Woodward Cave is a public cave in Penns Valley that is also one of the most important sites in Pennsylvania for winter-hibernating bats. The limestone cave was created by Pine Creek, which for centuries flowed through it, creating a series of tunnels and large rooms.
Big Spring is a natural groundwater outlet found in Talleyrand Park in downtown Bellefonte, noteworthy for both its unique geology and its historical significance.The powerful spring forms a pool at the edge of the park.
Andrew Gregg was an early landowner in Penns Valley who became an important politician, representing the middle portion of the state in the U.S. House of Representatives and Pennsylvania as a United States senator.
Centre County is comprised of twenty-five townships and ten boroughs that provide local government for residents. The number of boroughs and townships has grown and changed since the county’s founding in 1801.
Boalsburg, originally known as Springfield, is a historic village in Harris Township, near the base of Tussey Mountain. After the Revolutionary War, settlers moved to the valley and among them was David Boal, who built a stone cabin in 1803, which still stands as part today’s Boal Mansion.
Evangelical churches share common roots in the Protestant Reformation and later “awakenings” that established new denominations stressing personal salvation, holiness, emotional worship, and simplicity.
Limestone has played an essential role in Centre County’s economic history. Widely used for both industrial and agricultural purposes, limestone has been mined in the county for more than 200 years.
John Patton was a Revolutionary War veteran and prosperous Philadelphia merchant and civic leader, who moved to Centre County in 1789 to build the region’s first charcoal-fired iron furnace, Centre Furnace.
Before European colonists arrived, Pennsylvania was an estimated 97 percent forested. Centre County is in an ecological region in which the aboriginal forest was dominated by white pine and hemlock, both of which had lucrative industrial applications that attracted colonists and entrepreneurs.
When slavery is mentioned in the history of Centre County, it is usually in the context of abolitionism and the Underground Railroad in the decades before the Civil War. However, the county also has its own local history of slavery and slave ownership.
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