Living in Southern Alleghenies

The Southern Alleghenies -- named for the official Southern Alleghenies Planning & Development Commission region these four counties belong to -- is a mountainous, genuinely history-dense region relative to its small population. Altoona, built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in the 1850s, is home to the historic Horseshoe Curve, a National Historic Landmark still carrying active rail traffic today. Johnstown carries a genuinely tragic and resilient history: the catastrophic 1889 flood that killed more than 2,200 people, and the 1891 Johnstown Inclined Plane built in direct response, which holds the Guinness World Record as the world's steepest vehicular inclined plane and has saved lives in subsequent floods since. Somerset County is home to the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, a solemn national site honoring the 40 passengers and crew who died fighting to retake their hijacked plane on September 11, 2001. Indiana, home to Indiana University of Pennsylvania, carries two distinctive claims to fame: the 'Christmas Tree Capital of the World' and the actual hometown of Jimmy Stewart. This region offers some of the most affordable housing in Pennsylvania, though Johnstown's market carries a real, disclosed, ongoing decline worth understanding honestly.

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Last reviewed: 2026-09-05. Independent research; see individual place pages for metric-level source attribution. This is not financial, tax, or legal advice -- confirm current figures with a local professional before making a decision.