Pike County, Pennsylvania

Pike County Education, Geography, and History

Pike County is a county located in the state of Pennsylvania. Based on the 2010 census, the population was 57,369. Its county seat is Milford.

Pike County is included in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Etymology - Origin of Pike County Name

Named for General Zebulon Pike.

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: CensusBureau Quick Facts

Pike County History

Created on March 26, 1814, from part of Wayne County and named for General Zebulon Pike. Milford, the county seat, was incorporated as a borough on December 25, 1874, and probably named for Milford Haven in Wales.

Originally a remote section of Bucks County, the land that became Pike was first settled about 1700. Purchases from the Indians in 1749 and 1768 legitimized settlement, and an agreement with Connecticut in 1786 confirmed Pennsylvania's authority. Violence with Native Americans lasted through the Revolution. Milford was settled in 1796 and just kept growing. Millwrights and ferry masters were early settlers. Canals, beginning in 1827, made Pike a connecting point with New York, and an aqueduct was built to carry canal boats over the Delaware. Railroads arrived in 1848, and lumber was rafted out to Easton and Trenton. A tanning industry once flourished, and bluestone quarries were productive. The population grew with the lumbering industry, but by 1914 the stands of trees were exhausted. Few stayed on. Although rural, Pike is not a significant farming area. The summer tourist population, a feature for over a century, is often ten times the permanent population. Farms occupy only 1½ percent of the land. Many national leaders spent creative periods secluded in Pike: Charles Peirce, Dan Beard, Grover Cleveland, William Howard Taft, Thomas Edison, Zane Grey, and Horace Greeley, for example.

Geography: Land and Water

As reported by the Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 567 square miles (1,468 km²), of which, 547 square miles (1,416 km²) of it is land and 20 square miles (51 km²) of it (3.50%) is water.

The terrain rises rapidly from the river valley in the east to the rolling foothills of the Poconos in the west. The highest point is one of two unnamed hills in Greene Township that top out at approximately 2,110 feet (643 m) above sea level. The lowest elevation is approximately 340 feet (103.6 m), at the confluence of the Bushkill and the Delaware.

Neighboring Counties

Bordering counties are as follows:

• Sullivan County, New York (north)
• Orange County, New York (east)
• Sussex County, New Jersey (southeast)
• Monroe County (southwest)
• Wayne County (northwest)

Education

Public school districts

Delaware Valley School District
East Stroudsburg Area School District (also in Monroe County)
Wallenpaupack Area School District (also Wayne County)

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