Nittany Valley

Last updated
Nittany Valley
Region
Nittany Valley.jpg
Aerial photo of Nittany Valley looking east from Milesburg with Bald Eagle Mountain on the left and Mount Nittany on the upper right
Map of Pennsylvania highlighting Centre County.svg
Country United States
State Pennsylvania
County Centre
Elevation
1,154 ft (352 m)
Population
 (2010)
  Total25,502
Time zone UTC-5 (EST)
  Summer (DST) UTC-4 (EDT)
Zip
16823
Area code 814
The Little Nittany Valley looking north from Bellefonte with Sand Ridge to the right, Bald Eagle Mountain on the left, Interstate 80 in between, and Foster Joseph Sayers Reservoir in Bald Eagle State Park at the top left Nitt Val.JPG
The Little Nittany Valley looking north from Bellefonte with Sand Ridge to the right, Bald Eagle Mountain on the left, Interstate 80 in between, and Foster Joseph Sayers Reservoir in Bald Eagle State Park at the top left

Nittany Valley is an eroded anticlinal valley [1] located in Centre County, Pennsylvania. It is separated from the Bald Eagle Valley by Bald Eagle Mountain and from Penns Valley by Mount Nittany. The valley is closed to the north by a high plateau that joins these two mountain ridges, but is open to the south at the southern terminus of Mount Nittany. The valley drains to Bald Eagle Creek through water gaps in Bald Eagle Mountain formed by Spring Creek and Fishing Creek, along with smaller streams running through Curtain Gap and Howard Gap. The northwest side of the valley between the Bald Eagle Mountain ridge and the lower Sand Ridge is also known as the Little Nittany Valley.

Contents

The valley has a mixture of farmland, woodlots, and a number of working and abandoned quarries. Bellefonte, the county seat of Centre County, is the largest municipality completely within the valley. The Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution - Rockview, the Nittany Mall, the Pennsylvania Transportation Institute and University Park Airport are large facilities located in the valley. State College, Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania State University main University Park campus lie at the southern end of the Nittany and Penns Valleys, and this area is also known as "Happy Valley".

Transportation

The Keystone Shortway, now Interstate 80, runs diagonally across the Nittany Valley on a west to east line, from Curtin Gap east of Milesburg, Pennsylvania, to a natural gap in Mount Nittany and then via a deep rock cut along the Long Run stream. The Nittany and Bald Eagle Railroad short line spur that enters the valley from Milesburg, then runs along Spring Creek to Bellefonte, splits, with a track going northeast to Pleasant Gap and another going southwest to Lemont and State College. The spur to Bellefonte follows Pennsylvania Route 144 and the line from Lemont to Pleasant Gap follows Pennsylvania Route 26. Route 26 is the primary north to south route through the valley, and the Interstate 99 extension will also run along its new alignment to I-80.

Geology of Nittany Valley

Nittany Valley is in the western part of the Ridge and Valley province of the Appalachian Mountains. During the Appalachian orogeny, the sedimentary rock layers folded up into the Nittany Arch anticline. The arch was an ancient Himalayan scale mountain that towered above what is now the valley. The oldest rock layers from deep within the eroded mountain are now exposed on Sand Ridge in the middle of the valley. Younger rocks from the outer layers of the arch are exposed on the west side of the Bald Eagle Mountain ridge in the Bald Eagle Valley, with the youngest across that valley at the foot of the Allegheny Front. The Nittany Valley, formed in the area where the mountain once stood, is an example of inverse topography. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Centre County, Pennsylvania</span> County in Pennsylvania, United States

Centre County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 158,172. Its county seat is Bellefonte. Centre County comprises the State College, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Nittany</span>

Mount Nittany is the common name for Nittany Mountain, a prominent geographic feature in Centre County, Pennsylvania, United States. The mountain is part of a ridge that separates Nittany Valley from Penns Valley, with the enclosed Sugar Valley between them. On USGS topographic maps, Nittany Mountain is generally shown as the lower ridge line that runs below Big Mountain on the west and Big Kettle Mountain on the east side, coming together to form a single ridge line at the southern terminus. This nomenclature is not always consistently applied to the same geologic formation, and there is a shorter Nittany Mountain ridge shown above the Sugar Valley as well.

