Town · Lewisburg, Union County
Lewisburg
A Susquehanna river town and home of Bucknell University, with a handsome Victorian Market Street, an Art Deco movie house and a riverside park.
Lewisburg is a handsome college town on the West Branch of the Susquehanna, home of Bucknell University since 1846. Its wide Market Street is lined with Federal and Victorian buildings, old-fashioned lamps and shade trees, with independent shops and restaurants that make it one of the liveliest small downtowns in central Pennsylvania, and side streets of brick houses run down to the river.
Joseph Priestley, the chemist who discovered oxygen, spent his last years a few miles downstream in Northumberland, where his house is now a museum. The Mifflinburg Buggy Museum, west of town, keeps a nineteenth-century carriage works much as its workers left it, and Raymond B. Winter State Park has a small lake and forest trails in the mountains. Knoebels is a pleasant drive to the southeast.
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In and around Lewisburg
Historic house · Northumberland, Northumberland County
Joseph Priestley House
The riverside home and laboratory of Joseph Priestley, the English chemist credited with discovering oxygen, who settled here after emigrating in 1794.
Photo: User:Ruhrfisch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
History museum · Mifflinburg, Union County
Mifflinburg Buggy Museum
Preserved almost as its workers left it around 1920, this buggy factory still holds its tools, belts, machinery and parts, recalling the town's days as 'Buggy Town.'
State park · Hartley Township, Union County
Raymond B. Winter State Park
Cold mountain springs feed Halfway Lake behind a stone dam laid by the Civilian Conservation Corps, making a bracing swimming hole in the forest, with trails up the surrounding ridges.
Amusement park · Ralpho Township, Northumberland County
Knoebels Amusement Resort
Tucked into a wooded hollow, a family-owned amusement park with much-loved wooden coasters like the Phoenix and Twister, an antique carousel with a brass-ring grab, and a campground.
Also nearby
Nearby
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Milton State Park
Half picnic grounds and boat launch, half wild woods for birders and walkers, this river island sits in the middle of the West Branch of the Susquehanna.
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Joseph Priestley House
The riverside home and laboratory of Joseph Priestley, the English chemist credited with discovering oxygen, who settled here after emigrating in 1794.
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Shikellamy State Park
From a high clifftop overlook, the Susquehanna's West and North branches can be seen joining below, with a marina section on the island at the confluence where boaters launch onto the river.
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Mifflinburg Buggy Museum
Preserved almost as its workers left it around 1920, this buggy factory still holds its tools, belts, machinery and parts, recalling the town's days as 'Buggy Town.'
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Clyde Peeling's Reptiland
Cobras, alligators, giant tortoises and Komodo dragons star at this accredited zoo devoted to reptiles and amphibians, along with live presentations by keepers.
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Sand Bridge State Park
Rapid Run tumbles past this tiny roadside picnic grove, a peaceful stop on the winding mountain road through Bald Eagle State Forest.