Bedford Township is a

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

in Bedford County,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, United States. The population was 5,103 at the 2020 census.

History

The

Bedford Village Archeological Site The Bedford Village Archeological Site ( 36BD90) is an archaeological site in central Bedford County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located in Bedford Township north of the borough of Bedford, it was once occupied by a Monongahela culture vill ...

is located in northern Bedford Township, north of the borough of

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

. The site of a village of the

Monongahela tribe The Monongahela culture were an Iroquoian Native American cultural manifestation of Late Woodland peoples from AD 1050 to 1635 in present-day Western Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern Ohio, and West Virginia. The culture was named by Mary ...

, it is currently occupied by Old Bedford Village, a

living history museum A living museum, also known as a living history museum, is a type of museum which recreates historical settings to simulate a past time period, providing visitors with an Experiential education, experiential Heritage interpretation, interpretatio ...

Geography

Bedford Township is located in the center of Bedford County and surrounds the borough of Bedford. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the township has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.34%, is water.

Adjacent municipalities

* Harrison Township (southwest) * Napier Township (west) * East Saint Clair Township (northwest) * South Woodbury Township (north) * Snake Spring Township (east) * Colerain Township (southeast) * Cumberland Valley Township (south) *

Borough of Bedford Bedford, or the Borough of Bedford, is a Districts of England, local government district with borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire, England. It is administered by Bedford Borough Council, ...

(surrounded)

Geology

Bedford valley is a

synclinal Synclinal may refer to: * Syncline, in structural geology, a syncline is a fold, with younger layers closer to the center of the structure. *Synclinal, in alkane stereochemistry, a torsion angle between 30° to 90° and –30° to –90° See als ...

valley, with

Evitts Mountain Evitts Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in the Ridge and Valley region of the Appalachian Mountains, located in Bedford County, Pennsylvania, and Allegany County, Maryland. Geography The ridge line runs north from Rocky Gap State Park in Ma ...

forming the eastern limb and

Wills Mountain Wills Mountain is a quartzite-capped ridge in the Ridge and Valley physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains in Pennsylvania and Maryland, extending from near Bedford, Pennsylvania, to near Cumberland, Maryland. It is the northernmo ...

forming a part of the western limb. The northern end of Wills Mountain is known as

Kinton Knob Kinton Knob is a peak that is located in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. Geography Kinton Knob marks the north end of Wills Mountain where it abruptly ends just southwest of the town of Bedford. The mountain has an array of communication towe ...

and is the crest of a plunging

anticline In structural geology, an anticline is a type of Fold (geology), fold that is an arch-like shape and has its oldest Bed (geology), beds at its core, whereas a syncline is the inverse of an anticline. A typical anticline is convex curve, c ...

. The

Silurian The Silurian ( ) is a geologic period and system spanning 23.5 million years from the end of the Ordovician Period, at million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Devonian Period, Mya. The Silurian is the third and shortest period of t ...

Tuscarora Formation The Silurian Tuscarora Formation — also known as Tuscarora Sandstone or Tuscarora Quartzite — is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia, US. Description The Tuscarora is a thin- to thick-bedded fine-gra ...

, a hard

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, outcrops at the crests of these ridges and is

stratigraphically Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks. Stratigraphy has three related subfields: lithostrati ...

lower and thus older than the rest of the

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

in the township. The overlying formations are either Silurian or

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

in age, and include (in ascending order) the

Clinton Group The Clinton Group (also referred to as the Clinton Formation or the Clinton Shale) is a mapped unit of sedimentary rock found throughout eastern North America. The interval was first defined by the geologist Lardner Vanuxem, who derived the name ...

, the

Bloomsburg Formation The Silurian Bloomsburg Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maryland. It is named for the town of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, in which it was first described. The Bloomsburg marked the first occurrence of red ...

, the

Mifflintown Formation The Mifflintown Formation is a geologic formation in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. It preserves fossils dating back to the Silurian period. The type location is near Mifflintown, Pennsylvania Mifflintown is a borough in and the cou ...

, the

Wills Creek Formation Wills Creek Formation is a mapped Silurian bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. Description The Wills Creek is defined as a moderately well bedded greenish-gray shale containing local limestone and sandstone zon ...

, the

Tonoloway Formation The Late Silurian Tonoloway Formation is a mapped limestone bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. The Tonoloway is roughly equivalent to the Salina group that is found to the north and west. Description The basal 5 ...

, the Keyser Formation, the

Old Port Formation The Devonian Old Port Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, USA. Details of the type section and of stratigraphic nomenclature for this unit as used by the U.S. Geological Survey are available on-line at the National Geologic Map Da ...

, the

Onondaga Formation The Onondaga Limestone is a group of hard limestones and dolomites of Devonian age that forms geographic features in some areas in which it outcrops; in others, especially its Southern Ontario portion, the formation can be less prominent as a lo ...

, and the Hamilton Group, which is composed of the

Marcellus Shale Marcellus may refer to: People * Marcellus (name) * Marcellus of Ancyra, fourth-century Christian bishop and theologian * Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Roman commander * Marcellus of Tangier * Marcellus Empiricus * Marcellus (nephew of Augustu ...

and the Mahantango Formation. The Ridgeley Member of the Old Port Formation, another sandstone and conglomerate, forms the low ridge in the center of the township south of the town of Bedford, as well as Stiffler Ridge in Dunning Cove. Dunning Cove itself is a

structural basin A structural basin is a large-scale structural geology, structural formation of rock stratum, strata formed by tectonics, tectonic warping (Fold (geology), folding) of previously flat-lying strata into a syncline fold. They are geological dep ...

.Berg, T.M., Edmunds, W.E., Geyer, A.R. and others, compilers, (1980). Geologic Map of Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Geologic Survey, Map 1, scale 1:250,000.

Recreation

A portion of the

Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 48 The Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 48 are Pennsylvania State Game Lands in Bedford County in Pennsylvania in the United States providing hunting, bird watching, and other activities. Geography SGL 48 consists of two parcels located in ...

is located in the township.https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/advanced-viewer/ The National Map, retrieved October 3, 2018Pennsylvania State Game Lands Number 48
retrieved October 6, 2018

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 5,417 people, 2,144 households, and 1,560 families residing in the township. The population density was . There were 2,403 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the township was 97.14%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.33%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.06% Native American, 0.48% Asian, 0.24% from other races, and 0.76% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.59% of the population. There were 2,144 households, out of which 28.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 61.8% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.2% were non-families. 23.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 11.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 2.86. In the township the population was spread out, with 21.3% under the age of 18, 6.3% from 18 to 24, 28.7% from 25 to 44, 23.8% from 45 to 64, and 20.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 98.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.9 males. The median income for a household in the township was $36,395, and the median income for a family was $43,235. Males had a median income of $28,833 versus $21,177 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the township was $18,676. About 5.3% of families and 6.5% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 6.8% of those under age 18 and 7.4% of those age 65 or over.

References

External links

Bedford Township official website
{{Coord, 40, 00, 02, N, 78, 32, 29, W, type:city_region:US-PA_source:GNIS-enwiki, display=title Populated places established in 1761 Townships in Bedford County, Pennsylvania Townships in Pennsylvania