Forest City

History

The land that would become Forest City had been known as "Forest Mills" since the 1850s. From 1879 to 1886, the post office was called "Pentecost". It was named after one of the first local settlers, William Pentecost, who had started the lumbering and milling industries in the area. The post office was renamed Forest City in 1886, and the Forest City borough was formed in 1888. Between 1866 and 1871, the Jefferson Branch, a railroad spur of the D & H Canal Company, was built in Forest Mills. In 1871, an outcropping of coal was discovered. The Hillside Coal and Iron Company bought large tracts of land in the area, and by 1872 the first commercially profitable coal mining enterprise was established at North Railroad Street. A small breaker erected on Railroad Street processed the 75-ton daily output from this operation until 1883. In 1886, another shaft, Shaft No. 2, was opened. This brought an influx of miners, mostly Welsh, into the area. There were now 300 men and boys employed in the production of coal. On April 1, 1916, there was a supposed mine collapse at Shaft #2 that most notably killed 7 Welsh mining-boys between the ages of 6 and 11. This event was the basis for the song "Crugybar o frynian caersalem" performed by the Wilkes-Barre Quartet in 1922, which commemorates the event, as the boys were "fresh off the boat" from the Salem's Hills area of Northeast Wales. However state records and local historical society records have no record of this accident happening. Coal mining continued until The Great Depression hit this town hard, as primary sector of the economy products as lumber and coal were hardest hit. The population slowly dwindled as the coal mining came to a halt. Today, the Forest City Area Historical Society serves as a reminder of this…

Geography

Forest City is north by east of Scranton. Forest City is located at (41.650907, -75.468180). According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of , of which is land and (3.23%) is water.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Forest City Regional El Sch
  Elementary · Forest City · 434 students · 12.1:1 ratio
• Forest City Regional HS
  High · Forest City · 327 students · 11.3:1 ratio