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Aerial view of Presque Isle State Park, Erie, PA, circa 2007.
Credit: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library, photo by Ken Winters
The focal point of local tourism, Presque Isle has long been Pennsylvania’s most popular state park. Pollution of the bay caused by industrial dumping and sewage in the mid-1900s, however, ended swimming and hurt Erie’s economy. Tourism rebounded as anti-pollution measures took effect in the late 1900s.