Iron, ridge and bog: a day across the Bald Eagle Valley
Start where Julian got its name, climb the Allegheny Front, walk the plateau bog, and finish at a lakeside inn — six stops, scrolled.
Julian, Pennsylvania sits on the valley floor with the Allegheny Front standing over it to the west. This day goes up, across and back down: iron history at the bottom, the best view in the valley at the edge, a bog on the plateau, then east along Bald Eagle Creek to where the valley opens into a lake.
Scroll to travel. The map flies with you between stops and circles each one while you read.
Juliana Furnace
History & Heritage
Julian began as Juliana Furnace, the charcoal iron furnace built by James Irvin and John Adams and named for Julia Ann. It was one piece of the Juniata iron district, the same industry that built Eagle Iron Works, Harmony Forge and Pennsylvania Furnace.
Picture the valley floor as a works yard: teamsters hauling ore over from Buffalo Run Valley, and fifty to a hundred men at the stack and on the coaling grounds cutting the hillsides for charcoal.
Ralph's Majestic Vista
Parks & Outdoors
A rock outcrop on the Allegheny Front Trail in Moshannon State Forest, looking straight out over the Bald Eagle Valley toward Julian and State College. The furnace you just left is down there on the valley floor.
Park at the Underwood Road pull-off and walk 0.6 miles. Ralph’s Pretty Good View is 0.2 miles farther — about 1.4 miles round trip for both.
Black Moshannon Bog Trail
Parks & Outdoors
Black Moshannon State Park is bog, boardwalk and a 250-acre tea-colored lake on the Allegheny Plateau, fifteen minutes west of Julian. The color is the bog itself: its tannins stain the water.
The Bog Trail is boardwalk and gravel, about a quarter mile each way from Westside Road to a wooden viewing platform over leatherleaf, cranberry and blueberry. Look down for the carnivorous pitcher plants.
At about 1,900 feet the park colors at least a week ahead of State College. If you have time, the lake is flat water for kayaks.
Port Matilda Hotel & Tavern
Stay
Back down the Front to the head of the valley. The Port Matilda Hotel & Tavern is the historic small-town hotel here — rooms upstairs, wings and pizza downstairs, and the social hub of Port Matilda.
This is the turn of the day: everything after lunch runs northeast, down the valley with Bald Eagle Creek.
Eagle Iron Works at Curtin Village
History & Heritage
The morning started at a furnace that is barely a rumor. This one is still standing. Roland Curtin built his forge here on Bald Eagle Creek in 1810 and the cold-blast charcoal furnace in 1818; it was one of the last charcoal furnaces to operate in the United States, closing in 1921.
Today it is a state-owned historic site: the restored furnace, the 1830 mansion and a worker’s cabin. Park in the visitor lot between the mansion and the railroad tracks and walk.
The Nature Inn at Bald Eagle
Stay
Bald Eagle State Park is 5,900 acres wrapped around the 1,730-acre Foster Joseph Sayers Lake, at the foot of Bald Eagle Mountain. It is the best birding in the valley, and evening is when to be on the water’s edge.
Stay at The Nature Inn at Bald Eagle: a LEED Gold lakeside inn inside the park with 16 rooms, hot breakfast and birding programs. It is the valley’s answer when State College sells out on football and graduation weekends — so book early for those.