Click Here to Return to Milestones
Geography is something we all learned to hate in school, but wished we knew more about when we grew up.
Geography adds extra dimensions to history and helps you to relate it to the things you know today. History without geography is only names and dates, like who did what when, but when you know that it happened right here in Beaver Valley (and that it happened because so and so was on his way from back yonder to over there, and he happened to be there at just the right time), it's like taking a photo and suddenly seeing it in living color and three dimensions.
Geography is history in stereo! Let's take a look at some of the facets of the histography of Beaver Valley and see whether you find it interesting or not.
From nearly every high hilltop in Beaver County, you can find Big Knob on the horizon. This hill is generally considered to be the highest point in the county, but it is particularly conspicuous in its setting in New Sewickley Township because there are no other high elevations nearby. The topographic maps show that the hill is 1383 feet above sea level. Most of the hilltops, except those close to the river, have an elevation of 1200 to 1300 feet.
As a rival to Big Knob for height, we would like to nominate Stewart Hill, the ridge on the south side that runs along the state line between Greene Township and West Virginia. The topographic map does not show the elevation at the top of Stewart Hill, but the contour lines on the map indicate that the highest knob, which is on the Pennsylvania side, is over 1380 feet. A survey might show that Stewart Hill actually tops Big Knob in elevation.
From Stewart Hill, which is easily reached from Route 30 if you don't mind a lot of briars, you can plainly see Big Knob which is 20 miles away. You can also see the three blue water towers along the ridge east of Raccoon Creek in Center Township, and through a notch in the hills, like a gunsight, you can see the big stack at St. Joe.
Very conspicuous on the southern horizon is a long ridge that divides the Mill Creek Valley from the Traverse - Service - Raccoon Watershed. Many points on this ridge exceed 1300 feet in elevation, including a fairly extensive plateau at 1340 feet east of the old Tomlinson Run Church. This is why Stewart Hill does not stand out as sharply as Big Knob when viewed from a distance. It is noticeable, however, from several high points along Route 51 near the Beaver Valley Mall, in Center Township.
There are no prominent knobs in the other third of the county, north of the Ohio and west of the Beaver. The highest point is on a hilltop about a mile NE of Salem Church, in South Beaver Township. The maps show the elevation to be between 1340 and 1360 feet, but no actual survey is recorded. Contour lines in modem topographic maps are determined by three dimensional aerial photography, and are considered to be reliable.
Big knob is unique in Beaver County for its symmetry and relative isolation from other high points, but similar hills are found more frequently in neighboring Lawrence and Columbiana Counties, some of them topping 1400 feet. Elevations of 1500 feet or higher are common in Washington County, but are located on ridges rather than knobs.
Incidentally, none of the hills in Western Pennsylvania, west of Chestnut Ridge, can be called mountains in the true sense of the word. This includes the rugged terrain in the Seneca Highlands and east to Potter and Tioga Counties. They are just remnants of an old plateau, left standing after the valleys were created by erosion. Mountains, such as Chestnut Ridge, Laurel Hill and the ridges to the east are caused by a combination of erosion and folds in the earth's crust.
The lowest point in Beaver County is 665 feet, at the Ohio River's edge where it leaves the county and becomes the state boundary between Ohio and West Virginia. Incidentally, this point has tremendous historical significance. When the Seven Ranges, the first townships in the new Northwest Territory, were mapped by the Federal Government, the surveyors began at this point. Subsequently, all of the U.S. Public land surveys in all of the new states to the west can be traced back to the point of beginning on the Ohio River on the edge of Beaver County.
Beaver County is deprived of a claim to the waters of Slippery Rock Creek, although several unnamed runs in northern Franklin Township drain north into the Slippery Rock. Having heard the name of this stream for the most of my life, it just strikes me as another name; a bit more colorful than Raccoon Creek or Brush Creek, but nothing special.
When I lived in Atlanta some years ago, however, I was amazed at the fuss raised by the natives whenever the name came up, and it did, often, in the fall. Sportscasters never missed a chance to report the football scores of Slippery Rock College. Whenever I asked my friends what was so funny, the typical reply was a shrug and a snicker. But who has the last laugh? These people live in a state which claims streams with names like Pumpkinvine Creek, Kincafoonee Creek and Ichawaynochaway Creek, and they think Slippery Rock is funny!