Pine Creek Gorge, a forty-seven-mile canyon in north-central Pennsylvania, was carved into the Allegheny Plateau and took its present shape at the end of the last ice age, when glacial debris forced Pine Creek into a new southward course. Long used by Native Americans as a travel route, it became a major nineteenth-century lumber region after Pine Creek was made a public highway in 1798 and later served by a railroad. Clearcutting and fire badly damaged the landscape by the early twentieth century, but much of the gorge is now protected. Regrown forests, wildlife, scenic overlooks, trails, and parks define its modern character.