Visit Clarion County

Stories about keeping my home alive, and an opportunity possible for aging rural communities   Attachment to your past is a powerful emotion.  Thirty years ago, choosing to live in one place ultimately meant being unable to enjoy another.  Today, the emotional gaps brought about from growing distances are narrowing.  It has been my experience that an open mind and a decent internet connection can greatly help quell homesickness and allow more people to explore new, creative opportunities for themselves.  Clarion County, like rural communities all over the nation, may have for itself its own opportunity to maximize this new potential and begin to regrow its demographics and population.  In order to articulate that opportunity, I will need to provide some context about my story, my nostalgia.  This story spans my years spent growing up in Rockland County, NY, living and working in Philadelphia, and eventually moving to Northwestern Pennsylvania. My h...

    Our Trails Are Now Open!   Come to Clarion County for Good Clean Fun and Exercise!                                                                       Clarion County's many miles of surface or water trails are now available for folks to enjoy. The immediate Clarion area has a deep water area suited for motorboats. The Route 66 trail begins on Route 322 just West of the borough and extends many miles to Leeper and Northward. There's also the Campus Loop hiking trail in the borough near the Clarion University campus.   Cook Forest offers many miles for biking and hiking as well as the Clarion River for canoeing and Kayaking. The Pale Whale is a canoe outfitter near the bridge. Many cabins and campgrounds are available in the area.   Eas...

Browser address bar As we were building our business model for Visit Clarion we wanted to help many local businesses and organizations by linking to their websites. Quickly we ran across a problem. The Apple App Store and Google Play would not let websites with the “http” designation link from the Visit Clarion app. We dug into the situation and learned Google and others had a great concern for security. Too many hackers or middlemen were stealing passwords, credit card numbers and other private information. Beginning in 2016 a movement was begun by website browsers to upgrade security by implementing the “https” protocol designation. Many websites in Clarion County have not made the transfer to the more secure protocol. An informative article about it can be found in Wikipedia as well as other sources on the Internet. To make your website safer, contact your provider. They will help you ensure that your website uses the secure protocol https. HTTPS stands for Hypertext Transfer ...

How Stuff Happens When Local Groups Get an Idea and Work Together.                                     The History of the Autumn Leaf Festival The late Don Stroup, Lee Hufnagel and John "Poe" Haskell formed the Chamber of Commerce in 1953. Soon after, the discussion focused on how they could bring attention to our beautiful community. One of the gentlemen had been up north to a "Potato Festival" and suggested that Clarion could maybe do a similar type of festival. The three gentlemen thought   "Autumn Leaves" would be a great theme, thus the Autumn Leaf Festival was born. Their first projects were to create a town swimming pool and to join with the Clarion Teachers College (now Clarion University) and have the first Autumn Leaf Festival Parade.   It was a small parade that year with some b...

Dodging rocks and shallows or drifting at the river's own sedate pace, the Clarion River can be enjoyed either way. A day spent on the Clarion River will show you the magical, wooded scenery that will make you want to stay a little bit longer. The Pale Whale Canoe Fleet, located in Cooksburg, PA, a simple 16 miles from Clarion, offers a number of packages for those looking to spend a few hours on the river. Whether you decide to travel 4 miles or 10 downstream in a kayak, canoe, tube, or river raft, the staff at the Pale Whale will transport you and your chosen mode of river transportation to the designated starting points. Have your own equipment? The Pale Whale offers parking and transportation for you and your equipment for half the price of what a purchase of the same package would normally be. Don't let the hassle of parking and the stress of retrieving your car stop you from enjoying time on the water. Bring a cooler to curve your hunger while on the rive...

The County Seat: home to the Plaintiff and the Gavel. Offering some of Clarion's best breakfast and lunch options, the County Seat is a stop you must make when in Clarion. But watch out, the County Seat is only open until 2pm and fills up fast. Don't be afraid to stick around, though. Wait time is never long and the experience is more than worth it. Order from the menu or check out the specials board hanging over the bar on the back wall. Each food item is delicious and home made in the back kitchen. Food comes to your table piping hot and without delay. Quick service and fantastic meals, the County Seat will provide you with more than your average dining experience. Seat yourself at the tables, booths, or the lunch bar to be served with hospitality and a good dose of neighborly affection. The County Seat is the place to get to know the locals and learn about other hidden gems that Clarion has to offer all while eating some of the best food you can find. Locat...