Around Blair County

Blair County is a picturesque area of five hundred thirty square miles, carved from the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains in western Pennsylvania. Its lush forests, fertile valleys, and exquisite vistas attracted settlers as early as the mid-1700s. Its rich supply of minerals-iron, lead, and limestone-prompted the development of furnaces, forges, mills, and quarries; during the nineteenth century, the manufacture of iron was the principal business of the county.Illustrated with more than two hundred images, Around Blair County includes all the charm of the hamlets and towns it highlights: Hollidaysburg, Duncansville, Newry, Tyrone, Bellwood, Claysburg, Roaring Spring, Martinsburg, and Williamsburg. It explains how Duncansville emerged as an antiques mecca, and it celebrates the still preserved Mount Etna iron furnace. It features well-known and lesser-known people from the area, such as steel man Charles Schwab, musician and inventor Fred Waring, and lamplighter Homer Butler.