Forest County (pop. 7,716) is west of Elk County. Forest County is the third-least-populous county in Pennsylvania.
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.
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.
Tionesta Lake is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir, built in 1940 for flood control.
Cook Forest State Park, southeast of Tionesta, is known for its virgin white pine and hemlock forests.
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