State Parks within Cameron County

Bucktail State Park

Pennsylvania Route 120 was officially designated as Bucktail State Park in 1933 by an act of the Pennsylvania Legislature. Route 120 follows an old Native American Trail, the Sinnemahoning Path. This trail was used by Native Americans to cross the eastern continental divide (specifically the Allegheny Front) between the Susquehanna River (which drains into the Chesapeake Bay) and the Allegheny River (which forms the Ohio River with the Monongahela River at Pittsburgh and eventually drains into the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi River). American Pioneers also used the trail to make their way west and it was also known as the Bucktail Trail.

Sinnemahoning State Park

Sinnemahoning State Park was developed on the First Fork Sinnemahoning Creek following the completion of the George B. Stevenson Dam. This dam was originally known as the First Fork Dam, and later renamed in honor of Clinton County Senator George B. Stevenson; it was completed in December of 1955. The park opened to the public in 1958.

Early inhabitants date back 10,000-12,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found evidence of their presence in the bottomlands of the creeks. The word Sinnemahoning is derived from an American Indian word that means "Rocky Lick". A natural salt lick is said to have been near the mouth of Grove Run.

After the American Revolutionary War the Sinnemahoning area was left largely unsettled and wild until the late 1800s when the logging boom that spread throughout the mountains of Pennsylvania arrived.

Several trails offer a chance to observe some of the more remote areas of the park: the Red Spruce Trail and Low Lands Trail (originally part of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad.)

Sizerville State Park

According to local legend, Sizerville State Park is named after the Sizer family, early settlers to the area. Now considered a ghost town after the end of the logging boom of the late 1800's, the Civilian Conservation Corps led an effort to reforest the lands surrounding Sizerville State park during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Sizerville State Park opened for public use in 1924 with the first
facilities built in 1927.

The hiking trail system offers a series of five loop trails: The Bottomlands, Campground, North Slope, Sizerville Nature Trail and Nady Hollow Trail. Nady Hollow Connector is a less challenging alternative to Nady Hollow Trail. Sizerville State Park is also a trailhead for the Bucktail Path Trail, which is part of an extensive trail system throughout the northern tier region of central Pennsylvania.

There are six creeks within Sizerville State Park: east and west branches of Cowley Run, Cowley Run, Portage Creek and Driftwood Creek (branches of Sinnemahoning Creek) and Sinnemahoning Creek.