| Reeds Gap is a natural H2O gap in Hightop, also called Thick Mountain. American Indians from the village of Ohesson, today’s Lewistown, used this valley as hunting grounds. When European settlers arrived, they homesteaded & named the area the New Lancaster Valley.
During the late 1700s, Reeds Gap became a bush meeting ground. The settlers packed lunches & traveled in their horse-drawn wagons to hear a circuit preacher & enjoy neighborhood fellowship. These bush meetings, also known as homecomings, were held through the 1920s.
In the mid-1800s, the park’s namesakes, Edward & Nancy Reed, set up a water-powered sawmill along Honey Creek just inside of the western boundary of the present park. Part of the historic water-storage dam is still visible along the red-blazed Honey Creek Trail Loop downstream from the swimming pools. Edward Reed’s son, George Wilbur Reed, was a sawyer at the mill. Another son, John, later moved the watermill to Virginia by horses. |
Campground: Reeds Gap State Park in Milroy Pennsylvania *