Worlds End State Park

Worlds End State Park
Worlds End State Park and Loyalsock Creek from the Canyon Vista on Cold Run Road
Map showing the location of Worlds End State Park
Map showing the location of Worlds End State Park
Location of Worlds End State Park in Pennsylvania
Map showing the location of Worlds End State Park
Map showing the location of Worlds End State Park
Worlds End State Park (the United States)
LocationSullivan, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Coordinates41°28′17″N 76°34′07″W / 41.47139°N 76.56861°W / 41.47139; -76.56861[1]
Area780 acres (320 ha)[2]
Elevation1,175 ft (358 m)[1]
Established1932 (1932)[3]
Named forits remote location, or a whirlpool in Loyalsock Creek
Governing bodyPennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources
Websitewww.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/findapark/worldsend/index.htm

Worlds End State Park is a 780-acre (316 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Sullivan County, Pennsylvania. The park, nearly surrounded by Loyalsock State Forest, is in the Loyalsock Creek valley on Pennsylvania Route 154 in Forks and Shrewsbury Townships southeast of the borough of Forksville. The name Worlds End has been used since at least 1872, but its origins are uncertain. Although it was founded as Worlds End State Forest Park by Governor Gifford Pinchot in 1932, the park was officially known as Whirls End State Forest Park from 1936 to 1943.[3]

The park's land was once home to Native Americans, followed by settlers who cleared the forests for subsistence farming and later built sawmills. The second growth forests in and surrounding Worlds End State Park are partially a result of the efforts of the young men of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. They helped overcome the clearcutting of the early 20th century, and built many of the park's facilities, including the cabins that earned it a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

A wide variety of wildlife is found in the park, which is also part of an Important Bird Area. Located in the Endless Mountains region of the dissected Allegheny Plateau, Worlds End has a continental climate and rocks and fossils from the Carboniferous period. It is one of "Twenty Must-See Pennsylvania State Parks" named by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, which describes it as "[v]irtually in a class by itself, this wild, rugged and rustic area seems almost untamed".[4] The park offers year-round recreational opportunities, including environmental education, hiking, camping in tents and cabins, whitewater rafting, swimming, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, hunting, and fishing.

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