Leonard Harrison - State Park, Death, and Legacy

State Park, Death, and Legacy

After the village of Tiadaghton and its mill were destroyed by a fire, Harrison turned his attention to tourism. He purchased 121 acres (49 ha) of land at the site of the current state park that bears his name in 1906. He developed this land, then known as "The Lookout", and invited the public to enjoy the beauty of the Pine Creek Gorge. Harrison donated the picnic grounds to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1922, and it is known as Leonard Harrison State Park.

Harrison died of pneumonia following surgery on January 13, 1929 at the Johns Hopkins University hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. His obituary on the front page of the Wellsboro newspaper read "Borough Loses Greatest Giver", and he was notable enough to have a brief obituary in the New York Times.

Harrison left plans and a large bequest for the Soldiers and Sailors Hospital in Wellsboro, which was built only after his death. The state park which bears his name became very popular after a publicity campaign in the 1930s. More than 300,000 tourists visited the canyon by the autumn of 1936, and 15,000 visited Leonard Harrison over Memorial Day weekend in 1937. That year more visitors came to the Pine Creek Gorge than to Yellowstone National Park. In 2003, the park had 142,716 visitors, and Leonard Harrison State Park is part of the twenty-one state parks chosen by the DCNR Pennsylvania Bureau of Parks for its "Twenty Must-See Pennsylvania State Parks" list. Leoanrd Harrison and Colton Point State Parks are the only two parks treated as one unit for the list. The DCNR describes the parks together, noting how they "offer spectacular vistas and a fabulous view of Pine Creek Gorge, also known as Pennsylvania's Grand Canyon". It goes on to praise their inclusion in a National Natural Landmark and State Park Natural Area, hiking and trails, and the Pine Creek Rail Trail and bicycling.