History of Punxsutawney

 

 

History of Punxsutawney

Punxsutawney is just a small town now, but at one time, it was the place to be.  First inhabited by the Delaware Native-Americans, this town would become one of the most famous small towns in America.  It is said that the first white settler to move to Punxsutawney was Jacob Hoover in 1814, who built a log cabin and a grist mill.  A grist mill was a common practice for grinding grain that farmers harvested in the 1800's.  Then two years later a reverend named David Barcalay came and established the settlement as a town. 

 

 

 

 

Up until 1883, agriculture and lumber were the main industries.  The timber was rafted down the Mahoning Creek all the way to Pittsburgh.  But in the late 1800's to 1940's, the biggest parts of the economy were mines and the railroad.  Much of the coal was sent to steel factories in Pittsburgh on the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad. 

 

 

 

 

All the big industries around Punxsy made it the perfect town for miners and railroad workers to go to.  It was a hot spot and in the early 1900's, businesses and families flourished with the good economic times.  The population reached its maximum of about 12,000 people in the early 1900's.  But with the Great Depression, many businesses failed and had the area struggled just as much as the rest of the nation.  Even in hard times, Punxsutawney will still always have one tradition to keep it on the map, Groundhog Day. 

 

 

 

 

 

It all started in 1887, when a group of hunters went up on a hill outside of town and hunted groundhogs and then roasted them over the fire and got drunk.  Yes, they ate groundhogs.  You will actually find that many families continued to eat groundhog meat up into the mid 1900's, including my grandparents!  It was when some drunk guy declared that the groundhog had special weather predicting powers that the tradition started. A group of men decided that if the groundhog saw his shadow, there would be six more weeks of winter, but if he didn't, spring was just around the corner.  Ever since then, Groundhog Day has brought a substantial amount of income to the town due to the many tourists that make the trek to see this rodent.  It has also brought some humorous memories for myself, like when Punxsy Phil peed all over the handler up on stage (a Terrible Towel was used for cleanup) and when Punxsy Phil actually died on stage and the handler had to move him around so people didn't realize it!  But I think my favorite memory was when I borrowed the school mascot costume and became the hit of the night, getting a picture with tourists every 2 minutes and made it on the Patriot News website.

 

 

 

 

 

If you don't want to head up to the Knob on a freezing February morning, you could always just watch the movie "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray.  Although any native of Punxsutawney will be happy to point out all the inaccurate depictions of our holiday.  Now that you have a basic understanding of how our town started, I'm going to stop talking and just give you some interesting pictures (can be found at the Punxsutawney Historical and Genealogy Society) to take a look at rather than listen to my boring words!

 

Railroad office building

 

 

19th century farmers in the Punxsutawney area

 

 

Downtown Punxsutawney (1940's?)

 

Old Punxsutawney High School

 

Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh Railroad

 

Groundhog Day 1963

 

 

High school football team

 

High school basketball team

 

Downtown (1950's?)