Broad Top Area Coal Miners Museum, Route 913, Robertsdale 814-635-3807 (weekends) 814-635-2013 (weekdays): Owned and operated by the nonprofit Broad Top Area Coal Miners Historical Society Inc., the museum and entertainment center is located in the former Reality Theatre. Open Fridays through Sundays throughout the year and by special appointment, the museum features numerous photos, displays, and other relics about the coal mining, railroading and iron making industries of the Broad Top area. Each community on historic Broad Top Mountain is featured in special exhibits. A research library, miners’ memorial plaques, gift shop and information center can also be found here. Periodic country music/variety shows and movies are also shown on the giant Reality Theatre screen.

Robertsdale and Wood, former “company towns” developed by the former Rockhill Iron and Coal Company in 1874 and 1891, respectively. The coal-hauling East Broad Top Railroad was built to the East Broad Top Coal Field in 1874. Both communities, which feature surviving miners homes and “company structures,” are on the National Register of Historic Places.

EBT Depot & Old Robertsdale Post Office, located along Route 913 on the “company square” in Robertsdale. The structures are being restored as a railroad museum and headquarters of the nonprofit Friends of the East Broad Top (FEBT), a group of EBT railroad preservationists. The museum is open between Memorial Day and Labor Day on designated weekends only. Check FEBT web page for additional information at www.febt.org

Robertsdale Italian Cemetery: Active between 1916 and the mid 1920s, the burial ground was used by Italian/Sicilian immigrants who worked in the local coal mines. Most were victims of the dreaded 1918 flu epidemic and hostilities of labor disputes in the early 1920s.

Broad Top City: once the home of the historic Mountain House Hotel, nearby coal mines and the eastern terminus of the Huntingdon and Broad Top Mountain Railroad’s (H&BT) Shoup’s Run Branch, three celebrated pathfinders in the country music industry are buried in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery. Monuments and memorials identify the final resting places of coal mining brothers Vaughn and Roy Horton and the legendary country music singer Elton Britt (“There’s a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere”.) Vaughn was a well-known songwriter (“Mockin’ Bird Hill,” “Mule Skinners Blues” and “Teardrops in My Heart” are examples) and Roy was a well-known country music company executive and one of the founders of the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee.

Dudley: several original H&BT Railroad structures are located just off Route 913 at the center of town. A stationary steam locomotive (non-H&BT) helps to dramatize the history of railroading on Broad Top Mountain.

Minersville: Remains of early coke ovens located here. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the coke ovens were a part of a much larger iron-producing industry and mining area on the western side of Broad Top Mountain and nearby Saxton. The site is located just off Route 913, near several mine reclamation projects of the Shoup’s Run Watershed Association.

Middletown: Located just off of Route 913 is an original H&BT railroad trestle that spans Shoups’s Run. The former Shoup’s Run H&BT right of way is still visible. The railroad bed is used by the community of Saxton for transporting water (via a large service line) from the Kenrock area (near Minersville) to the Putts Hollow Reservoir, located just southeast of East Saxton/Puttstown.

East Saxton: once the site of Shoup’s Fort, built in the 1770s by early settle Sebastian Shoup. The small fort was used by local pioneers during the American Revolution as a place of refuge during Indian hostilities. The fort originally stood just off Route 913, at the entrance of Fockler Cemetery and nearby Tussey Mountain Junior-Senior High School.

Communities of Saxton and Stonerstown: Relics of the era of the H&BT survive here where the borough of Saxton once served as the nerve center of the standard gauge railroad (1852-1954.) The present day Martin General Store is located in a portion of what was once a much larger H&BT railroad repair shops and foundry complex on the far eastern corner of Saxton. A large railroad roundhouse once stood in the center of town and the concrete piers of an H&BT railroad trestle can still be seen in the waters of the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River, not far from the VFW Recreational Park in Stonerstown. Near here, a boat launch is located on the northern end of the new Raystown Branch Juniata River Water Trail. The Saxton area is also located along the new Raystown/H&BT Greenway that stretches from Bedford to Huntingdon. Overlooking Saxton, high a top Terrace (Saxton) Mountain is the legendary “Sunday Rock,” a favorite spot for Sunday picnickers and hikers. A community swimming pool, located in the Broad Top Industrial Park, and the Saxton Community Parkway, situated along a two-block area of Saxton’s Main Street (Route 913), also attracts many visitors to the area each year. The Saxton area proudly claims the title of the “Southern Gateway to Raystown Lake.”

