According to local historian Dustin Elder, the pivotal moment in Tyrone’s history came in 1851, when the Pennsylvania Railroad opened a small wooden station at the same spot where the Tyrone Amtrak stop stands today.

“That’s when Tyrone’s growth exploded,” Elder said. “Within 10 years, we’re over 400 people. Over the next 30 years, we’re past 5,000. By the turn of the century, we’re into the 10,000 range.”

Elder is a co-founder of Local Historia, a small business that connects people with regional history through walking tours, videos, and other hands-on experiences.

A Tyrone Area High School graduate and former TASD teacher, Elder said he learned early that history is more interesting to students when it feels close to home.

“What I started to recognize was that a lot of the concepts and content that we talk about in the history classroom can be made important and relevant by focusing on how it connects to our local story, our local community,” Elder said.

So instead of treating history as something that happens “somewhere else,” Elder began using local history to engage his students. Questions like “Why is this building here?” and “When was it built?” got his students interested in the past.

“I really started to go down that rabbit hole of local history and local stories,” Elder said. “And here in Tyrone, we have plenty of them, so it made it pretty easy.”

During a recent visit to the Eagle Eye, Elder discussed several key chapters of Tyrone’s early history: from the railroad’s role in the town’s founding to the rise of the paper mill, local Civil War service, the Walter L. Main circus train wreck, and the growth of Tyrone’s schools.

A town built around a station

Tyrone’s story begins in 1851 as a small creekside settlement that quickly transformed into one of central Pennsylvania’s most important towns.

In its earliest years, the settlement was known as Eagleville, named after Bald Eagle Creek, which ran through the area.

The community expanded and was incorporated as a borough in 1857, changing its name to Tyrone, after a county in Ireland of the same name. The name change came as Irish immigration increased, along with the growth of the railroad.

Elder said the railroad’s presence didn’t just bring passengers. It created the conditions for Tyrone to grow.

The population of Tyrone rose and fell with the expansion and decline of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It went from zero to almost 10,000 at its peak, and back down to just over 5,000 residents today.

“As the railroad became more and more important, Tyrone grew and grew and grew, and then as the railroad became less and less important, you started to see cracks in the community,” Elder said.

The Development of the Paper Industry in Tyrone

The arrival of the railroad also helped bring industry. In 1878, another major step in Tyrone’s economic development was the establishment of what is now known as the American Eagle Paper Mill.

The plant, founded by Morris and Cass, grew into one of the largest paper plants in the United States at the time.

Tyrone was chosen for the mill because of its growing labor market, access to water, and proximity to the Pennsylvania Railroad, all crucial ingredients for large-scale paper production.

The paper mill became a cornerstone of the Tyrone community for decades, but in 1971, its run almost ended.

The paper mill also made national news when it announced it was closing in 1971 during a nationwide economic recession.

In response, the community took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal titled “Town for Hire,” with a photo of hundreds of workers and community members on Pennsylvania Avenue.

The ad made national headlines and helped to save the plant.

“It was a really difficult time, but the point was to kind of bring awareness to our community and to encourage other areas of industry to come and move to our town,” Elder said.

Tyrone’s Contributions to the Civil War

Even though Tyrone was still a small town and far from the front lines, its residents played a significant role in the Civil War.

“We’re there at every single major battle,” Elder said. “So when you’re studying the Civil War in school, it’s interesting to think these are my ancestors who walked to the train station, got on a train, and answered the call.”

The 125th Pennsylvania Infantry was a Union regiment made up of recruits from Tyrone and the surrounding area. According to Elder, they fought in several key battles, including Antietam and the Chancellorsville campaign.

“The community sends most of its working male population to fight,” Elder said. “Everybody feels the desire and the call to action when Abraham Lincoln calls for troops, and we answer the call here in Tyrone.”

Tyrone natives were also represented in the 110th Pennsylvania Regiment, which fought at Gettysburg.

“We had a Tyrone native command the 110th Pennsylvania,” Elder said. “And he’s wounded on the battlefield at Gettysburg, in the wheat field.”

The Walter L. Main Circus Train Accident

One of the most famous incidents in Tyrone’s early history occurred on Memorial Day in 1893, when a train carrying the animals and performers from the Walter L. Main Circus jumped the tracks and crashed a few miles outside of Tyrone.

“I’ve heard the circus train wreck story since I was in second grade,” Elder said. “It’s such a wild story that captures the imagination. It became kind of a national thing, and it’s something that we try to tell all the time.”

The crash resulted in the deaths of five circus employees and many circus animals. Many other exotic animals escaped into the surrounding area, including three lions, a bear, a hyena, a water buffalo, an alligator, and several species of exotic snakes and birds.

A Bengal tiger reportedly killed two cows before it was shot and killed by a local farmer.

Following the accident, Elder said Tyrone’s townspeople opened their homes to take in survivors and help care for them.

“I think the part of the story that is most important, and what cuts right to the heart of why we should talk about the circus train wreck, is Tyrone’s response to it,” Elder said. “It’s something that we as a community should be really, really proud of.”

In a total community effort, local businesses and residents opened their doors to the circus wreck survivors.

“They didn’t pay anything. We didn’t charge them. It was just like, This is a terrible disaster, and we want you guys to get back on your feet,” said Elder.

In appreciation for the community, when the circus recovered from the accident, Walter Main put on a show just for Tyrone residents at the corner of 10th and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Development of the Tyrone School System

Like the early days in many American communities, Tyrone’s first school was in a one-room log cabin, but unlike other places, the school was surprisingly connected to an unrelated business.

“[The school] was actually connected to a local tavern to try to save costs. Probably not a good idea to connect your school to a tavern, but they were trying to save space, and there weren’t a lot of buildings in town,” Elder said.

At its peak, Tyrone had four elementary schools.

Logan School on Logan Avenue, roughly where Sheetz is today. Adams School on Adams Avenue, around where Greystone Manor and the football field are now. Lincoln School on Lincoln Avenue, which later became Tyrone High School until 1960 when the current high school was constructed, and Washington School, a big red brick building on Washington Avenue, near the Park Avenue playground.

“So that’s something that you can ask your parents, like, which school did they go to in Tyrone? And it used to matter…it used to be like every school had a reputation, and so it mattered which one you went to,” Elder said.

Local Historia: Your Guide to Central PA History

In 2019, Elder and business partner Matt Maris took their knowledge and passion for local history to start Local Historia.

“Initially, what Local Historia really focused on was guided walking tours in Bellefonte and in Tyrone,” Elder said, “and then slowly expanding outward into some other communities.”

From there, they began producing videos, taking viewers into places they couldn’t easily access on foot. That work eventually led to a series for public television.

“We kind of dabbled in making some videos for WPSU, and eventually got a television show,” Elder said.

The show, “Journeys with Local Historia,” focuses on fascinating central Pennsylvania stories that are off the beaten path.

“The idea behind [the show] is to try to take folks on a journey through some smaller communities and some locations that maybe aren’t as popular, but are very interesting,” Elder said.

The first episode told the story of legendary outlaw David Lewis, also known as the Robin Hood of Pennsylvania. The second episode traces the history of brewing in central Pennsylvania.

Both episodes are currently available to stream on the WPSU website.

For Elder, whether he is teaching a class, leading a walking tour, or producing a video, his mission hasn’t changed: to help local people in central Pennsylvania see that history isn’t just found in textbooks. It’s all around in the town’s buildings, businesses, churches, schools, and many other places.