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Ricketts Glen State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on 13,050 acres in Columbia, Luzerne, and Sullivan counties in Pennsylvania. Ricketts Glen is a National Natural Landmark known for its old-growth forest and 24 named waterfalls along Kitchen Creek, which flows down the Allegheny Front escarpment from the Allegheny Plateau to the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians. The park is near the borough of Benton on Pennsylvania Route PA 118 and PA 487.
Ricketts Glen’s land was once home to Native Americans. Its’ waterfalls were also one of the main attractions for a hotel from 1873 to 1903. It was named for the hotel’s proprietor, R. Bruce Ricketts, who built the trail along the waterfalls. He was also distinguished as an artillery officer in the American Civil War. He is best known for his battery’s defense against a Confederate attack on Cemetery Hill on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg. By the 1890s Ricketts owned or controlled over 80,000 acres (120 sq mi) and made his fortune clear-cutting almost all of the land, including much of what is now the park. He did however preserve about 2,000 acres of beautiful forest in the creek’s three glens. The sawmill was at the village of Ricketts, which was north of the park. After his death in 1918, Ricketts’ heirs began selling land to the state for Pennsylvania State Game Lands.
