Upper Pine Bottom State Park is a 5-acre (2.0 ha) Pennsylvania state park near the southern end of what has been called the "Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania", Pine Creek Gorge. The park is in Lycoming County on Upper Pine Bottom Run, a tributary of Pine Creek in the West Branch Susquehanna River drainage basin. Local streams have cut through five major rock formations from the Devonian and Carboniferous periods. The earliest recorded inhabitants of the area were the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannocks; they were followed by the Iroquois, Lenape, and Shawnee. Upper Pine Bottom Run was the site of a furnace for pig iron in 1814. The first sawmill was built on it in 1815, and in 1825 an earlier bridle path across its headwaters became a turnpike. The park is surrounded by 105,000 acres (42,000 ha) of the Tiadaghton State Forest, which was created after the lumber industry clearcut the area in the 19th century. Upper Pine Bottom State Park is one of the smallest state parks in Pennsylvania. (Full article...)