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There is no shortage of historical places to visit in our neck of the woods. While there isn’t necessarily a shortage of people coming to make those visits, giving tourists another reason to do so is never a bad thing.
Considering the American fascination with mobility and the mystique of the open road, it stands to reason that celebrating one of the first transcontinental highways in American history as it winds through the hills of our region should be one way of drawing attention to the hidden historical gems nestled in the valleys of northeast Pennsylvania.
As the first town in Wayne County to become a Route 6 Heritage Community, Waymart wants to call attention to itself as one of those gems along what National Geographic once called “One of the most scenic drives in America.”
“Recognizing that the region’s natural, cultural, historic, and recreational resources are too precious to take for granted, and in fact, hold the key to its future prosperity,” Reads a brochure from the Pennsylvania Route 6 Alliance, a group of communities and other stakeholders that seeks to promote tourism and the well-being of the towns, people and culture along what was once the longest road in America.
“The Commonwealth designated Pennsylvania Route 6 Heritage Corridor an official Pennsylvania Heritage Area in 2005. Today, through the leadership of the Pennsylvania Route 6 Alliance, citizens from 11 counties are joining together to preserve, enhance and promote the treasured resources that contribute to their shared sense of place.”
According to the Alliance’s website, Route 6 can be traced back to 1807 when state officials ordered a road be cut through the Moosic Mountains to make travel easier between the eastern and western parts of the state.
As the state and nation grew, so did the road.
Carved from hundreds of miles of wilderness, the road eventually united all of the county seats in Pennsylvania's northern tier. This newborn highway quickly became a vital link between the industry of the west and the railroads in the east, giving rise to countless villages, farms and towns.
In 1925, Route 6 in Pennsylvania was incorporated into a highway system that would connect the United States from coast to coast. Now named US Route 6, the road originally stretched from Cape Cod, Mass. to Long Beach, Calif. and was the longest road in the country. It became one of America's first transcontinental highways. When the state of California rerouted a section of the road in the 1960s, it lost its status as the longest highway in the country, though it is still the second longest.
There is no shortage of historical places to visit in our neck of the woods. While there isn’t necessarily a shortage of people coming to make those visits, giving tourists another reason to do so is never a bad thing.
Considering the American fascination with mobility and the mystique of the open road, it stands to reason that celebrating one of the first transcontinental highways in American history as it winds through the hills of our region should be one way of drawing attention to the hidden historical gems nestled in the valleys of northeast Pennsylvania.
As the first town in Wayne County to become a Route 6 Heritage Community, Waymart wants to call attention to itself as one of those gems along what National Geographic once called “One of the most scenic drives in America.”
“Recognizing that the region’s natural, cultural, historic, and recreational resources are too precious to take for granted, and in fact, hold the key to its future prosperity,” Reads a brochure from the Pennsylvania Route 6 Alliance, a group of communities and other stakeholders that seeks to promote tourism and the well-being of the towns, people and culture along what was once the longest road in America.
“The Commonwealth designated Pennsylvania Route 6 Heritage Corridor an official Pennsylvania Heritage Area in 2005. Today, through the leadership of the Pennsylvania Route 6 Alliance, citizens from 11 counties are joining together to preserve, enhance and promote the treasured resources that contribute to their shared sense of place.”
According to the Alliance’s website, Route 6 can be traced back to 1807 when state officials ordered a road be cut through the Moosic Mountains to make travel easier between the eastern and western parts of the state.
As the state and nation grew, so did the road.
Carved from hundreds of miles of wilderness, the road eventually united all of the county seats in Pennsylvania's northern tier. This newborn highway quickly became a vital link between the industry of the west and the railroads in the east, giving rise to countless villages, farms and towns.
In 1925, Route 6 in Pennsylvania was incorporated into a highway system that would connect the United States from coast to coast. Now named US Route 6, the road originally stretched from Cape Cod, Mass. to Long Beach, Calif. and was the longest road in the country. It became one of America's first transcontinental highways. When the state of California rerouted a section of the road in the 1960s, it lost its status as the longest highway in the country, though it is still the second longest.
In Pennsylvania, the highway remains a favorite scenic driving route as it weaves through the county seats of 10 northern counties.
As it traverses Northern Pennsylvania, the road connects New York and Ohio, as well as four designated State Heritage Regions, 19 State Parks, numerous State Forests, five Pennsylvania Historical and Museum sites, several National Park Service Sites, the Allegheny National Forest and scores of boroughs and villages, each with its own unique character and story to tell the curious motorist.
While marketing of the scenic route has taken place since US 6 was created in the 1920s, a concerted promotional campaign by the County Convention & Visitors Bureaus, originally known as the Pennsylvania Route 6 Tourist Association, gained national attention for this historic highway.
With the help of state agencies, the Pennsylvania Route 6 Tourist Association began a process of evaluating the feasibility of using Route 6 as a conduit for enhancing the economy and quality of life in Pennsylvania’s northern tier, giving rise to what became the Route 6 Alliance.
Waymart is the first municipality in Wayne County to go through the process of being named a Route 6 Historical Community, though according to Jane Varcoe, president of the Waymart Area Historical Society and a Waymart Borough Council member, through her own efforts and those of many other area stakeholders, Honesdale, Hawley, White Mills and Carbondale will all be on the bandwagon soon, hopefully leading to a cohesive county-wide effort to market the Route 6 corridor as containing some of the nation’s great scenic and historical locales.
Varcoe says meetings continue among a wide range of stakeholders to pursue grants and other funding sources that will be used to have brochures made, purchase signs directing Route 6 travelers to the various communities and noteworthy sites along the corridor and develop other promotional materials to attract the motoring public.
“One of the great objectives,” she said, “Is to get our communities ‘on the map’ so people will stop, buy a meal and see our historical sights. But we (in Waymart) are very aware of the fact that we don’t exist alone. We want (people) to stop in Waymart, but we also want to have people stop in the other towns. It’s about all of us.”
