Pennsylvania's Heritage Parks are about the eras of steel and iron making, coal mining, the oil boom, canal and road building, blazing the early roads and highways and living off the land. They're about the influx of immigrants, the challenges and triumphs of a determined people and the birth of liberty and independence. They are why Pennsylvania became the Hearth of America. We invite you to learn more and visit our Heritage Parks.
Lumber Heritage Park
One
of two most recently designated Heritage Parks is the Lumber Heritage Park.
Journeying through this area, the ever-present forest stands out as one of the
most striking features of the landscape. Woven into every trunk and limb are
stories of lumber heritage, a culture defined by its forests. From the inception
of the industrialized timber industry through the emergence of the current forest
products industry, an indelible mark has been imprinted upon the culture of
every community and every generation of the park. Visit
this heritage park...
Oil Heritage Park
In
northwest Pennsylvania, check out the Oil Heritage Park. Take a guess where
the first oil well was drilled-no, not Texas-it was right here in a picturesque
valley in Venango County, Pa.! The discovery shaped the nation and changed the
world. Today, bass anglers and fly fishermen wet their lines in the scenic Allegheny
River and Oil Creek, where oil coated waterways and derricks dotted the hillsides
more than a century ago. Visit
this heritage park...