Location(s)

Howard Borough's first settler, William Tipton, was a millwright and keel boat operator who built his house along Bald Eagle Creek in 1800. Following his lead, other settlement and industrial development began to occur along the Creek which provided power not only for a gristmill, but also for the Howard Iron Works and the Howard Brick Company. Bald Eagle Creek served as the location and gave the community early access to the Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation Company canal system, in operation by 1837. Beginning in the 1860s and for a century the Pennsylvania Railroad served Howard, helping to sustain it as an agricultural, commercial, and industrial center in the Bald Eagle Valley. Since the early 1960s the Bald Eagle Creek has served Howard in another way, as the water corridor for the John Foster Sayers dam and recreational lake.

Information and text courtesy of The Centre County Historical Society
www.centrecountyhistory.org/