Lykens Valley: History and Genealogy, is the third blog sponsored by PA Historian, the first two being (1) the Civil War Blog, begun in August 2010 and continuing to the present, with more than 1500 posts and approaching two million site visitors; and (2) the PA Historian Blog, begun in 2012, is an “umbrella” site which announces new posts. The Lykens Valley Blog, begun in 2013, now has more than 14,000 published posts and also is approaching two million site visitors.
For the purpose of defining the geographical area of the Lykens Valley Blog, a portion of a map from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation is provided below:
Within the triangular area of the map, if a line is drawn from Klingerstown westward through Pillow to the Susquehanna River, and another line from Williamstown through Elizabethville, westward to the Susquehanna River, the area between these two lines could properly be called the “Lykens Valley.” However, some could argue that the term refers to the entire area between the Mahantongo Creek and Powell’s Creek – although there are other “valley” terms that could describe portions of that area (e.g., Mahantongo Valley, Williams Valley, Tri-Valley, Armstrong Valley, and Powell’s Valley). For the purpose of this blog, the entire area of the triangle ABC will be considered for the blog – and in some cases, will go beyond.
This geographical area has no official name and has variously been called, the “Upper End,” “Upper Dauphin,” “Northern Dauphin County,” and the “Greater Lykens Valley.” There was even a time when there was consideration to make the area a separate county. See: Lykens County.
The plan is to feature photographs, documents, news articles, maps, etc. – in blog entries which will be posted on a regular basis. Readers are also encouraged to comment on the posts and provide additional information and/or reflect on the content of the post.
[Updated November 28, 2024].