Forest County (pop. 7,716) is west of Elk County. Forest County is the third-least-populous county in Pennsylvania.
Forest County in 1895
The county was named for the many forests within its boundaries.
The county’s population increased 56% from 2000 (when it was 4,946) to 2010, because of the opening of the State Correctional Institution-Forest, a maximum-security prison.
Built in 2004
The county seat of Forest County is the borough of Tionesta (pop. 483), second-smallest county seat in Pennsylvania.
The privately owned, 75-foot Sherman Memorial Lighthouse (2004) is on Lighthouse Island (actually a peninsula) in the Allegheny River in Tionesta. It is open occasionally for tours.
60 miles from navigable water (Lake Erie)
Tionesta Lake is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir, built in 1940 for flood control.
Popular for boating and fishing
Cook Forest State Park, southeast of Tionesta, is known for its virgin white pine and hemlock forests.
The finest old-growth forest in the state
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