Fulton County
County
The Fulton County Courthouse
Seal
Location within the U.S. state of Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania's location within the U.S.
Coordinates: 39°55′N 78°07′W / 39.92°N 78.11°W / 39.92; -78.11
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
Founded	April 19, 1850
Named for	Robert Fulton
Seat	McConnellsburg
Largest borough	McConnellsburg
Area
• Total	438 sq mi (1,130 km2)
• Land	438 sq mi (1,130 km2)
• Water	0.5 sq mi (1 km2)  0.1%
Population  (2020)
• Total	14,556
• Density	33/sq mi (13/km2)
Time zone	UTC−5 (Eastern)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−4 (EDT)
Congressional district	13th
Website	www.co.fulton.pa.us

Fulton County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,556,^[1] making it the fourth-least populous county in Pennsylvania. Its county seat is McConnellsburg.^[2] The county was created on April 19, 1850,^[3] from a part of Bedford County and named after inventor Robert Fulton.^[4] The county is part of the Southwest Pennsylvania region of the state.^[a]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 438 square miles (1,130 km²), of which 438 square miles (1,130 km²) is land and 0.5 square miles (1.3 km²) (0.1%) is water.^[5] It is in the watershed of the Chesapeake Bay and, although most of the county is drained by the Potomac River, some northern and northeastern areas are drained by the Juniata River into the Susquehanna River. It has a humid continental climate (Dfa/Dfb) and average monthly temperatures in McConnellsburg range from 29.2 °F in January to 73.0 °F in July.^[6] Fulton County is one of the 423 counties served by the Appalachian Regional Commission,^[7] and it is identified as part of "Greater Appalachia" by Colin Woodard in his book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.^[8]

• Huntingdon County (north)
• Franklin County (east)
• Washington County, Maryland (south)
• Allegany County, Maryland (southwest)
• Bedford County (west)

Fulton County is situated within the Ridge and Valley physiographic province, which is characterized by folded and faulted sedimentary rocks of early to middle Paleozoic age.^[9]

The stratigraphic record of sedimentary rocks within the county spans from the Cambrian Shadygrove Formation outcropping just south of McConnelsburg to the Pennsylvanian Allegheny Group at the northernmost tip of the county. No igneous or metamorphic rocks of any kind exist within Fulton county.

Mountain ridges within Fulton County include Rays Hill (along the western border with Bedford County), Town Hill, Sideling Hill, Scrub Ridge, and Meadow Grounds Mountain, and all these are held up by the Mississippian Pocono Formation, made of quartz sandstone and conglomerate. Rays Hill and Town Hill form a syncline, as do Scrub Ridge and Meadow Grounds Mountain, and Sideling Hill itself is a syncline. Dickeys Mountain and Tuscarora Mountain (along the eastern border with Franklin County) also form a syncline, but these ridges are held up by the Tuscarora Formation. Broad Top, located in the northeast corner of the county, is a plateau of relatively flat-lying rocks that are stratigraphically higher, and thus younger (Mississippian and Pennsylvanian), than most of the other rocks within the county. Broad Top extends into Huntingdon County to the north and Bedford County to the west.

All of Fulton County lies far to the south of the terminal moraine, and thus it was never glaciated.^[10] However, during the Pleistocene epoch, or "Ice Age," periglacial (meaning "around glacier" or simply "cold") processes dominated. Most of the county was most likely a tundra during the Pleistocene.

The Broad Top Coal Field is located in Wells Township in the northwestern corner of the county.^[11] The field contains bituminous coal. There are a few abandoned mines in the area, although acid mine drainage is not as much of an environmental problem in Fulton County as it is in adjacent Bedford and Huntingdon Counties.

Interesting geologic features within Fulton County include some of the following:

• The Meadow Grounds syncline west of McConnellsburg.
• A transpression structure is located on the east side of the Meadow Grounds syncline. This structure consists of a complex set of up-thrust fault blocks of Silurian and Devonian rocks bounded on all sides by north-trending faults.

As of the census^[13] of 2000, there were 14,261 people, 5,660 households, and 4,097 families residing in the county. The population density was 33 people per square mile (13 people/km²). There were 6,790 housing units at an average density of 16 units per square mile (6.2/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 98.25% White, 0.66% Black or African American, 0.20% Native American, 0.11% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.04% from other races, and 0.72% from two or more races. 0.36% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 40.8% were of German, 20.4% American, 8.3% Irish and 6.9% English ancestry.

There were 5,660 households, out of which 31.70% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 59.50% were married couples living together, 8.20% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.60% were non-families. 24.00% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.50 and the average family size was 2.95.

In the county, the population was spread out, with 24.60% under the age of 18, 7.60% from 18 to 24, 28.40% from 25 to 44, 25.00% from 45 to 64, and 14.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females there were 100.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.60 males.

Almost everyone who lives in Fulton County speaks English as their first language. The dominant form of speech in Fulton County is the Central Pennsylvania accent.

Copyright.sk © 2024