Allegheny National Park
A national park would put the Allegheny on the map: visitors in our towns, money in our shops, and the working forest still working.
What a park does for towns like ours
A national park sign changes who drives in. The places that got one are living off it now, and every one of them is within a day's drive of here.
- $211 millionDelaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania4.1 million visitors in 2024 spent $164 million nearby, worth $211 million to the local economy.
- 30% moreNew River Gorge, West VirginiaVisits rose by more than 30% after it became a national park in 2020. Visitors spent $108 million in the gorge towns in 2024.
- $208 millionIndiana Dunes, IndianaWhat the park put into its local economy in 2022, three years after the name changed.
- 544 jobsPictured Rocks, MichiganSupported by $45.8 million of visitor spending in 2023, in a corner of the Upper Peninsula much like ours.
The Allegheny National Forest drew 185,362 visitors in 2016. We already have the lakes, the old growth, and the overlooks. What we don't have is the sign that tells millions of people within a day's drive that this place is worth the trip.
Figures from National Park Service visitor spending reports.
Not this year. Someday.
Congress makes national parks, and it moves when a region is ready. That means patient work in Warren, Bradford, Kane, Tionesta, Sheffield, Ridgway, and Salamanca. This site is where it starts.
517,000 acres of forest. 77,500 of them elevated.
A park would raise up the 77,500 acres people already drive here to see, and give them a national name: the rim of the Kinzua at Rimrock and Jakes Rocks, the old growth at Hearts Content and Tionesta, the two wildernesses, and the islands in the river.
The other 440,000 acres keep working. Timber, oil and gas, hunting camps, and every ATV trail carry on in the national forest, exactly as they do today.
The six units
- Kinzua38,418 acresThe Pennsylvania shore of the Allegheny Reservoir: Rimrock Overlook, Jakes Rocks, Kinzua Point, and the Tracy Ridge and Cornplanter roadless areas.
- Hickory Creek and Hearts Content13,210 acresThe Hickory Creek Wilderness and the old-growth white pine and hemlock of Hearts Content.
- Allegheny River9,342 acresThe river unit of the Allegheny National Recreation Area, the Allegheny Front roadless area, and the seven islands of the Allegheny River Islands Wilderness.
- Tionesta4,410 acresThe Tionesta Scenic and Research Natural Areas, the largest old-growth forest of its kind in the region.
- Minister Valley2,506 acresThe roadless valley of Minister Creek and its rock outcrops.
- Clarion River9,647 acresThe Clarion River roadless area and the national forest land along the wild and scenic Clarion.
Map key
- Proposed national park
- Stays Allegheny National Forest
- Allegany Territory, Seneca Nation
The park follows the quiet ground: the wilderness, recreation, scenic, and roadless areas already in the forest, plus the land around them with no oil or gas wells. All 106 miles of the forest's ATV trails stay in the national forest, and 21 of its 96 miles of the North Country Trail run through the park. Map data: USDA Forest Service, Pennsylvania DEP, USGS, and U.S. Census Bureau.
Parks in pieces
Plenty of National Parks come in separate pieces. Theodore Roosevelt is three units, with the North and South Units about 70 miles apart. Acadia spreads across Mount Desert Island, the Schoodic Peninsula, and Isle au Haut. Saguaro's two districts sit on opposite sides of Tucson, and Channel Islands is five islands. Cuyahoga Valley and Indiana Dunes weave through towns, farms, and highways. No two Allegheny units would be more than 23 miles apart.
What the park adds
- Park Service care for the old growth, the wilderness, and the river.
- New trails, overlooks, and visitor centers the region has wanted for years.
- A name that brings visitors from Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Buffalo, with no entrance fee.
What keeps working
- Hunting and fishing, season after season.
- Timber, oil, and gas across the working forest.
- Every ATV, bike, and snowmobile trail.
Every acre is public land already, so the park asks nothing of any landowner.
The forgotten corner of the East
- TionestaMore than 4,000 acres of old growth, the largest virgin forest of its kind in the region.
- Hearts ContentTowering old-growth white pine and hemlock, a National Natural Landmark.
- Hickory Creek Wilderness8,630 acres of roadless forest.
- Allegheny River IslandsSeven wild islands, among them Thompson's Island, a wilderness since 1984.
- KinzuaThe reservoir, the river, and 23,100 acres of national recreation area along their shores.
- North Country Trail96 miles of the 4,800-mile trail from Vermont to North Dakota.
How we got here
- 1859Edwin Drake drills the first oil well near Titusville, and the world's first oil boom sweeps the region.
- 1923The Allegheny National Forest is established on land stripped by logging.
- 1964The Wilderness Act, written by Tionesta's Howard Zahniser, becomes law.
- 1965The Kinzua Dam is finished. Its reservoir floods Seneca Nation land and towns and forces families from their homes.
- 1984Congress creates the Hickory Creek and Allegheny Islands wildernesses and the Allegheny National Recreation Area.
- 2018The Allegheny National Park Campaign launches in northwestern Pennsylvania.
- SomedayCongress asks the National Park Service to study an Allegheny National Park, the first formal step.
Questions
Can I still hunt and fish?
Yes. Hunting and fishing carry on across the six acres in seven that stay national forest, and parts of the park itself could be a national preserve, where hunting is allowed, as it is at New River Gorge.
What about timber and oil and gas?
They keep working across the rest of the forest, and the park adds a second economy beside them. At the Delaware Water Gap in eastern Pennsylvania, a Park Service site smaller than this proposal, visitors supported 2,232 local jobs and $219 million in local sales in 2015.
Whose land would the park use?
Only land the public already owns. Every acre in the proposal is federal land today, and it would simply move from the Forest Service to the Park Service.
What about the Seneca Nation?
The Kinzua Dam flooded Seneca land and towns within living memory. A park should be planned with the Seneca Nation, and it should tell that story in full.
What happens between now and someday?
We answer every question, gather names, and earn the support of the people who live here. When the region is ready to ask, the case will be ready too.
Add your name
We're gathering names: people, businesses, and groups who'd like to see an Allegheny National Park someday. It costs nothing and asks nothing of you. It's a count we can point to when the time comes.