Cove Mountain Preserve

Access

Cove Mountain Preserve is open daily for public recreation via a series of restored former logging roads. Two miles of hiking trails lead to scenic views of the Susquehanna River, surrounding ridges and the historic Rockville Bridge—a railroad bridge built in 1902 and the longest of its kind in the world.

The property is also open to public hunting through the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s Public Access Cooperator Program.

What to See: Animals

Migratory birds use corridors like the Kittatinny Ridge as stopover habitat while they travel up and down the continent. The Ridge is used by tens of thousands of migrating raptors including hawks, eagles and falcons each fall.

In addition to raptors, other important species use the Kittatinny migration corridor, including ruby-throated hummingbirds and monarch butterflies.

Many mammal species native to the Kittatinny Ridge need wide ranges of intact forest to provide territory and habitat, including black bear, bobcat and fisher. Cove Mountain is also home to at least nine species of bats, as well as the Allegheny woodrat, which was once widespread throughout the region but is now listed as threatened by the state of Pennsylvania.

In addition to its location along the Kittatinny Ridge, Cove Mountain falls within the Susquehanna Water Gaps, one of 28 National Natural Landmarks in Pennsylvania recognized by the National Park Service, and is part of the Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area, the Middle Susquehanna River Water Trail and the Susquehanna Birding and Wildlife Trail. It has also been identified as a conservation priority by the Perry County Greenway Plan.

Indigenous History of the Kittatinny Ridge

The word Kittatinny comes from a corruption of the Leni Lenape Nation’s words Kit, meaning great or endless, and Atin, meaning mountain. English Captain John Smith encountered the "great mountain" when he explored the Susquehanna River from the upper reaches of the Chesapeake Bay.

The Kittatinny Ridge remained a boundary to European settlement until the late 1720s/early 1730s. The lands north and west of the Kittatinny Ridge were recognized as indigenous lands but were slowly lost to treaties and invasion by European settlers.

The Susquehannock Nation—interpreted as "people of the well-watered land"—lived in most of the drainage of the Susquehanna River, including along the Kittatinny Ridge. Although several tribes were present along the Susquehanna River over the course of Native American history, including Iroquois, Shawnee, Leni Lenape, Conoy, Nanticoke, Tuscarora and Tutelo, the Susquehannock were most likely present on Cove Mountain for an extended period of time.

Like the Iroquois, the Susquehannock lived in longhouses. They were a matrilineal society, meaning they traced descent through the mother’s lineage and men lived with their wives’ families. Around 1675 the Susquehannock ceased to exist as a nation. Smallpox and a long war with neighboring nations (primarily the Iroquois) over control of the beaver pelt trade in the region took its toll.

Running along the eastern shore of the Susquehanna past Cove Mountain was the Paxtang path, which connected the indigenous settlements of Shamokin to the north (modern-day Sunbury), Paxtang (modern-day Harrisburg), and Conestoga to the south. From viewpoints on Cove Mountain, you can see places where the Paxtang path would have followed the river.