long continuous ridges. Bald Eagle Mountain
Bald Eagle Mountain
Bald Eagle Mountain, once known locally as Muncy Mountain, is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States, running east of the Allegheny Front and northwest of Mount Nittany. It lies along the southeast side of Bald Eagle Creek, and south of the West Branch Susquehanna River, and...
, one of these ridges, runs parallel to Bald Eagle Creek on the south side of the city. Upstream of the confluence with Bald Eagle Creek, the West Branch Susquehanna River drains part of the Allegheny Plateau
Allegheny Plateau
The Allegheny Plateau is a large dissected plateau area in western and central New York, northern and western Pennsylvania, northern and western West Virginia, and eastern Ohio...
, a region of dissected
Dissected plateau
A dissected plateau is a plateau area that has been severely eroded so that the relief is sharp. Such an area may be referred to as mountainous, but dissected plateaus are distinguishable from orogenic mountain belts by the lack of folding, metamorphism, extensive faulting, or magmatic activity...
highlands generally north of the city. The geologic formations in the southeastern part of the city are mostly limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
, while those to the north and west consist mostly of siltstone
Siltstone
Siltstone is a sedimentary rock which has a grain size in the silt range, finer than sandstone and coarser than claystones.- Description :As its name implies, it is primarily composed of silt sized particles, defined as grains 1/16 - 1/256 mm or 4 to 8 on the Krumbein phi scale...
and shale
Shale
Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock composed of mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals and tiny fragments of other minerals, especially quartz and calcite. The ratio of clay to other minerals is variable. Shale is characterized by breaks along thin laminae or parallel layering...
. Large parts of the city are flat, but slopes rise to the west, and very steep slopes are found along the river, on the university campus, and along Pennsylvania Route 120 as it approaches U.S. Route 220.
Under the Köppen climate classification
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
, Lock Haven is in zone Dfb with warm summers and a humid continental climate
Humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region typified by large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot summers and cold winters....
. The average temperature in Lock Haven in January is 25 °F (-4 °C), and in July it is 72 °F (22 °C). The highest recorded temperature for Lock Haven was 104 °F (40 °C) in 1988, and the lowest recorded temperature was -19 °F in 1982. The average wettest month is June. Between 1926 and 1977 the mean annual precipitation was 38.8 inches (985.5 mm), and the number of days each year with precipitation of 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) or more was 77. Annual snowfall amounts between 1888 and 1996 varied from 0 in several years to 64.5 inches (163.8 cm) in 1942. The maximum recorded snowfall in a single month was 38.4 inches (97.5 cm) in April 1894.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 9,149 people, 3,306 households, and 1,659 families living in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 3,643.9 people per square mile (1,407.4/km2). There were 3,565 housing units at an average residential density of 1,419.9 per square mile (548.4/km2). The racial makeup of the city was 96.3% White, 1.4% African-American, 0.2% Native American, 0.8% Asian, <0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.4% from other races, and 0.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.1% of the population.
There were 3,306 households out of which 24.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 32.0% were married couples living together, 14.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.8% were non-families. 37.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 17.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.2 and the average family size was 2.9.
The city's population included 16.7% under the age of 18, 33.2% from 18 to 24, 20.3% from 25 to 44, 14.4% from 45 to 64, and 15.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median
Median
In probability theory and statistics, a median is described as the numerical value separating the higher half of a sample, a population, or a probability distribution, from the lower half. The median of a finite list of numbers can be found by arranging all the observations from lowest value to...
age was 25 years. For every 100 females there were 82.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.5 males. Students at the university accounted for about a third of the city's population.
The median income for a household in the city was $20,731, and the median income for a family was $28,619. Males had a median income of $27,310 compared with $18,463 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $11,948. About 18.6% of families and 30.2% of the population were below the poverty line
Poverty threshold
The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country...
, including 35.4% of those under age 18 and 11.2% of those age 65 or over.