Saxton Nuclear Experimental Plant, located just off Route 913 in East Saxton. The dome-shaped nuclear reactor operated between 1962-1972. The second privately owned nuclear reactor in the U.S., the SNEC facility was a power and research reactor constructed to develop a number of technologies used today in the nuclear power industry. The facility was dismantled a few years ago. A large coal-fired power-generating plant once stood next door with coal being transported to the plant by the H&BT and the famed “Bucket Line” tramway.

Heritage Cove Resort: located about two miles south of Weavers Falls, near Saxton, the new multi-purpose recreational facility offers overnight (fully equipped) camping sites, deluxe cabins, a swimming pool, campers supply store/reception center, boat rentals, RV sites and a boat launching site. Phone 814-635-3386 or log onto www.heritagecoveresort.com

Weavers Falls Boat Launch and Recreational Area: Located on the southern tip of Raystown Lake, two miles northeast of Saxton, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers property provides easy boat access to the lake as well as picnic tables and a playground area.

Warriors Path State Park: situated in Liberty Township, two miles south of Saxton, the 334-acre park lies very near the famous path used by the Iroquois in raids and wars with the Cherokees and other American Indians in southern Pennsylvania. The park is accessed by the original H&BT right of way and follows the winding Raystown Branch of the Juniata River. Picnic tables, shelters, a fishing launch site, restrooms and other outdoor recreational opportunities await visitors.

Captain Phillips Rangers Memorial: located five miles north of Saxton, in Liberty Township, the 16.08-acre shrine is situated a mile off of Route 26 at the base of Tussey Mountain. Here, on July 16, 1780, at the height of the American Revolution, 10 Juniata Valley militiamen were massacred by Seneca Indians and buried in a mass grave where they fell. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission roadside historical markers and a large stone monument mark the site of the rangers’ final resting place.

Trough Creek State Park: located off of Route 994, near Entriken, Raystown Lake and Lake Raystown Resort, the 554-acre park borders Rothrock State Forest. One of the most scenic and historical parks in the state, the facility was once the home of Paradise Furnace and forge (1830-1867) and a Civilian Conservation Corps camp. Today, the state park offers a variety of outdoor recreational opportunities ranging from camping and hiking to fishing and picnicking. The access road once served as the original right of way of the Juniata & Southern logging railroad.

Keystone Foundry & Machine Works: Located just off Route 915 on the northeastern corner of Hopewell, the famous industrial site was erected in 1857 to serve the new H&BT. Located nearby were the Sandy Run and Long’s Run branches of the H&BT which were built to deep mines on the west and east sides of Broad Top Mountain. When new railroad repair shops were built at Saxton following the Civil War the Hopewell facility was used to supply parts for the local mining and iron making industries. The museum, now owned and maintained by the Hopewell Area Senior Citizens Center, is open through the summer on weekends and by special appointment. Phone 814-928-5111.

Riddlesburg Coke Ovens: Located just off Route 26 in Broad Top Township, the historic 48 beehive coke ovens were a part of a much larger iron making industry located at Riddlesburg. The existing ovens were erected around 1912 and last used during the early 1950s. The old Six Mile Run branch of the H&BT is located nearby.

EvansCemetery: located in Broad Top Township, near Six Mile Run (Coaldale), the early rural country graveyard is the final resting place of many early Broad Top area settlers including Thomas White, which legends suggest was a member of the “Boston Tea Party” of Dec. 16, 1773.

Duvall Cemetery: also located near Six Mile Run (Coaldale), near the top of Broad Top Mountain, this historic graveyard is the final resting place of Dr. Jeremiah Duvall, leader of the first band of settlers to penetrate the Six Mile Run side of the Broad Top around 1785. Other well-known Broad Top area families are buried here too.

North Point/Shreeves Run: Site of the first known discovery of semi-bituminous Broad Top coal by blacksmith Nathan Port Horton around 1800. The early pioneer recovered the coal outcroppings near the mouth of Shreeves Run which empties into Six Mile Run. Horton used the “black diamonds” in his blacksmith shop, located nearby.