Wyoming Valley

The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal mines. As a metropolitan area, it is known as the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, after its principal cities, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. With a population of 567,559 as of the 2020 United States census, it is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Pennsylvania, after the Delaware Valley, Greater Pittsburgh, the Lehigh Valley, and the Harrisburg–Carlisle metropolitan statistical areas.

Within the geology of Pennsylvania, the Wyoming Valley makes up its own unique physiographic province, the Anthracite Valley. Greater Pittston occupies the center of the valley. Scranton is the most populated city in the metropolitan area with a population of 77,114. The city of Scranton grew in population after the 2015 mid-term census while Wilkes-Barre declined in population. Wilkes-Barre remains the second most-populated city in the metropolitan area, while Hazleton is the third most-populated city in the metropolitan area.

The valley is a crescent-shaped depression, a part of the ridge-and-valley or folded Appalachians. The Susquehanna River occupies the southern part of the valley, which is notable for its deposits of anthracite. These have been extensively mined. Deep mining of anthracite has declined throughout the greater Coal Region, however, due to the greater economics of strip mining. Parts of the local mines had already shut down because some coal beds were on fire and had to be sealed, but the exodus of mining companies came quickly following the legal and political repercussions of the 1959 Knox Mine disaster when the roof of the Knox Coal Company's mine under the Susquehanna River collapsed.

The Pocono Mountains, a ridgeline away, are often visible from higher elevations to the east and to the southeast of the Wyoming Valley.

History

Early history

thumb|A map of [[Pennsylvania and the competing land claims during the colonial era]]

thumb|A map of Pennsylvania counties in 1836; at the time, [[Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania|Lackawanna and Wyoming were still part of Luzerne County.]]

The name Wyoming derives from the Lenape Munsee name , meaning "at the big river flat."

According to The Jesuit Relations in 1635, the Wyoming Valley was inhabited by an Iroquoian language speaking nation called the Scahentoarrhonon, argued to translate as 'nation of the great meadow'. Their country was known as Scahentowanen by other Iroquoian peoples. They are known to have had trade relations with New Netherland and taken part in anti-Haudenosaunee alliances with the Neutral and Wendat confederacies. Possibly due to these alliances they were destroyed by the Haudenosaunee in 1652. By 1744, it was inhabited by Lenape, Mohican, Shawnee and others who had been pushed out of their homelands by the British Empire. From the 1740s to the 1760s, the valley was the site of Moravian mission work among the Native Americans living there.

Metropolitan statistical area

The Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, also known as the Wyoming Valley, covers Lackawanna, Luzerne, and Wyoming counties. It had a combined population of 558,166 in 2015. The counties adjacent to Wyoming Valley include Monroe County (Southeast), Susquehanna County (Northeast), Wayne County (East), Columbia County (West), Bradford County (Northwest), Carbon County (South), Sullivan County (West) and Schuylkill County (Southwest).

As of the 2000 census, the area also had the highest percentage of non-Hispanic whites of any U.S. metropolitan area with a population over 500,000, with 96.2% of the population stating their race as white alone and not claiming Hispanic ethnicity, however the Hispanic demographic has been significantly rising since then.

When metropolitan areas were first defined in 1950, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre were in separate metropolitan areas. Lackawanna County was defined as the Scranton Standard Metropolitan Area, while Luzerne County was defined as the Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton metropolitan area. The two metropolitan areas were merged after the 1970 census as the Northeast Pennsylvania Standard metropolitan statistical area, with Monroe County added as a component. It was renamed the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre metropolitan statistical area after the 1980 census, and Columbia and Wyoming counties were added. Hazleton was added as a primary city in the 1990 census, while Monroe County lost its metropolitan status.

After the 2000 census, Columbia County lost metropolitan status, while Hazleton was removed as a primary city. Scranton is the largest city in Lackawanna County as well as the entire metropolitan area by a large margin, nearly doubling the population of the second largest city in the metropolitan area, Wilkes Barre.

