Raccoon Creek State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on Raccoon Creek in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

and

Independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the stat ...

townships in Beaver County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

in the United States. The park is about from the city of

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, near Hookstown. Raccoon Creek State Park is easily accessed from

Pennsylvania Route 18 Pennsylvania Route 18 (PA 18) is a major north–south highway in Western Pennsylvania whose southern terminus is at West Virginia Route 69 (WV 69) at the state line in Greene County near the village of Garrison, while the northern termin ...

and U.S Routes 30 and 22. The park offers numerous activities such as hiking, biking,

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreatio ...

, camping, swimming,

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from fish stocking, stocked bodies of water such as fish pond, ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. ...

, and boating, the last three at the "Raccoon Lake." Raccoon Creek State Park was chosen by the

Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), established on July 1, 1995, is the agency in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania responsible for maintaining and preserving the state's 124 state parks and 20 state forests; ...

(DCNR) and its Bureau of Parks as one of "25 Must-See Pennsylvania State Parks".

History

Health resort

Raccoon Creek State Park is located on the site of a former

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwa ...

health resort. Frankfort Minerals Springs was the site of a natural

mineral spring Mineral springs are naturally occurring springs that produces hard water, water that contains dissolved minerals. Salts, sulfur compounds, and gases are among the substances that can be dissolved in the spring water during its passage un ...

. It was founded by Edward McGinnis in the mid-19th century. He believed that the mineral spring waters held curative powers. McGinnis built his resort atop a hill in what is now Raccoon Creek State Park. Visitors to the resort walked down steps to the springs. The resort was very prosperous. At one time it featured a

hotel A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

dance hall Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for dancing. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub. The majority of towns and cities in ...

livery stable A livery is an identifying design, such as a uniform, ornament, symbol or insignia that designates ownership or affiliation, often found on an individual or vehicle. Livery will often have elements of the heraldry relating to the individual or ...

and numerous guest cottages. Frankfort Mineral Springs closed during the first part of the 20th century.

Recreational Demonstration Area

Along with two other Pennsylvania state parks, Raccoon Creek State Park was established as a

Recreational Demonstration Area The Recreational Demonstration Area program (also known as the Recreation Demonstration Area program) was a National Park Service program during the 1930s and early 1940s that built forty-six public parks in twenty-four states on , chiefly near urb ...

during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. Its earliest buildings, constructed by the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government unemployment, work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a ...

in 1935, are split among four areas: three group camps and a headquarters/maintenance complex.Milner, John, Associates. '' National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Raccoon Creek RDA'. National Park Service, October 1986. Accessed 2009-12-17. Built in the

National Park Service Rustic National Park Service rustic – sometimes colloquially called Parkitecture – is a style of architecture that developed in the early and middle 20th century in the United States National Park Service (NPS) through its efforts to create building ...

style, these buildings were added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1987 as a historic district; a total of 114

buildings and structures A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and funct ...

qualified as

contributing properties In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distri ...

. The district was added to the Register for several significant reasons: besides their distinctive architecture and their role as parts of a recreational area, the buildings reflect the federal government's attempts to resolve the poverty of the Depression through political means.

Park

Raccoon Creek State Park has continued to develop from its beginning in the 1930s to one of the largest state parks in Pennsylvania. Facilities at the park are a mix from the early camp to modern facilities. In addition to recreational areas, there are large tracts of undeveloped land. Scenes for the film

The Road ''The Road'' is a 2006 post-apocalyptic novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. The book details the grueling journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that ha ...

were filmed at the park in the spring of 2008.

Wildflower Reserve

The 314-acre Wildflower Reserve, located at the eastern section of Raccoon Creek State Park, contains one of the most diverse stands of wildflowers in western Pennsylvania. Over 700 species of plants have been identified in the Reserve . Trails lead through a variety of habitats like oak-hickory forest, pine plantations, woodland meadows, and flood plain forest along Raccoon Creek. Wildflowers can be observed throughout the growing season with peak wildflower blooms occurring in late April and August. Because of its uniqueness and to preserve the many wildflower species, the Reserve is closed to all activities other than hiking on designated trails. Wildflower Reserve Interpretive Center

Environment

Raccoon Creek State Park lies within the

Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests The Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests is an ecoregion of the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome, as defined by the World Wildlife Fund. It consists of mesophytic plants west of the Appalachian Mountains in the Southeastern United Sta ...

ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of ...

Recreation

There are about 500 picnic tables spread among 5 picnic areas at Raccoon Creek State Park. Five

pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

s are available to rent or if unrented are available on a first come, first served basis. Raccoon Lake is open for year-round fishing. The common game fish are bullhead catfish, bluegill,

yellow perch The yellow perch (''Perca flavescens''), commonly referred to as perch, striped perch, American perch, American river perch or preacher is a freshwater perciform fish native to much of North America. The yellow perch was described in 1814 by Sam ...

, crappie,

walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the yellow pike or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern United States. It is a North American close relat ...

muskellunge The muskellunge ''(Esox masquinongy)'', often shortened to muskie, musky or lunge is a species of large freshwater predatory fish native to North America. It is the largest member of the pike family, Esocidae. Origin of name The name "muskell ...

, and both

large Large means of great size. Large may also refer to: Mathematics * Arbitrarily large, a phrase in mathematics * Large cardinal, a property of certain transfinite numbers * Large category, a category with a proper class of objects and morphisms ( ...

and smallmouth bass. Raccoon Lake's feeder streams are stocked with

brook A brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to: Computing *Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C *Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler *BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programming ...

and rainbow trout by the

Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is an independent state agency responsible for the regulation of all fishing and boating in the state of Pennsylvania within the United States of America. Unlike many U.S. states, Pennsylvania has a sepa ...

. These fish can also be found in the lake.

Hunting Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products ( fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, ...

is permitted on over of Raccoon Creek State Park. Hunters are expected to follow the rules and regulations of the

Pennsylvania Game Commission The Pennsylvania Game Commission (PGC) is the state agency responsible for wildlife conservation and management in Pennsylvania in the United States. It was originally founded years ago and currently utilizes more than 700 full-time employees and ...

. The common game species are

ruffed grouse The ruffed grouse (''Bonasa umbellus'') is a medium-sized grouse occurring in forests from the Appalachian Mountains across Canada to Alaska. It is the most widely distributed game bird in North America. It is non-migratory. It is the only specie ...

squirrels Squirrels are members of the family Sciuridae, a family that includes small or medium-size rodents. The squirrel family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels (including chipmunks and prairie dogs, among others), and flying squirrels. Squ ...

turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...

pheasant Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera native range is restricted to Eurasia ...

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

, and rabbits. The hunting of

groundhog The groundhog (''Marmota monax''), also known as a woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots. The groundhog is a lowland creature of North America; it is found through mu ...

s is forbidden.

Nearby state parks

The following state parks are within of Raccoon Creek State Park: ''Note: shows Raccoon Creek State Park'' *

Beaver Creek State Park Beaver Creek State Park is a public recreation area in Columbiana County, Ohio in the United States. The park is near East Liverpool on the banks of Little Beaver Creek. Remnants of the historic Sandy and Beaver Canal can be found throughout t ...

(

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

) * Guilford Lake State Park (Ohio) *

Hillman State Park Hillman State Park is a Pennsylvania state park in Hanover Township, Washington County in the United States. It is about west of Pittsburgh. The park opened in the late 1960s and has been managed for hunting by the Pennsylvania Game Commiss ...

( Washington County) *

Point State Park Point State Park (locally known as The Point) is a Pennsylvania state park on in Downtown Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, forming the Ohio River. Built on land acqu ...

( Allegheny County) *

Tomlinson Run State Park Tomlinson Run State Park sits on along the small Ohio River tributary of the same name. This state park lies near the foremost tip of the panhandle, in Hancock County. This is the only state park in West Virginia that offers overnight accommo ...

(

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...

)

References

External links

* {{authority control Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania State parks of Pennsylvania Protected areas established in 1945 Buildings and structures completed in 1935 Parks in Beaver County, Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places in Beaver County, Pennsylvania Protected areas of Beaver County, Pennsylvania