Economy
By 1900, the lumber industry had declined, and the city's economic base rested on other industries, including a furniture factory, a paper mill, a fire brick plant, and a silk mill. In 1938, the Piper Aircraft Corporation, maker of the Piper Cub
Piper J-3
The Piper J-3 Cub is a small, simple, light aircraft that was built between 1937 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. With tandem seating, it was intended for flight training but became one of the most popular and best-known light aircraft of all time...
and other light aircraft, moved its production plant to Lock Haven. It remained one of the city's biggest employers until the 1980s, when, after major flood damage and losses related to Hurricane Agnes
Hurricane Agnes
Hurricane Agnes was the first tropical storm and first hurricane of the 1972 Atlantic hurricane season. A rare June hurricane, it made landfall on the Florida Panhandle before moving northeastward and ravaging the Mid-Atlantic region as a tropical storm...
in 1972, it moved to Florida. The loss of Piper Aircraft contributed to an unemployment rate of more than 20% in Lock Haven in the early 1980s, though the rate had declined to about 9% by 2000. Another large plant, the paper mill that had operated since the 1880s in Castanea Township, closed in 2001. By 2005, 32% of the city's labor force was employed in health care, education, or social services, 16% in manufacturing, 14% in retail trade, 13% in arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation, and food services, and smaller fractions in other sectors. The city's biggest employers, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania and Lock Haven Hospital, are among the seven biggest employers in Clinton County.
Arts, culture, historic sites, and media
Lock Haven University presents public concerts, plays, and student recitals at the Price Performance Center and the Sloan Auditorium on campus. The Millbrook Theatre in Mill Hall has produced plays since 1963. Summer concerts are held in city parks, and the local Junior Chamber InternationalJunior Chamber International
Junior Chamber International is the only worldwide non-political and non-sectarian youth service organization. It is an international community of citizens between the ages of to with the aim and purpose of creating positive changes in the world...
(Jaycees) chapter sponsors an annual boat regatta
Regatta
A regatta is a series of boat races. The term typically describes racing events of rowed or sailed water craft, although some powerboat race series are also called regattas...
on the river. The city sponsors a festival called Airfest at the airport in the summer, a Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
parade in October, and a holiday parade in December. Light-airplane pilots travel to the city in vintage Piper planes to attend Sentimental Journey Fly-Ins
Fly-in
A fly-in is a pre-arranged gathering of aircraft, pilots and passengers for recreational and social purposes.Fly-ins may be formally or informally organised, members of the public may or may not be invited, the gathering may be at an airport or in a farmer's field.Fly-ins can be aimed at specific...
, which have been held each summer since 1986. Enthusiasts of radio-controlled model airplanes meet annually at the William T. Piper Memorial Airport
William T. Piper Memorial Airport
William T. Piper Memorial Airport is a public general aviation airport located two miles east of the central business district of Lock Haven, a city in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, USA....
to fly their planes.
The central library for Clinton County is the Annie Halenbake Ross Library in Lock Haven; it has about 130,000 books, subscriptions to periodicals, electronic resources, and other materials. Stevenson Library on the university campus has additional collections.
The Piper Aviation Museum exhibits aircraft and aircraft equipment, documents, photographs, and memorabilia related to Piper Aircraft. An eight-room home, the Heisey House
Heisey House
Heisey House was the first brick dwelling in Lock Haven, a city built along the West Branch Canal in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Constructed in 1833, the building served as a tavern and inn in its early days, and the town's founder, Jeremiah Church, boarded there...
, restored to its mid-19th century appearance, displays Victorian-era
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
collections; it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and is home to the Clinton County Historical Society. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania responsible for the collection, conservation and interpretation of Pennsylvania's historic heritage...
has placed three cast aluminum markers—Clinton County, Fort Reed, and Pennsylvania Canal (West Branch Division)—in Lock Haven to commemorate historic places. The Water Street District
Water Street District
The Water Street District, a large part of downtown Lock Haven in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, is an historic district added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The district includes the city's entire central business district as well as many homes and churches constructed in...
, a mix of 19th- and 20th-century architecture near the river, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. Memorial Park Site 36Cn164, an archaeological site of prehistoric significance discovered near the airport, was added to the National Register in 1982.
The city's media include The Express, a daily newspaper, and The Eagle Eye, the student newspaper at the university. Radio stations WBPZ
WBPZ
WBPZ is a radio station licensed to Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, USA. The station is currently owned by Lipez Broadcasting Corporation. It was also the oldest and western-most radio affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies until 2008....
(AM
Amplitude modulation
Amplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent...
) and WSQV (FM
Frequency modulation
In telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
) broadcast from the city. A television station, Havenscope, and a radio station, WLHU, both managed by students, operate on the university campus.
