Point Hill, Franklin, PA

Despite some hardscrabble neighborhoods, Franklin is a quaintly scenic little town.  It’s got a busy Main Street with no empty storefronts and more than just the usual Subway and Dollar General.  There’s a decent independent coffee shop, a few good restaurants, a few tobacco shops, and a curious museum of musical instruments.  There’s a nice downtown park and ornate street lamps, too.  It resembles Bedford Falls from “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  Franklin is the seat of the once opulently rich Venango County, so the public buildings are impressive.  Here’s the county courthouse with the jail behind it, wearing a red tile roof.  But the thing that interests me more than the town itself is the hill that you see in the background.  

That’s the sensibly-named Point Hill, which stands some 500 feet above the town.  French Creek and the Allegheny River converge in the valley at the mountain’s foot.  A Scotsman had a trading post here as early as 1740, and by 1753 the French had built Fort Machault near the confluence of the two bodies of water.  That’s when a 21-year-old George Washington arrived in Franklin unsuccessfully trying to warn the French out of the Allegheny River valley, which was claimed by Virginia and the British Crown.

It’s hard to believe that two of the world’s greatest empires were willing to fight over this place.  It’s a pleasant hike up to the summit of Point Hill, and there are a few modest views.  We were having an Easter get-together at my in-laws’ house, but my daughters and I had a few spare moments to bag a humble peak while the others were lying around the house, gossiping about people we don’t know. An unfriendly pit bull accosted us on the upward climb.

So many towns in this region have a low, wooded mountain or two in the background.  It’s fun to climb them and see what’s up there, see the whole place from an alternative perspective.  I’ve been passing though Franklin all my life, and I’ve finally explored the hill that stands as the backdrop to scenes I know all too well.  Funny how long it takes for some things to happen.  Point Hill is only 1,420 feet, but as I keep telling this blog, anything over 1,000 feet is considered a mountain. 2nd Avenue becomes a narrow gravel lane, which runs all the way to the towers up top. There seems to be a network of trails up there, too, but perhaps another day.