Tiadaghton State Forest

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Tiadaghton State Forest is a Pennsylvania State Forest in Forest District No. 12 of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. It mainly covers western and southern Lycoming County, with small parts in Clinton, Potter, Tioga, and Union Counties. The land features narrow plateaus and deep, steep valleys carved by fast streams such as Pine Creek and Slate Run. The forest stretches along the west bank of the Susquehanna River toward Bald Eagle Mountain and the North and South White Deer Ridge. Most of the forest is mixed oak with some areas of northern hardwoods.

The district office, the Tiadaghton Resource Management Center, is near Waterville in Lycoming County.

Tiadaghton is the Iroquois name for Pine Creek; the exact meaning is unknown.

In the late 19th century, after extensive logging, conservationists led by Dr. Joseph Rothrock urged the state to purchase lands for forest reserves and to adopt new forest management. Rothrock became the first commissioner of the Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters, the forerunner of today’s DCNR, in 1895. In 1897, the General Assembly allowed the state to buy unseated lands for forest reservations, and the first Tiadaghton State Forest purchase occurred on July 13, 1898—a 409-acre tract in Cummings Township for about $73. This began the forest. It grew to about 66,000 acres by 1908 and around 160,000 acres by 1933, with most purchases between 1900 and 1935.

Before July 1, 2005, Tiadaghton included all state forest lands in Lycoming County. After a district realignment, the eastern Lycoming tracts became part of Loyalsock State Forest, and the district office moved to Waterville, at the confluence of Little Pine Creek and Pine Creek, where the largest part of the forest now lies. The southern tracts run along Bald Eagle Mountain, North White Deer Ridge, South White Deer Ridge, and the White Deer Hole Creek watershed. As of 2009, Tiadaghton State Forest covered about 146,500 acres, mostly in Lycoming County, with small tracts in Clinton, Potter, Tioga, and Union Counties. The largest section, about 105,000 acres, sits in the Pine Creek valley.