Parks and recreation
The city has 14 municipal parks and playgrounds ranging in size from the 0.75 acre (0.3035145 ha) Triangle Park in downtown to the 80 acres (32.4 ha) Douglas H. Peddie Memorial Park along Route 120. Fields maintained by the city accommodate baseball for the Pony League, Little League, and Junior League and softball for the Youth Girls League and for adults. In 1948, a team from the city won the Little League World SeriesLittle League World Series
The Little League Baseball World Series is a baseball tournament for children aged 11 to 13 years old. It was originally called the National Little League Tournament and was later renamed for the World Series in Major League Baseball. It was first held in 1947 and is held every August in South...
. Hanna Park includes tennis courts, and Hoberman Park includes a skate park
Skatepark
A skatepark is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, aggressive inline skating and scooters. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, quarter pipes, spine transfers, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, pyramids, banked ramps, full pipes, pools, bowls, snake runs stairsets,...
. The Lock Haven City Beach, on the Susquehanna River, offers water access, a sand beach, and a bath house. In conjunction with the school district, the city sponsors a summer recreation program.
A 25 miles (40 km) trail hike and run, the Bald Eagle Mountain Megatransect, takes place annually near Lock Haven. The local branch of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) offers a wide variety of recreational programs to members, and the Clinton Country Club maintains a private 18-hole golf course in Mill Hall.
Government
Lock Haven has a council-managerCouncil-manager government
The council–manager government form is one of two predominant forms of municipal government in the United States; the other common form of local government is the mayor-council government form, which characteristically occurs in large cities...
form of government. The council, the city's legislative body, consists of six members and a mayor, each serving a four-year term. The council sets policy, and the city manager oversees day-to-day operations. As of 2009, the mayor is Richard P. Villelo, Jr., and the manager is Richard Marcinkevidge.
Lock Haven is the county seat of Clinton County and houses county offices, courts, and the county library. Three elected commissioners serving four-year terms manage the county government. Adam Coleman, chairman; Joel Long, vice-chairman, and Tom Bossert, have terms running through 2011.
Michael K. Hanna
Mike Hanna
Michael K. "Mike" Hanna, Sr. is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.-External links:* official PA House website* official Party website...
, a Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, represents the 76th District, which includes Lock Haven, in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives
Pennsylvania House of Representatives
The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two year terms from single member districts....
. John N. Wozniak, a Democrat, represents Lock Haven as part of the 35th District of the Pennsylvania State Senate
Pennsylvania State Senate
The Pennsylvania State Senate has been meeting since 1791. It is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered every two years such...
.
Education
The Keystone Central School DistrictKeystone Central School District
The Keystone Central School District is a school district based in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania that includes public schools in Clinton County, and that serves students in Clinton County, Centre County, and Potter County...
serves most of Clinton County, including Lock Haven, as well as parts of Centre County and Potter County. The district's administration building is in Lock Haven as are three of the district's elementary schools, Dickey Elementary, Robb Elementary, and Woodward Elementary, all for children enrolled in kindergarten through fifth grade. The total enrollment of these three schools combined in 2002–03 was 790. Central Mountain Middle School in Mill Hall is the nearest public middle school, for grades six to eight. The nearest public high school, grades nine to twelve, is Central Mountain High School
Central Mountain High School
Central Mountain High School is a public high school located in Mill Hall, Pennsylvania, USA.-School history:Central Mountain High School is one of two high schools in the Keystone Central School District. Keystone Central is the geographically largest school district in Pennsylvania. Central...
, also in Mill Hall. The city has two private schools, Lock Haven Christian School, with about 80 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, and Lock Haven Catholic Elementary School, with about 190 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania
Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania
Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania, commonly abbreviated LHU, is a state university in Lock Haven, in central Pennsylvania located along the Susquehanna River, and is roughly from the major towns of Williamsport and State College. Lock Haven University is one of the fourteen members of the...
, offering a wide range of undergraduate studies as well as continuing-education
Continuing education
Continuing education is an all-encompassing term within a broad spectrum of post-secondary learning activities and programs. The term is used mainly in the United States and Canada...
and graduate-school programs at its main campus, occupies 175 acres (70.8 ha) on the west edge of the city. Enrollment at this campus was about 4,400 in 2003.
Infrastructure
Lock Haven Taxi, based in the central downtown, has taxicabTaxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...
s for hire. Fullington Trailways
Trailways Transportation System
The Trailways Transportation System is an American group of 80 independent bus companies that have entered into a franchising agreement. The company is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia.- History :...
provides daily intercity bus service between Lock Haven and nearby cities including 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...
, Williamsport, and Wilkes-Barre
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Wilkes-Barre is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, the county seat of Luzerne County. It is at the center of the Wyoming Valley area and is one of the principal cities in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, which had a population of 563,631 as of the 2010 Census...
