Pennsylvania is promoting 11 state parks as destinations where America’s 250th anniversary story comes alive.

The list by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) includes some surprises as well as logical choices for that honor.

The 11 are selected from a roster of 124 state parks, one of the largest state park systems in the nation.

They include state parks in different geographic areas, large and small, featuring natural beauty as well as historic connections from the colonial era to Pennsylvania’s industrial legacy.

The list includes:

– Washington Crossing Historic Park: Where George Washington crossed the Delaware River on Dec. 25, 1776, to attack Hessian soldiers at Trenton — a pivotal strategic victory in the American Revolution. The park in Bucks County features historic houses and reproduction river boats.

– Point State Park: Located at the historic Forks of the Ohio in Pittsburgh — site of Fort Duquesne, Fort Pitt and strategic military conflict in the French and Indian War, influencing the future U.S. frontier. These forts were crucial in 18th-century colonial and early national defense. The state is making $3 million worth of upgrades to the park.

– Delaware Canal State Park: Preserves the 60-mile Delaware Canal in Bucks and Northampton Counties, a critical 19th-century transportation and commercial waterway that fueled early American industry and westward movement.

– Pine Grove Furnace State Park: Site of the historic Pine Grove Furnace iron works (est. 1764) — part of early American industrial development. Historic structures include the ironmaster’s mansion, gristmill, and workers’ residences. Midway point of Appalachian Trail in Cumberland County.

– Caledonia State Park: Site of U.S. Rep. Thaddeus Stevens’ Caledonia Iron Works, the park in Franklin County reflects his abolitionist work and its ties to local Underground Railroad activity. The furnace was destroyed by Confederate forces during the Gettysburg Campaign in 1863, but the stack remains.

– Ridley Creek State Park: Features the Colonial Pennsylvania Farmstead, interpreting life from 1720-1820, along with historic mill complexes in Delaware County. Site of Okehocking Indian Reservation in 1700.

– Buchanan’s Birthplace State Park: Stone cairn marks the birthplace of James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States, in Franklin County. Buchanan’s father built a trading post at Cove Gap in the 1790s.

– Oil Creek State Park: Preserves the region central to the world’s first commercial oil well (1859), marking the birth of the petroleum industry in Venango County.

– Lehigh Gorge State Park: Contains remnants of the Upper Grand Section of the Lehigh Canal, part of Pennsylvania’s 19th-century canal and industrial transportation network. Canal ruins and waysides interpret early commerce and settlement patterns in Carbon and Luzerne Counties

– McConnells Mill State Park: Preserves a rare, intact example of 19th-century rural industrial life along the dramatic Slippery Rock Creek Gorge in Lawrence County.

– Jacobsburg Environmental Education Center: Preserves a nationally important center of early American arms manufacturing, where the Henry family produced long rifles from the mid-18th through 19th centuries in Northampton County.

Making the list

Washington Crossing and Fort Pitt are obvious choices for the start of any 250th anniversary exploration. And Pine Grove Furnace, Oil Creek and Lehigh Gorge attest to the role the industrial revolution played in Pennsylvania’s and the nation’s history.

Less obvious is the birthplace of Buchanan, Pennsylvania’s only president whose term ended as the Civil War started. The small park is located in beautiful Cove Gap, but is definitely off the beaten path.

Missing from the list is Fort Washington State Park in Montgomery County, site of an American encampment under Washington prior to the Continental Army’s move to Valley Forge during the winter of 1777. Fort Roberdeau Historic Site in Blair County also did not make the list.

And speaking of Valley Forge, the first state park created in 1893. Pennsylvania transferred ownership of Valley Forge to the National Park Service in 1976 during the Bicentennial.

This is not the first time Pennsylvania has promoted specific groups of state parks. In the 1980s, officials promoted 30 “least visited” parks as the “best kept secrets” of the park system. Among them was Buchanan’s Birthplace and Cherry Springs in Potter County, attracting visitors today for its dark sky vistas.

Other 250th events

The targeted 250th state parks will complement the Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission’s state-owned historic sites, including the 1777 Brandywine Battlefield where Lafayette was wounded in Delaware County, Ephrata Cloister, a communal society that served as a hospital for wounded American soldiers in Lancaster County and Eckley Miner’s Village, a restored coal patch town in Luzerne County.

DCNR is sponsoring 250th events at other state parks, including tree plantings, geocaching, geology tours, old�’growth forest experiences and stories of Black soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War and formerly enslaved people,

“Our public lands will be places where people go to see and live events and to learn more about the history and story of this country,” said DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn in recent budget testimony.