Potter County
Coudersport, Potter County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Formed March 26, 1804 out of Lycoming County, and fully organized in 1835. Named for Revolutionary hero, General James Potter. An early center of the lumbering and tanning industries. Coudersport, the county seat, was laid out in 1807, incorporated 1848.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Potter County was created in 1804 from Lycoming County and, after decades as thinly settled wilderness, was fully organized in 1835. It honors General James Potter, a hero of the Revolutionary War. Its early economy rose from the forests themselves, as lumbering and tanning turned the northern Pennsylvania timberlands into a working landscape, with Coudersport laid out in 1807 as the county seat.
Why it matters
It embodies the timber frontier of northern Pennsylvania, where the lumber and tanning trades built communities out of the great eastern forests.
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Related people
- · James Potter
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Lymansville
Coudersport, PA · est. 1947
The first settlement in this rugged region took root in 1808, planted by Major Isaac Lyman, a land agent and veteran of the Revolutionary War. Around his pioneer holding grew the essential institutions of frontier life: the area's first saw and grist mills, its first post office, and its first court. Lymansville became the seedbed from which the wider settlement of the county followed.
Austin Flood Disaster
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On September 30, 1911, the concrete dam of the Bayless Pulp and Paper Company — built only two years earlier, nearly fifty feet high and 534 feet long — gave way, hurling a wall of water and debris down Freeman Run into the towns of Austin and Costello. At least 78 people were killed and the mill towns were devastated. Pennsylvania's second-worst single-dam disaster, it spurred a 1913 state law to regulate dam construction.
Port Allegany
Port Allegany, PA · est. 1948
Where the overland route from the Susquehanna met navigable water, early travelers reached the spot they called "Canoe Place" and traded foot travel for the current. The settlement that grew here thrived on the twin frontier industries of lumber and tanning, drawing on the region's vast forests. By about 1840 it had taken the descriptive name Port Allegany, marking its role as a gateway between valleys.
Port Allegany
Port Allegany, PA · est. 1948
Where the overland route from the Susquehanna met navigable water, early travelers reached the spot they called "Canoe Place" and continued their journey by boat. The community that took root here grew on lumbering and tanning, industries fed by the surrounding forests, and became a busy transfer point for people and goods. Around 1840 it adopted the fitting name Port Allegany.