. Charter and tour buses are available through Susquehanna Trailways, based in Avis, 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Lock Haven. Pennsylvania Bicycle Route G follows Pennsylvania Route 150 and links to the Pine Creek Rail Trail
Pine Creek Rail Trail
The Pine Creek Rail Trail is a rail trail in the Appalachian Mountains of north-central Pennsylvania.The trail begins just north of Wellsboro, runs south through Pine Creek Gorge , and ends in Jersey Shore...
at the eastern end of the county near Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania
Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania
Jersey Shore is a borough in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is on the West Branch Susquehanna River, west by south of Williamsport. It is part of the Williamsport, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. In the past, Jersey Shore held farms, railroad shops, cigar factories, a...
. A 2.5 miles (4 km) walking trail on the levee along the river is restricted to pedestrian use.
The Norfolk Southern Railway
Norfolk Southern Railway
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I railroad in the United States, owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. With headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia, the company operates 21,500 route miles in 22 eastern states, the District of Columbia and the province of Ontario, Canada...
mainline from Harrisburg to Buffalo, New York
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
, runs through the center of Lock Haven. On the east side of town, it connects to the Nittany and Bald Eagle Railroad
Nittany and Bald Eagle Railroad
The Nittany and Bald Eagle Railroad is a short line railroad that operates of track in Blair, Centre, and Clinton counties in Pennsylvania in the United States. It is part of the North Shore Railroad System....
, a short line. Trains serving Lock Haven carry only freight. The City of Lock Haven operates the William T. Piper Memorial Airport, a general aviation
General aviation
General aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...
facility with a paved runway, runway lighting, paved taxiways, a tie-down area, and hangar
Hangar
A hangar is a closed structure to hold aircraft or spacecraft in protective storage. Most hangars are built of metal, but other materials such as wood and concrete are also sometimes used...
spaces. No commercial, charter, or freight services are available at this airport.
Electric service to Lock Haven residents is provided by PPL
PPL (utility)
PPL, formerly known as PP&L or Pennsylvania Power and Light, is an energy company headquartered in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA. It currently controls about 19,000 megawatts of electrical generating capacity in the United States, primarily in Pennsylvania and Montana, and delivers electricity to...
(formerly known as Pennsylvania Power and Light), the gas division of which provides natural gas to the city. Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications
Verizon Communications Inc. is a global broadband and telecommunications company and a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average...
handles local telephone service; long-distance service is available from several providers. Comcast
Comcast
Comcast Corporation is the largest cable operator, home Internet service provider, and fourth largest home telephone service provider in the United States, providing cable television, broadband Internet, and telephone service to both residential and commercial customers in 39 states and the...
offers high-speed cable modem connections to the Internet. Several companies can provide Lock Haven residents with dial-up Internet access. One of them, KCnet, has an office in Lock Haven. Comcast also provides cable television.
The City of Lock Haven owns the reservoirs and water distribution system for Wayne Township
Wayne Township, Clinton County, Pennsylvania
Wayne Township is a township located in Clinton County, Pennsylvania. As of the 2000 census, the township had a total population of 1,363.- Geography :...
, Castanea Township, and the city. Water is treated at the Central Clinton County Water Filtration Authority Plant in Wayne Township before distribution. The city also provides water to the Suburban Lock Haven Water Authority, which distributes it to surrounding communities. Lock Haven operates a sewage treatment plant for waste water, industrial waste, and trucked sewage from the city and eight upstream municipalities: Bald Eagle Township, Castanea, Flemington, Lamar, Mill Hall, Porter Township
Porter Township, Clinton County, Pennsylvania
Porter Township is a township in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,419 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 25.7 square miles , of which, 25.7 square miles of it is land and...
, Woodward Township
Woodward Township, Clinton County, Pennsylvania
Woodward Township is a township in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,296 at the 2000 census.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the township has a total area of 18.3 square miles , of which, 17.9 square miles of it is land and...
, and Walker Township
Walker Township, Centre County, Pennsylvania
Walker Township is a township in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is part of the State College, Pennsylvania Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,299 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
in Centre County. Storm water runoff from within the city is transported by city-owned storm sewers. Curbside pickup of household garbage is provided by a variety of local haulers licensed by the city; recyclables are picked up once every two weeks. The Clinton County Solid Waste Authority owns and operates the Wayne Township Landfill, which serves Lock Haven.
