Port Allegany, Pennsylvania, was established as an important river port in the late 1700s and was originally known as Canoe Place, where explorers and settlers traveling up the river system to Emporium portaged 25 miles on foot over the Eastern Continental Divide to reach the Allegheny River and build canoes for passage north into New York and onward through the Ohio and Mississippi river systems. The town became known for industries tied to its natural resources, including glass manufacturing, natural gas production, forest management, and lumber harvesting. Once called the Glass Manufacturing Capital of the World, it had natural gas for furnaces, abundant sandstone, and river water, and by the turn of the 20th century many manufacturers there were producing window panes, bottles, and containers. The modern architectural glass block was invented there in the 1940s and was manufactured there until recently. Port Allegany is also associated with Lynn Hall, built in 1934 by local self-taught architect Walter J. Hall as a premier example of Allegheny Modernism and an early example of Organic Prairie Architecture; Hall later became the chief builder of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. The surrounding Allegheny National Forest region is characterized by forests, clean waters, abundant wildlife, and extensive opportunities for recreation, and the Allegheny National Forest west of the town includes 514,185 acres of scenic forestlands, drives, waterfalls, trails, campgrounds, and year-round outdoor activities.