Spring Creek is a 25.2-mile-long (40.6 km) tributary of Bald Eagle Creek in Centre County, Pennsylvania in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nittany and Bald Eagle Railroad</span>

The Nittany and Bald Eagle Railroad is a short line railroad that operates 73 miles (117 km) of track in Blair, Centre, and Clinton counties in Pennsylvania in the United States. It is part of the North Shore Railroad System.

The Central Railroad of Pennsylvania was a short railroad of 27.3 miles (43.9 km) built to connect Bellefonte, Pennsylvania with the Beech Creek Railroad at Mill Hall, Pennsylvania. Sustained by shipments from the Bellefonte iron industry, the abandonment of the iron furnaces there led to its demise in 1918.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pennsylvania Route 150</span> State highway in Pennsylvania, US

Pennsylvania Route 150 is a 41.1-mile-long (66.1 km) highway in Central Pennsylvania. Its southern terminus is at PA 26 in Dale Summit, Pennsylvania near State College, at the location of the Nittany Mall. Its northern terminus is at U.S. Route 220 in Avis.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bald Eagle Valley</span>

Bald Eagle Valley is a low-lying area in Pennsylvania that drains into Bald Eagle Creek between the Allegheny Front and Bald Eagle Mountain, south of the West Branch Susquehanna River, in the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. The valley is located southwest of West Branch Susquehanna Valley and includes Williamsport, Nittany Valley, and State College in the central portion of Centre County and southern portion of Clinton County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bald Eagle Mountain</span>

Bald Eagle Mountain – once known locally as Muncy Mountain – is a stratigraphic ridge in the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians of central Pennsylvania, United States, running east of the Allegheny Front and northwest of Mount Nittany. It lies along the southeast side of Bald Eagle Creek and south of the West Branch Susquehanna River, and is the westernmost ridge in its section of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians. The ridge line separates the West Branch Susquehanna Valley from the Nippenose and White Deer Hole valleys, and Bald Eagle Valley from Nittany Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penns Valley</span> Region in Pennsylvania, United States

Penns Valley is an eroded anticlinal valley of the Pennsylvania ridge and valley geologic region of the Appalachian Mountain range. The valley is located in southern Centre County, Pennsylvania. Along with the Nittany Valley to the north and east, it is part of the larger Nittany Anticlinorium. It is bordered by Mount Nittany to the north, the Seven Mountains range to the south, and connects to the larger Nittany Valley to the west. There are two smaller subordinate valleys typically associated with the greater valley: Georges Valley in the south, separated by Egg Hill, and Brush Valley in the north, separated by Brush Mountain.

Morrisons Cove, is an eroded anticlinal valley in Blair and Bedford counties of central Pennsylvania, United States, extending from Evitts Mountain near New Enterprise, north to the Frankstown Branch Juniata River at Williamsburg. The width of the valley varies from 10 to 15 miles between Tussey Mountain on the east to the chain of Dunning, Loop and Lock Mountains on the west. Almost entirely enclosed by these mountains, the only openings in the cove are at Loysburg Gap in the south, McKee Gap in the west, and at Williamsburg to the north. The floor of the valley is mostly level, with many large fertile farm fields. The southern end of the valley drains to the Raystown Branch Juniata River via Yellow Creek through Loysburg Gap, and the northern end drains to the Frankstown Branch, via Clover Creek.

The Nittany Arch or Nittany anticline is an anticline geologic formation in the western part of the Ridge-and-Valley physiographic province of the Appalachian Mountains of Central Pennsylvania, United States. The Nitany Arch is more than 100 miles long, stretching from Muncy to Hollidaysburg, with a maximum width of approximately 9 miles.