Lock Haven Hospital is a 77-bed hospital with a 120-bed extended-care unit. It offers inpatient, outpatient, and 24-hour emergency services with heliport
Heliport
A heliport is a small airport suitable only for use by helicopters. Heliports typically contain one or more helipads and may have limited facilities such as fuel, lighting, a windsock, or even hangars...
access. Susque-View Home, next to the hospital, offers long-term care to the elderly and other services including speech, physical, and occupational therapy for people of all ages. A 10-physician community-practice clinic based in the city provides primary care
Primary care
Primary care is the term for the health services by providers who act as the principal point of consultation for patients within a health care system...
and specialty services. A behavioral health clinic offers programs for children and adolescents and psychiatric outpatient care for all ages.
Notable people
Alexander McDonaldAlexander McDonald
Alexander McDonald was a Republican politician who represented Arkansas in the U.S. Senate from 1868 to 1871.-Biography:...
, a U.S. Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
for Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
was born near Lock Haven in 1832. Artist John French Sloan
John French Sloan
John French Sloan was an American artist. As a member of The Eight, he became a leading figure in the Ashcan School of realist artists. He was known for his urban genre painting and ability to capture the essence of neighborhood life in New York City, often through his window...
was born in Lock Haven in 1871, and cartoonist Alison Bechdel
Alison Bechdel
Alison Bechdel is an American cartoonist. Originally best known for the long-running comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For, in 2006 she became a best-selling and critically acclaimed author with her graphic memoir Fun Home.-Early life:...
, author of Dykes to Watch Out For
Dykes to Watch out For
Dykes to Watch Out For was a comic strip by Alison Bechdel. The strip, which ran from 1983 to 2008, was one of the earliest ongoing representations of lesbians in popular culture and has been called "as important to new generations of lesbians as landmark novels like Rita Mae Brown’s Rubyfruit...
and Fun Home
Fun Home
Fun Home is a 2006 graphic memoir by American writer Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, USA, focusing on her complex relationship with her father...
, was born in Lock Haven in 1960. Other notable residents have included diplomat and Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
president John Sloan Dickey
John Sloan Dickey
John Sloan Dickey was an American diplomat, scholar, and intellectual. Dickey served as President of Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, from 1945 to 1970, and helped revitalize the Ivy League institution....
and federal judge Kermit Lipez
Kermit Lipez
Kermit Victor Lipez is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. He is the only active judge from Maine currently serving on that court.-Judicial service:...
of the U.S. Federal First District Court of Appeals
United States court of appeals
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal court system...
.
See also
- National Register of Historic Places listings in Clinton County, PennsylvaniaNational Register of Historic Places listings in Clinton County, PennsylvaniaThis is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Clinton County, Pennsylvania.This is intended to be a complete list of the properties and districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States...
Works cited
- Linn, John Blair (1883) (Digitized scan from the Pennsylvania State University digital library collections). History of Centre and Clinton Counties, Pennsylvania (First ed.). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Louis H. Everts. Retrieved December 1, 2009.
- Miller, Isabel Winner (1966). Old Town: A History of Early Lock Haven, 1769–1845. Lock Haven: The Annie Halenbake Ross Library. .
- Richter, Daniel K. (2002). "Chapter 1. The First Pennsylvanians". in Miller, Randall M., and Pencak, William A. Pennsylvania: A History of the Commonwealth. The Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. pp. 3–46. ISBN 0-271-02213-2.
- Schuldenrein, Joseph; Vento, Frank; R. Christopher Goodwin and Associates, Inc. (July 19, 1994). "Geoarcheological Investigations at the Memorial Park Site (36CN164), Pennsylvania" (PDF). United States Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District. Retrieved November 22, 2009.
- Shank, William H. (1972). Great Floods of Pennsylvania: A Two-Century History (Second ed.). York, Pennsylvania: American Canal and Transportation Center. ISBN 0-933788-38-X.
- Shieck, Paul J., and Cox, Harold E. (1978). West Branch Trolleys: Street Railways of Lycoming & Clinton Counties. Forty Fort, Pennsylvania: Harold E. Cox. .
- Wagner, ed., Dean R. (1979). Historic Lock Haven: An Architectural Survey. Lock Haven: Clinton County Historical Society. .
- Wallace, Paul A.W. (1987). Indian Paths of Pennsylvania (Fourth Printing). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. ISBN 0-89271-090-X. (ISBN refers to 1998 impression).
External links
- City of Lock Haven official website
- The Express, local newspaper