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Wednesday, January 7, 2026

Wyoming County

Happy New Year!

It's only been a week since we bade farewell to 2025, but the weather has made it feel like much longer. Today isn't so bad, nor was yesterday; the previous several days, however, with their painfully low temperatures and biting winds, were another story. I was not built for winter and have not been feeling my best.

Still, I'm here and I'm looking forward to a new year of blogging. It's going to be a busy one, with the books and other important things happening. The country is turning 250 years old! Naturally, Pennsylvania is a big part of that, so I'll be doing my best to participate where I can.

But for today, a blog post. Last summer, as my readers from back then may recall, my emotional support silly man and I took a road trip up north for his birthday, and one of our stops was the seat of Wyoming County. We admired their beautiful courthouse and collected a few markers and here's some of what I learned as a result.

The marker stands in front of the 
county courthouse in Tunkhannock,
at One Court House Square
To answer one of my own questions first, no - Wyoming County is not named after the state of Wyoming. Rather, the county and the state both (probably) take their name from the same root, which is a word in the Delaware Native American language meaning "large plains" or "extensive meadows." Wyoming is a heavily corrupted version of the original word, maughwauwa-ma, which over time lost its first syllable and was spelled in a number of different ways until the modern spelling was standardized. The Wyoming Valley here in Pennsylvania was actually named first, and the county took its name from the valley. Thomas Campbell wrote his poem "Gertrude of Wyoming" about the 1778 massacre of Delawares which took place in the valley, helping to popularize both the name and the present spelling of the word, and the state acquired the name later, after the Civil War.

White settlers first came to the Wyoming Valley as early as 1762, but the Natives drove them off. Only after the Sullivan expedition of 1779 did that change. What was the Sullivan expedition? Well, that's a complicated question, and the subject of a lot of markers across the northeastern part of Pennsylvania. In shortest form, though, it was a Revolutionary War-era campaign led by Major General John Sullivan, whose forces went after the Iroquois Confederacy and their allies and destroyed many of their settlements. The reason it's complicated is that it was arguably an important factor in the American victory in the Revolution, since the Confederacy was on the British side, but that doesn't change the fact that they made life insanely difficult for the Native Americans. I'm not exactly looking forward to tackling that subject even after I track down all of the markers.

But getting back to Wyoming County, here's an interesting tidbit: it was almost called Putnam County. The land was originally the northernmost chunk of Luzerne County, but in 1842 a petition was brought to the Pennsylvania Legislature asking for the creation of a new county, and this petition included a request to name it after Putnam Township. Someone managed to get the name 'Wyoming' put in there instead of Putnam, however, and that was the name it was given when the act passed. The city of Tunkhannock was selected to be the county seat, and in 1843 the original courthouse and jail were built on land donated by Thomas Slocum. The courthouse today, seen here, still occupies the same spot. 

Wyoming County is dominated by two particular natural forces - the might Susquehanna River and the Endless Mountains. In fact, it's known as "the gateway to the Endless Mountains." These beautiful green rolling hills are a subrange of the Appalachians, and Wyoming is the southernmost county where they can be found. (They also form the landscape of Bradford, Sullivan, and Susquehanna Counties.) Additionally, it's home to the Tunkhannock Viaduct, built in 1912 for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad and used ever since to carry freight trains over the Tunkhannock Creek. It was the largest concrete structure in the world at the time of its construction, and is still one of the largest concrete bridges in the world even today. The viaduct has its own historical marker, so I'll be discussing it in depth in a future post; but if you'd like to learn more about it in the meantime, my colleague Jim of UncoveringPA has been there and shares his adventures here.

Easily the best way to learn more about Wyoming County, though, is to pay a visit to the historical society's museum. Open only by appointment, this extraordinary collection of local artifacts and memorabilia is housed in the historic Harrison Street School in Tunkhannock. It has room after room full of carefully categorized treasures. One room is a recreation of a one-room schoolhouse, with antique desks and toys, vintage tools, and old photographs. Then there's the military room, which honors local veterans and those who died in battle from the American Revolution onward; this room houses uniforms, equipment, and images. Another room is effectively a large closet full of outfits from many time periods, including a stunning Victorian wedding trousseau. A music room is home to a collection of instruments and sheet music, while the tools room holds many vintage hand tools and machinery. The "men's room" includes, among other things, a recreated barbershop. Other rooms contain Native American artifacts, medical equipment, and historical items related to local transportation and industry.

We weren't able to view the museum during our trip last year, but it's on my to-do list for another time. Hopefully I'll be able to come back afterward and present more information in an updated version of this post. If you get the chance to go, once the weather turns warm, you can call the historical society at 570-836-5303; tours can be scheduled on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., from May 15th to October 15th.


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Except where indicated, all writing and photography on this blog is the intellectual property of Laura Klotz. This blog is written with permission of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I am not employed by the PHMC. All rights reserved.

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