The Bellefonte and Snow Shoe Railroad was a coal-hauling railroad in Centre County, Pennsylvania. Begun in 1859, it came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1881. Closing of mines in the 1930s resulted in the decline of traffic on the railroad, which was abandoned in 1959.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brush Mountain (Blair County, Pennsylvania)</span>

Brush Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in the Appalachian Mountains of central Pennsylvania, United States, lying east of the Allegheny Front and west of Tussey Mountain. It runs along the southeast side of the Little Juniata River and forms a horseshoe around Sinking Run, and is the westernmost ridge in its section of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. The western ridge line separates the Logan Valley from the Sinking Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tussey Mountain</span>

Tussey Mountain is a stratigraphic ridge in central Pennsylvania, United States, trending east of the Bald Eagle, Brush, Dunning and Evitts Mountain ridges. Its southern foot just crosses the Mason–Dixon line near Flintstone, Maryland, running north 130 km (80 mi) to the Seven Mountains of central Pennsylvania, near Tusseyville, making it one of the longest named ridges in this section of the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians. The ridge line separates Morrison Cove from the Woodcock Valley and Friends Cove from the Black Valley. Tussey Mountain lies in, and the ridge line forms parts of the borders of, Centre, Blair, Bedford and Huntingdon counties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bald Eagle Creek (West Branch Susquehanna River tributary)</span>

Bald Eagle Creek is a 55.2-mile-long (88.8 km) tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River mostly in Centre County, Pennsylvania, in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pennsylvania Route 144</span> State highway in Pennsylvania, US

Pennsylvania Route 144 is a state highway located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering a distance of about 109 miles (175 km). The southern terminus is located near an interchange with U.S. Route 322 (US 322) at State Route 2015 in Potter Township while the northern terminus is located at US 6 in Galeton. Between Snow Shoe and Renovo, PA 144 is known as the High Plateau Scenic Byway, a Pennsylvania Scenic Byway.

The Bald Eagle Valley Railroad was a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad which owned several rail lines in central Pennsylvania. It had its genesis in the Tyrone and Lock Haven Railroad, a financially troubled railroad chartered in 1857, which was unable to complete more than a small portion of its line before it was reorganized as the Bald Eagle Valley and funded by the PRR in 1861. Completed from Tyrone to Lock Haven in 1865, it was completely controlled by the PRR and did not operate independently. However, it retained its corporate existence for some time, acquiring branch lines into the Snowshoe coal region and an extension from Bellefonte to Lemont before being merged into the PRR in 1908.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation</span> Canal company in central Pennsylvania

The Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Company was a canal company in central Pennsylvania intended to link the iron industry of Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, with the Pennsylvania canal system. Opened for half its length in 1837, the remainder of the canal was not completed until 1848. Destroyed by flooding in 1865, it was not rebuilt; a paralleling railroad completed that year replaced it.

The Lewisburg and Tyrone Railroad, previously the Lewisburg, Centre and Spruce Creek Railroad, was a subsidiary of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in central Pennsylvania. Originally intended to connect the Susquehanna Valley with Tyrone and the ore lands to its northeast, it was built in two discontinuous and never-connected pieces, one from Tyrone to Fairbrook and one from Lewisburg to Lemont. These served as lightly trafficked branches of the PRR into the early 20th Century. The line from Tyrone to Fairbrook passed into the hands of the short line Bellefonte Central Railroad in 1927, but the PRR's manipulations ensured its abandonment in 1941. The line between Lewisburg and Lemont was severed in 1970 and was gradually cut further back towards Montandon. Regular service ended on the last remaining part of the line in 1997, and it was abandoned in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bald Eagle Creek Path</span>

The Bald Eagle Creek Path was a major Native American trail in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania that ran from the Great Island on the West Branch Susquehanna River southwest to what is now the village of Frankstown on the Frankstown Branch Juniata River. The path ran from Clinton County southwest through Centre County and a small part of Blair County to its southern end in Blair County. It was part of a "Warriors Path", an important connector between paths leading to New York and the Six Nations of the Iroquois and the Ohio River country in the north and west, and paths leading to what are now Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas in the south.

References

  1. 1 2 Kempler, Steve (2007-01-19). "Geomorphology : Chapter 2 Plate T-12 : Folded Appalachians". NASA, Goddard Earth Sciences (GES), Data and Information Services Center (DISC). Archived from the original on 2007-12-06. Retrieved 2008-03-16. Nittany Valley and Morrison Cove, eroded anticlinal valleys (coves), near the western edge of the fold belt shown here … are examples of inverse topography, which is common in this geomorphic province.

Coordinates: 40°54′N77°42′W / 40.9°N 77.7°W / 40.9; -77.7