Blue Knob State Park in Bedford County centers on Blue Knob, Pennsylvania’s second-highest mountain, and is known for heavy snowfall and the state’s highest-elevation ski slope. First settled after the American Revolution by mostly German-descended farmers, the area later underwent intensive logging that stripped old-growth hemlock forests, brought railroads up the steep slopes, and left the land fire-prone and depleted of wildlife. Its modern character was shaped by New Deal restoration beginning in 1935, when federal relief and conservation programs rebuilt the damaged landscape. Since opening as a state park in 1945, it has offered year-round recreation on trails, streams, and mountain terrain shaped by both geology and history.