Penn State University Fruit Research & Extension Center

Cumberland Township, PA · est. 1990

In 1936 most Pennsylvania farms had no electricity, left in the dark by utilities unwilling to serve sparse rural routes. With federal backing, a wave of consumer-owned cooperatives sprang up across the Commonwealth, and the Adams Electric Cooperative at Gettysburg was incorporated in 1940 to carry power to members throughout south-central Pennsylvania. It was a farmer-owned answer to a need private industry had declined to meet.

Tyrone Township, PA · est. 1948

In the 1830s a modest wagon-making shop stood near here, run by John Studebaker before he packed up and joined the great westward migration. His decision seeded a dynasty: in 1852 his sons opened a wagon works in Indiana that grew into the largest maker of horse-drawn vehicles in the world. When the age of the horse gave way to the motorcar, the Studebaker firm made the leap in 1897, becoming one of America's earliest automakers.

Cumberland Township, PA

This memorial tablet honors the U.S. Signal Corps for its service at Little Round Top on July 2–4, 1863, and across the battlefields of the Civil War. From the heights, signal officers used flags to relay observations of enemy movements, giving Union commanders a crucial view of the field. The Signal Corps was then a young branch, and Gettysburg showcased the value of rapid battlefield communication.

Greene Township, PA · est. 1947

Thaddeus Stevens and James D. Paxton built the Caledonia iron furnace here in 1837, part of the charcoal-iron industry that fed early American growth. Stevens went on to become one of Congress's most uncompromising foes of slavery, and in June 1863 — as Robert E. Lee's army moved toward Gettysburg — Confederate Gen. Jubal Early singled out the works and destroyed them, in part as payback for the ironmaster's antislavery politics. Early burned the furnace on June 26 on his march toward York.