*** Welcome to piglix ***

Ricketts Glen State Park

Ricketts Glen State Park
Pennsylvania State Park
Photo of a relatively small amount of water that drops from a ledge and falls in front of layers of rock into a large pool covered with a scattering of floating green and yellow leaves. Green vegetation is visible on the rocks above and behind the falls.
Harrison Wright Falls, 27 feet (8.2 m), at Ricketts Glen State Park
Named for: Robert Bruce Ricketts
Country United States
State Pennsylvania
Counties Columbia, Luzerne, Sullivan
Townships Sugarloaf, Fairmount, Ross, Colley, Davidson
Elevation 2,198 ft (670 m)
Coordinates 41°19′34″N 76°16′46″W / 41.32611°N 76.27944°W / 41.32611; -76.27944Coordinates: 41°19′34″N 76°16′46″W / 41.32611°N 76.27944°W / 41.32611; -76.27944 
Area 13,046.54 acres (5,279.75 ha)
Founded 1942
Management Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Visitation 500,000
IUCN category V - Protected Landscape/Seascape
A map of the state of Pennsylvania with a red dot in the northeast part
A map of the state of Pennsylvania with a red dot in the northeast part
Location of Ricketts Glen State Park in Pennsylvania
Website: www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/rickettsglen/index.htm

Ricketts Glen State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on 13,050 acres (5,280 ha) in Columbia, Luzerne, and Sullivan counties in Pennsylvania in the United States. Ricketts Glen is a National Natural Landmark known for its old-growth forest and 24 named waterfalls along Kitchen Creek, which flows down the Allegheny Front escarpment from the Allegheny Plateau to the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians. The park is near the borough of Benton on Pennsylvania Route 118 and Pennsylvania Route 487, and is in five townships: Sugarloaf in Columbia County, Fairmount and Ross in Luzerne County, and Colley and Davidson in Sullivan County.

Ricketts Glen's land was once home to Native Americans. From 1822 to 1827, a turnpike was built along the course of PA 487 in what is now the park, where two squatters harvested cherry trees to make bed frames from about 1830 to 1860. The park's waterfalls were one of the main attractions for a hotel from 1873 to 1903; the park is named for the hotel's proprietor, R. Bruce Ricketts, who built the trail along the waterfalls. By the 1890s Ricketts owned or controlled over 80,000 acres (320 km2; 120 sq mi) and made his fortune clearcutting almost all of that land, including much of what is now the park; however he preserved about 2,000 acres (810 ha) of virgin forest in the creek's three glens. The sawmill was at the village of Ricketts, which was mostly north of the park. After his death in 1918, Ricketts' heirs began selling land to the state for Pennsylvania State Game Lands.


...
Wikipedia

...