Rose Point is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

in east central Slippery Rock Township, Lawrence 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, very close to the Butler County line. Founded approximately 200 years ago, the community lies in a rural yet formerly industrial region of fields and broken terrain.

Geography

Rose Point's elevation is . It lies on the northern side of U.S. Route 422 at its intersection with Rose Point Road, along the gorge of the

Slippery Rock Creek Slippery Rock Creek is a stream in western Pennsylvania, a tributary of Connoquenessing Creek. Course and history From its source in Hilliards in Butler County, it flows through McConnells Mill State Park before flowing into the Connoquen ...

. tp://ftp.dot.state.pa.us/public/pdf/BPR_pdf_files/Maps/GHS/Roadnames/lawrence_GHSN.PDF General Highway Map, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania,

Pennsylvania Department of Transportation The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) oversees transportation issues in the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The administrator of PennDOT is the Pennsylvania Secretary of Transportation, Michael B. Carroll. PennDOT ...

, 2008. Accessed 2008-12-12. Located east of the city of New Castle, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

of Lawrence County, the community sits approximately midway between New Castle and

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments, with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantries, pantr ...

. It lies near two of U.S. 422's significant intersections: with

U.S. Route 19 U.S. Route 19 or U.S. Highway 19 (US 19) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway in the Eastern United States. Despite encroaching Interstate Highways, the route has remained a long-haul road, connecting the Gulf of Mex ...

, approximately away, and with

Interstate 79 Interstate 79 (I-79) is an Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States, designated from I-77 in Charleston, West Virginia, north to Pennsylvania Route 5 (PA 5) and PA 290 in Erie, Pennsylvania. It is a primary thoroughfare t ...

, about distant. In the vicinity of Rose Point are multiple state parks:

Moraine State Park Moraine State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on in Brady, Clay, Franklin, Muddy Creek, and Worth townships in Butler County, Pennsylvania. The park includes a man-made lake, Lake Arthur, formed by impounding Muddy Creek, which is and ...

, including the large Lake Arthur, is located to the east not far past Interstate 79, while

McConnells Mill State Park McConnells Mill State Park is a List of Pennsylvania state parks, Pennsylvania state park in Perry Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, Perry and Slippery Rock Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, Slippery Rock Townships, Lawrence County ...

sits on the opposite side of U.S. 422.

Geology

The bedrock around Rose Point is primarily the soft rock of the large Vanport Limestone layer, which has a 93.6% content of

calcium carbonate Calcium carbonate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a common substance found in Rock (geology), rocks as the minerals calcite and aragonite, most notably in chalk and limestone, eggshells, gastropod shells, shellfish skel ...

and low levels of

magnesium carbonate Magnesium carbonate, (archaic name magnesia alba), is an inorganic salt that is a colourless or white solid. Several hydrated and Base (chemistry), basic forms of magnesium carbonate also exist as minerals. Forms The most common magnesium car ...

and

silica Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundant f ...

.Fawley, J. Philip and Kenneth M. Long
"Harlansburg Cave: The Longest Cave in Pennsylvania"
''Journal of Cave and Karst Studies'' 59, p. 106-111. Hydrocarbons were originally prevalent in the township: significant

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...

beds of fine quality were found throughout the area, and

oil well An oil well is a drillhole boring in Earth that is designed to bring petroleum oil hydrocarbons to the surface. Usually some natural gas is released as associated petroleum gas along with the oil. A well that is designed to produce only gas m ...

s were drilled in hopes of reaching the edge of the

Venango County Venango County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 50,454. Its county seat is Franklin. The county was created in 1800 and later organized in 1805. The county is part of the Northwest Pen ...

-centered oil fields. Seen most clearly in the deep and broken gorge of the Slippery Rock CreekDurant, S.W. and P.A. Durant. ''History of Lawrence County Pennsylvania, 1770-1877''
Slippery Rock Township
transcribed and posted on 2001-03-21. Accessed 2008-12-12. is the

karst topography Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

of the region around Rose Point, which also includes significant cave complexes. Leading among the caves in the area is the Harlansburg Cave, Pennsylvania's longest cave, which has been reported to extend from Harlansburg (eleven miles away) to Rose Point. Smaller caves such as the Rose Point Cave also exist in the area, parallel to the Harlansburg Cave; all these caves are believed to have been formed by stream water forced underground during wetter times of the year, causing their passages to be maze-like rather than linear.

History

The first settler in the Rose Point vicinity were Abraham Wigle and Samuel Stickle of Westmoreland County, who arrived in 1804. Wigle was the first of many to harness the power of the Slippery Rock Creek, building a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and Wheat middlings, middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that h ...

and a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

on its banks in about 1825; although Wigle's mill was destroyed by water, another mill (later abandoned) was built shortly before 1850, and the still-preserved McConnells Mill is just downstream. Various businesses were established in the community, including a hotel, blacksmiths' and cobblers' shops, and multiple stores. Two churches were established in the community: one

Reformed Presbyterian The Reformed Presbyterian Global Alliance is a communion of Presbyterians originating in Scotland in 1690 when its members refused to conform to the establishment of the Church of Scotland. The Reformed Presbyterian churches collectively have a ...

(which still exists), and one

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

. Slippery Rock Township's natural resources were exploited in Rose Point, with iron furnaces being built to use locally produced

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the f ...

, coal, and

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

. Of these two, the Willie Roy or Wilroy Furnace, built in 1854, has been recognized as a Pennsylvania state historic location. Public services were also introduced to the community: a post office was opened in the 1850s, and a village school was established in the early 1860s. Dates given for the establishment of the Rose Point post office vary from 1852 to 1858; regardless of the date of its establishment, the post office operated until disestablishment in 1933. Today, Rose Point addresses are served by the New Castle ZIP code, 16101.Directions
Rose Point Reformed Presbyterian Church; an

Rose Point Park. Both undated; both accessed 2008-12-13. While the community has long been known only as Rose Point, it also bore the name of "Stonetown" for a time in its early history; the post office, however, was always named Rose Point.

References

About 1850, John Stoner purchased the land on which the village stands, and a small cluster of houses was soon built, and the place took the name of . 118Stonertown, from Mr. Stoner. The post-office is called Rose Point, and was established about 1855-58

External links

Township and community history
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania Unincorporated communities in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania