Fast Facts

For more information, please contact Julie Donovan, Director of Marketing & Public Relations, at:
jdonovan@laurelhighlands.org

• The Great Allegheny Passage is the longest multi-purpose rail-trail in the eastern U.S. with over 300 continuous, nearly level, miles from near Pittsburgh to Cumberland, MD. It connects to the C&O Towpath in Cumberland, providing a motor-free route from Pittsburgh to the District of Columbia.
• Our natural areas consist of 10 state parks, forests and 11 state game lands.
• Wildflower information: Mountain Laurel begins to bloom the first and second weeks in June and lasts for approximately 3 weeks. Rhododendron follows and blooms for 3 weeks. These wildflowers are most likely to bloom in perfect growing condition in the Laurel Highlands every year.
   

• Our mountains traverse the Laurel and Chestnut Ridges of the Alleghenies.
• The 250th Commemoration of the French & Indian War began in 2004. Special events will take place through 2010 at battlefield sites in the Laurel Highlands region.
• The rescue of the nine Quecreek miners took place on a family farm near Somerset.
• Laurel Caverns in Farmington is Pennsylvania’s largest developed cave, featuring a 430-acre natural park Kavernputt, an indoor mini-golf course.
• Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Champion is Pennsylvania’s largest ski and year-round resort and was voted #1 in the mid-Atlantic by readers of Ski Magazine.
• For more than 41 years, the Pittsburgh Steelers have made their way each summer to training camp at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe.
• Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood is nestled in Ligonier’s Idlewild & SoakZone.
• The Big Mac was first prepared at a McDonald’s in the Laurel Highlands.
• The banana split was first created by Dr. David Strickler at his drug store fountain on Ligonier Street in Latrobe in 1904.
• George Washington lost his first and only battle at Fort of Necessity along Route 40, east of today’s Uniontown.
• Along today’s Route 40, in the towns of Addison and Searight, are the locations for the only two remaining tollhouses in Pennsylvania from the United States’ first National Road.
• Saint Vincent College, along Route 30 in Latrobe, was the first Benedictine College in the United States.
• Somerset County boasts Pennsylvania’s highest elevation at Mt. Davis State Forest Natural Area. The rock is 3,213 feet above sea level.
• The Laurel Highlands receives the largest accumulative amount of natural snowfall in Pennsylvania.
• Fallingwater®, built by Frank Lloyd Wright, is considered to be one of the most influential houses of the 20th century. This architectural wonder dramatically cantilevers over a rushing waterfall.