Editing Mount Jewett, Pennsylvania (section)

==Local Interests==

:'''The [[Kinzua Bridge]] State Park''' is located just a few miles north of Mount Jewett's borough line. It was used to carry trains across the Kinzua valley overlooking the town of [[Kushequa, Pennsylvania]]. Originally constructed in 1882, the structure was the highest iron bridge in the world. In 1900 it was turned into a steel structure. Upon becoming a [[state park]] an independent company used the bridge to carry sight seers and tourists across the valley in an old steam locomotive. On July 21, 2003 a tornado destroyed a large portion of the bridge.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20040213001635/http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/kinzuabridge.aspx Pennsylvania State Parks - Kinzua Bridge]</ref>  Now all that remains is a portion of the bridge and a small section of railroad track at each end of the valley. In another devastating blow, on early Sunday March 16, 2008 the locomotives used to carry sightseers across the Kinzua Bridge were severely damaged by a fire set by arsonists.<ref>Vosler, A. (2008, March 17). Arson fire in Kane causes $1 million in damage, severely burns two locomotives once used for Kinzua Bridge State Park tourist trips. In The Bradford Era. Retrieved March 17, 2008, from The Bradford Era Newspaper Web site: http://bradfordera.com/articles/2008/03/17/news/doc47dddf1dd9a36852794356.txt</ref>  The fire, which burned the Biddle Street building used to house the trains in [[Kane, Pennsylvania]] caused $1 million in damage. The residents of Mount Jewett would watch the train daily as it passed through town&mdash;directly to the north of the borough building. This further dampened the dream of rebuilding the bridge.

:The state decided not to rebuild the Kinzua Bridge, which would have cost an estimated $45 million. Instead, the ruins were to become a visitor attraction used to show the forces of nature at work. Kinzua Bridge State Park had attracted 215,000 visitors annually before the bridge collapsed, and was one of twenty state parks chosen by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Parks for its list of "Twenty Must-See Pennsylvania State Parks". The viaduct and its collapse were featured in the History Channel's Life After People as an example of how corrosion and high winds would eventually lead to the collapse of any steel structure.
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:The [[Knox and Kane Railroad]] was forced to suspend operations in October 2004 after a 75 percent decline in the number of passengers, brought about by the collapse of the Kinzua Bridge. The Kovalchick Corporation bought the Knox and Kane's tracks and all other property owned by the railroad, including the locomotives and rolling stock. The Kovalchick Corporation also owns the East Broad Top Railroad and was the company that owned the Kinzua Bridge before selling it to the state in 1963.
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:Pennsylvania released $700,000 to design repairs on the remaining towers and plan development of the new park facilities in June 2005. In late 2005, the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) put forward an $8 million proposal for a new observation deck and visitors' center, with plans to allow access to the bridge and a hiking trail giving views of the fallen towers. The Kinzua Sky Walk was opened on September 15, 2011 in a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The Sky Walk consists of a pedestrian walkway to an observation deck with a glass floor at the end of bridge that allows views of bridge and the valley directly below. The walkway cost $4.3 million to construct, but is estimated to bring in $11.5 million in tourism revenue for the region.

* Mount Jewett made world news in February 2001 when an explosion at the Temple Inland particle board plant killed 3 workers and injured at least five others<ref>[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B04E5DA1430F936A25751C0A9679C8B63 National News Briefs; 10 Hurt in Blast and Fire At a Pennsylvania Plant - New York Times<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
* The population of Mount Jewett includes a significant number of people with [[Sweden|Swedish]] ancestry. Every August the town celebrates this history with their well-known "Swedish Festival." The August 2010 celebration was the 40th annual Swedish Festival in Mount Jewett and the 2021 celebration will be the 50th because the 2020 event was cancelled due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
* Mount Jewett was named for [[Hugh Judge Jewett]], who was president of the [[New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad]] when it brought rail service to the area.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.smethporthistory.org/mtjewett/|title = Mount Jewett, Pennsylvania History}}</ref> Previously it had been known as Howard Hill, after [[Howard, New York]].