Lou’s View

By Lou Bernard 

Mark Twain said something once about there being three types of lies: Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Mark Twain visited Clinton County, have I ever mentioned? He stayed at the Fallon at least once in the 1870s, doing a sort of tour around central Pennsylvania. He performed at the Opera House. And he probably wouldn’t have approved of this column, but he’s not likely to ever read it. So I thought I’d share a few statistics about Clinton County with you.

I figured these out while I was bored, and not home, and I scribbled them down on an index card. Then my son’s puppy chewed on it and I found it on the floor, so these facts have taken sort of a roundabout way to you. Note that most statisticians do not recommend delivery via puppy.

I was looking at the county’s GIS map, and I began to wonder what the biggest township was in terms of area covered. I clicked on them all until I found it—Turns out it’s Chapman Township, which stretches for over a hundred square miles.

On the other end of the scale is the smallest township, which I probably could have guessed even without looking it up. It’s Allison Township, which is about four feet long. Just kidding about that—Actually Allison Township, which lies just west of Lock Haven, is a strip of land that covers about a square mile and a half. I think their township building is a P.O. Box.

The most populous community in the county is Lock Haven, the county seat, with a population of almost ten thousand people. (I probably could have guessed that one, too.) The least, on the other side of things, is East Keating Township, which has eleven people. East Keating actually appears on lists of the remotest places in the state of Pennsylvania. By contrast, West Keating is a booming metropolis of thirty-six people.

The highest point in Clinton County is a mountain on the west side of Beech Creek Township, unofficially referred to as “Peak X.” It’s fairly near Route 144, and it’s 2,375 feet above sea level. That’s considerably higher than Hyner View State Park, which is where people generally think of when they’re talking about high points and overlooks.

I’ve been asked where the lowest point in Clinton County is, and I’m kind of estimating here. A quick search online tells me that it’s 492 feet above sea level, but doesn’t say where precisely that would be. At an educated guess, I’m reasonably sure it’s in Castanea Township, down by the Susquehanna River under the first Great Island Bridge. If there’s a point of lower elevation than that, I have yet to discover it.

And since we’re talking about the record-setting stuff, let’s also mention the oldest community in Clinton County. That would be Dunnstown, founded in the early 1790s by William Dunn. Dunnstown predates Mill Hall, Lock Haven, Castanea, and Renovo. We could also talk about the newest community, except I’m not entirely sure which one that is. I want to say Avis, founded in 1910, but I’m not a hundred percent certain on that.

This kind of thing has always fascinated me, the numbers about the extremes. Highest, oldest, biggest….I could go on about it all day. But I won’t, because the editors need the rest of the page for a few letters. Hey, that’s another one, though—The Record, founded in 1871, is the oldest continually operating newspaper in the county.

And with that, I’ll let you go. Maybe I’ll try a few damn lies next.