(Each dot is linked to the corresponding park article)
As of 2024[update], there are 124 state parks in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.[1] The Pennsylvania Bureau of State Parks, a division of the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), is the governing body for all these parks, and directly operates 116 of them. The remaining parks are operated in cooperation with other public and private organizations.[a]
The first Pennsylvania state park, at Valley Forge, opened in 1893 and was given to the National Park Service (NPS) for the United States Bicentennial in 1976. There are a total of seventeen former Pennsylvania state parks: four former parks have been transferred to the NPS, four to the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission, two to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, one to both the Corps and the Pennsylvania Game Commission, five to the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry, and one has ceased to exist. Nine current and two former state parks have had major name changes or have been known under alternate names.
The list gives an overview of Pennsylvania state parks and a brief history of their development since the first park opened in 1893. State parks range in size from 3 acres (1.2 ha) to 21,122 acres (8,548 ha) and comprise one percent of Pennsylvania's total land area.[2] According to Dan Cupper (1993), "Pennsylvania is the thirty-third largest state, but only Alaska and California have more park land".[3][4]
- ^ "DCNR details". Pennsylvania Pressroom. Archived from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
- ^ "State Parks". Pennsylvania Department of Conservation & Natural Resources. Retrieved February 25, 2023.
- ^ Dan Cupper (Winter 1994). "A Century of Conservation: The Story of Pennsylvania's State Parks". Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. Archived from the original on May 2, 2013. Retrieved May 10, 2012. Note: URL is to Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection reprint of article
- ^ Cupper, Dan (1993). Our Priceless Heritage: Pennsylvania's State Parks 1893-1993. Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for Department of Natural Resources, Bureau of State Parks. ISBN 0-89271-056-X.