Raystown Lake Huntingdon County Pennsylvania
In 1796, the little village was incorporated as a borough.
Raystown Lake Region
Raystown Lake is a reservoir in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania. It is the largest lake that is entirely within Pennsylvania. The original lake was built by the Simpson family of Huntingdon as a hydroelectric project. The current 8,300-acre Raystown Lake was completed in 1973 by the Army Corps of Engineers. Raystown is around 200 feet deep in the deepest area near the dam. The lake was created primarily to control floods, provide electricity, and support recreational activities. Allegheny Electric Cooperative operates the Raystown Hydroelectric Project and William F. Matson Generating Station at the Raystown Dam, a 21 MW, two-unit hydroelectric project.
There are many recreational opportunities around Raystown Lake. Much of the surrounding land is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers and is not available for residential development; because of this summer homes were built near the lake rather than on the waterfront, and most of the lake remains undeveloped. This makes the experience of boating on the lake very different from many other lakes; the hills on the shores of the winding lake are blanketed right down to the water by the trees. Raystown has a fishery including largemouth bass, striped bass, small-mouth bass, muskellunge, walleye, pickerel, perch, calico bass, lake trout, rainbow trout, brook trout, brown trout, bluegill, catfish, carp, white bass, rock bass, salmon and shad. Boating, swimming, mountain biking, scuba diving, and fishing are all popular activities at Raystown Lake
The development of the first Raystown Dam in 1905 conceived the starting point for a history in consequential dams which eventually led to the creation of Raystown Lake in 1972.
Huntingdon County, PA
The pictures are of The Raystown Lake Region
The pictures featured below are mostly from the Jackson Township Historical Preservation. They so graciously allowed the Huntingdon County History & Heritage Roundtable permission to use their collections.