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Bedford County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of 2000, the population was 49,984. The county seat is Bedford.

History

Robert MacRay opened the first trading post in Raystown (which is now Bedford) on the land that is now Bedford County in 1750. The settlers had a difficult time dealing with raids from Indians and the fighting between the French and the British.

In 1759, after the capture of Fort Duquesne in Allegheny County, a road was built between the fort (which was renamed to Fort Pitt) to the newly built Fort Bedford in Raystown. The road turned from Indian trails, into "Forbes Road", and still later into the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Bedford County was created on March 9, 1771 from part of Cumberland County and named in honor of the Fort Bedford.

The area quickly increased in population once safety became more established. The land with its lush farmland and woodland became an attractive site. It also formed an important center on the way to Pittsburgh and farther west of Pennsylvania. George Washington stayed in the county in response to the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794.

The Bedford Springs Hotel became an important site for the wealthy. Under President James Buchanan, the hotel became the summer White House. The U.S. Supreme Court met at the hotel once. It was the only time that the high court met outside of the Capital.

The 19th century featured a population boom in the county with the population doubling in size between 1870 and 1890. Railroads passing through the town connected the county with the mining industry.

Law and Government

Pennsylvania State Senate

Pennsylvania House Of Representatives

United States House Of Representaives

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 2,635 km² (1,017 mi²). 2,628 km² (1,015 mi²) of it is land and 7 km² (3 mi²) of it (0.28%) is water.

Adjacent counties

Geology

Bedford County is situated along the western border of the Ridge and Valley Physiographic Province, which is characterized by folded and faulted sedimentary rocks of early to middle Paleozoic age. The northwestern border of the county is approximately at the Allegheny Front, a geological boundary between the Ridge and Valley Province and the Allegheny Plateau (characterized by relatively flat-lying sedimentary rocks of late Paleozoic age). (PA Geologic Survey Map 13)

The stratigraphic record of sedimentary rocks within the county spans from the Cambrian Warrior Formation to the Pennsylvanian Conemaugh Group (in the Broad Top area). No igneous or metamorphic rocks of any kind exist within the county.

The primary mountains within the county (From west to east: Wills Mountain, Evitts/Dunning Mountain, and Tussey Mountain) extend from the southern border with Maryland to the northeast into Blair County, and are held up by the Silurian Tuscarora Formation, made of quartz sandstone and conglomerate. Chestnut Ridge is a broad anticline held up by the Devonian Ridgeley Member of the Old Port Formation, also made of sandstone and conglomerate. Broad Top, located north of Breezewood, is a plateau of relatively flat-lying rocks that are stratigraphically higher, and thus younger (Mississippian and Pennsylvanian), than most of the other rocks within the county (Cambrian through Devonian). Broad Top extends into Huntingdon County to the north and Fulton County to the east.

The Raystown Branch of the Juniata River is the main drainage in the county. It is part of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The river flows to the east through the mountains within the county through several water gaps caused by a group of faults trending east-west through the central part of the county. The river then turns north and flows into Raystown Lake in Huntingdon County.

All of Bedford County lies far to the south of the glacial boundary, and thus it was never glaciated (PA Geologic Survey Map 59). However, during the Pleistocene epoch, or "Ice Age," periglacial (meaning "around glacier" or simply "cold") processes dominated. Most of the county was most likely a tundra at this time. The many boulder fields obvious as rocky and often treeless areas on mountainsides within the county formed as a result of seasonal freeze-thaw cycles during this time.

Several limestone quarries exist in Bedford County, most of which are owned and operated by New Enterprise Stone and Lime Company. Quarry locations include Ashcom, New Paris, Kilcoin, and Sproul. *.

Two coal fields exist within Bedford County. One is the Broad Top Field in the northeastern corner of the county, and the other is the Georges Creek Field along the southwestern border Both fields contain bituminous coal. There are abandoned mines in both areas and acid mine drainage is an environmental problem in the Broad Top area, where several fishless streams exist as a result of the discharge from the abandoned mines. [http://bedford.sapdc.org/bedford/lib/bedford/AcidMineDrainage.pdf.

Natural gas fields and storage areas exist in southeastern Bedford County, primarily within folded Devonian rocks south of Breezewood. Another deep gas field exists in the vicinity of Blue Knob on the border with Blair County to the north. (PA Geologic Survey Map 10)

Interesting geologic features within Bedford County include some of the following:

  • New Enterprise New Paris quarry, where fossil corals and bryozoans may be found within the Devonian Keyser Limestone.
  • Coral Caverns * in Manns Choice.
  • The roadcut through Warrior Ridge on Rt. 30 (Everett Bypass), where an exposure of Silurian and Devonian rocks from limestone to shale to conglomerate can be seen.
  • Sweet Root Gap, where periglacial processes have created a bouldery landscape by eroding the Tuscarora Formation of Tussey Mountain south of Everett.
  • Blue Knob, a notable ski resort and recreational area, is also the state's second highest point at 3146 feet/959 m (after Mount Davis in Somerset County to the west).
  • A transpression structure is located on the northern border of the county (shared with Blair County), about three miles east of the town of Woodbury. This structure is an up-thrust block of Cambrian and Ordovician rocks bounded on all sides by north-trending faults. The southern tip of the structure is approximately at Pulpit Hill.
  • An outcrop on the north side of Rt. 30 about three miles west of the village of Juniata Crossing shows an excellent example of a thrust fault within the Devonian Catskill Formation.
  • The Raystown Branch of the Juniata River between Breezewood and Raystown Lake to the north is an example of a river with incised (or entrenched) meanders.

Demographics

As of the census² of 2000, there were 49,984 people, 19,768 households, and 14,489 families residing in the county. The population density was 19/km² (49/mi²). There were 23,529 housing units at an average density of 9/km² (23/mi²). The racial makeup of the county was 98.54% White, 0.36% Black or African American, 0.11% Native American, 0.29% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.16% from other races, and 0.54% from two or more races. 0.53% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 19,768 households out of which 30.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.70% were married couples living together, 7.70% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.70% were non-families. 23.50% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.50% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 2.95.

In the county, the population was spread out with 23.60% under the age of 18, 7.20% from 18 to 24, 28.10% from 25 to 44, 24.60% from 45 to 64, and 16.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 97.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.40 males.

Municipalities

Boroughs

Townships

Education

Public School Districts

Bedford County, Pennsylvania | Pennsylvania counties

Bedford County (Pennsylvania) | Condado de Bedford (Pensilvânia)

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Bedford County, Pennsylvania".

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