Ricketts Glen State Park is a 13,193-acre Pennsylvania park near Benton, spanning parts of Luzerne, Sullivan, and Columbia counties, and is renowned for old-growth forest and 24 named waterfalls along Kitchen Creek as it descends the Allegheny Front. Native Americans used this land long before European settlement; later came a turnpike, timber cutting, and failed oil drilling in the 1860s. Named for R. Bruce Ricketts, who built trails to the falls after visitors discovered the glens, the area opened as a state park in 1944 after plans for a national park faded. Today it is valued for hiking, lake recreation, winter sports, and important wildlife habitat.