{|class="wikitable sortable"

!County

!2022 Estimate

!2020 Census

!Change

!Area

!Density

|Luzerne County

|Lackawanna County

|Wyoming County

|- class=sortbottom style="background:#fbfbbb"

|Total MSA Population

Physical valley

thumb|The [[Geology of Pennsylvania#Anthracite Valley|Anthracite Valley Section is visible in the northeast]]

thumb|The physical valley can be seen in the northeast

Geographically, the Lackawanna Valley and Wyoming Valley form a continuous, crescent-shaped urban pool nestled between the Pocono and Endless Mountains. It is about long and extends from the counties of Susquehanna and Wayne (in the north) to Columbia County (in the south). It includes the cities of Carbondale, Scranton, Pittston, Wilkes-Barre, and Nanticoke.

The physical valley (the Anthracite Valley Section) and the Wyoming Valley Metropolitan Statistical Area are distinct entities. While Wyoming County is included in the metropolitan area, it lies outside the boundaries of the physical valley itself.

Culture

Scranton is the cultural center of the Wyoming Valley, being the largest city by population in the metropolitan area.

Sports

The Wyoming Valley also has professional sports teams; they include the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders (Minor League Baseball Class AAA), the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (American Hockey League), and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Steamers (Premier Basketball League). The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pioneers were a minor league arena football team in Wilkes-Barre (from 2001 to 2009).

Local attractions

Local attractions include the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre, the Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, PNC Field in Moosic, Mohegan Pennsylvania in Plains, the Toyota Pavilion in Scranton, the Wyoming Valley Mall in Wilkes-Barre, the Shoppes at Montage in Moosic, the Steamtown Mall in Scranton, the Viewmont Mall in Scranton/Dickson City, Pennsylvania, and the Montage Mountain Waterpark/Ski Resort in Scranton. Other historic attractions include Eckley Miners' Village and the Steamtown National Historic Site.

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Literature

This area is celebrated in Lydia Sigourney's poem Vale of Wyoming published in her Scenes in my Native Land, 1845, with accompanying descriptive text.

In the science-fiction story Armageddon 2419 A.D. by Philip Francis Nowlan, American Radioactive Gas Corporation employee Anthony "Buck" Rogers is investigating an abandoned coal mine in the Wyoming Valley when a cave-in traps him. A gas which fills the mine shaft places him in suspended animation for nearly 500 years. He awakens to find that the United States has been destroyed by a Chinese invasion, and he joins a "gang" of Americans who survive by hiding in the forests of the Wyoming Valley area. With the help of Buck's experience as a soldier in World War I, they unite all of the scattered Americans in a "Second War of Independence" against the "Han" colonial administration.

Transportation

The airports for this area are Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport and the Wilkes-Barre Wyoming Valley Airport.

Notes

Citations

References

The following printed resources are in the collection of the Connecticut State Library (CSL):

Boyd, J. P. The Susquehanna Company, 1753-1803. [CSL call number: F157 .W9 B69 1931]
Henry, William (ed.). Documents Relating to the Connecticut Settlement in the Wyoming Valley. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 1990 [CSL call number: F157 .W9 D63 1990 v1, 2].
Joyce, Mary Hinchcliffe. Pioneer Days in the Wyoming Valley. Philadelphia: 1928 [CSL call number: F157 .W9 J89].
Smith, William. An Examination of the Connecticut Claim to Lands in Pennsylvania: With an Appendix, Containing Extracts and Copies Taken from Original Papers. Philadelphia: Joseph Crukshank, 1774 [CSL call number: Wells Collection F157 .W9 S55].
Stark, S. Judson. The Wyoming Valley: Probate Records ... Wilkes-Barre, PA: Wyoming Historical and Geological Society, 1923 [CSL call number: F157 .W9 S72].
Warfle, Richard Thomas. Connecticut's Western Colony; the Susquehannah Affair. (Connecticut Bicentennial Series, #32). Hartford, CT: American Revolutionary Bicentennial Commission of Connecticut, 1979 [CSL call number: Conn Doc Am35 cb num 32].
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Wilkes-Barre (the "Diamond City"), Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Wilkes-Barre, PA: The Committee on Souvenir and Program, 1906 [CSL call number: F159 .W6 W65 1906].

External links

Connecticut's "Susquehanna Settlers"
History of the Wilkes-Barre area
Sullivanclinton.com - the full historical context
Sullivanclinton.com - Wyoming Valley today