Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania

Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania
Lackawanna County Courthouse
Location in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania's location in the U.S.
Founded	August 13, 1878
Named for	Lackawanna River
Seat	Scranton
Largest city	Scranton
Area
• Total	465 sq mi (1,204 km2)
• Land	459 sq mi (1,189 km2)
• Water	5.8 sq mi (15 km2), 1.3%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	211,917
• Density	462/sq mi (178/km²)
Congressional district	17th
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Website	www.lackawannacounty.org

Lackawanna County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 214,437. Its county seat and largest city is Scranton.

The county was created on August 13, 1878, following decades of trying to gain its independence from Luzerne County. (The courts were organized in October 1878.) It is Pennsylvania's last county to be created. It is named for the Lackawanna River.

Lackawanna County is included in the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area ("Wyoming Valley"). It is the second largest County within the metropolitan area. It lies northwest of the Pocono Mountains. Lackawanna County is located approximately 40 miles from the New Jersey border in Montague, New Jersey and also located approximately 33 miles from upstate New York in Windsor, New York.

Lackawanna County is a region that was developed for iron production and anthracite coal mining in the nineteenth century, with its peak of coal production reached in the mid-20th century. Scranton, then still part of Luzerne County, became a center of mining and industry. It was the site of the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company, which later began to produce steel using the Bessemer process. In 1877 at the time of the Scranton General Strike, the company was managed by William Walker Scranton, whose father had been president until his death in 1872. Two of his cousins had been founders of the company and the city.