With deaths outpacing births, this rural Pennsylvania outpost, already small, is only getting smaller.
Manny and Shivani Patel outside their Sunoco gas station in Forksville in June. “It’s peaceful and it’s beautiful,” Manny Patel said. “And we haven’t seen as many bears as you’d think.”On a stormy Sunday night in late June, one of Sullivan County’s newer residents stomped his little sneakers in rainbow-ringed puddles outside his parents’ gas station in a tiny town where two clear creeks converge.
“It’s peaceful and it’s beautiful,” Manny Patel said, leaning on his truck in the parking lot. “And we haven’t seen as many bears as you’d think.” Over the last five months, The Inquirer visited Sullivan County, talking to graduates heading to college, a South Philly musician who serves up authentic cheesesteaks by the covered bridge, volunteers at the oldest bowhunting festival in the world, and a former banker determined to build a state-of-the-art wellness center unlike anything the county’s ever seen.
Sullivan and other rural counties, particularly in the Poconos, saw an influx of second-home owners spending extended time there during the pandemic when more people were working remotely. Real estate sales and rentals boomed, too, though the sales were also mostly second homes. Sullivan County’s enrollment has fluctuated in recent years. Federal statistics show 631 students in the 2009-10 and 2004-05 school years. A former Sullivan County superintendent told The Inquirer the district had around 700 students in 2020 and 2021. Current Superintendent Doug Lindner told The Inquirer enrollment was 620, an increase of 30 students from last year.
Chris McMahon, who works in maintenance for the school district, stood to the side of the stage, thinking about his own graduation from Sullivan County High School in 1978. He was raised on a dairy farm.Pam’s Restaurant Klein said she’s torn between wanderlust and small-town life. Many of her classmates feel the same way, she said. She envisions a future farther east, in a rapidly growing part of Pennsylvania that no longer feels rural.over the next three decades, including Lehigh County, but 46, mostly rural counties would see a decrease, including a whopping 24.3% projected decline in Pike County.
“What you need is more workers like me or more younger kids in the woods,” said logger Richard Jordan after stacking a load of oak destined for campfires and fireplaces. “They can teach you how to cut wood, but it’s a lot easier if you grow up with it. My grandfather did it, and my dad’s my only employee. He runs the skidder for me. He’s 81 years old.”
Some parts of rural America, including Pennsylvania, have become “health-care deserts” as hospitals and doctors shutter or contract to denser areas. The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania found that more than one-quarter of Pennsylvania’s rural hospitals were operating with a negative margin. Some of the effects have direct correlations to population loss.
The hunting festival, he said, is one of his busiest weekends, but it’s not as busy as it used to be.Stasiunas, 70, used to host a raucous comedy and music show at his store but mostly cracks jokes behind the counter these days. He’s contemplating retirement, handing things over to his daughters, but he’ll still hang out for laughs.
“You have two things happening: There are fewer people, overall, and the key leadership element of this is getting older. I’m 44 and I’m one of the younger people involved,” he said beside one of the foam bucks. “I’ve been involved since I was born and I’m a third-generation volunteer. Nobody gets paid here and all the profits go back to the community.”
When asked what else could bring in younger families, Fenton said “better internet,” a widespread problem in rural America.
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