Blaisdell-Emery Trail

The Blaisdell-Emery Trail follows an abandoned railroad grade for 3.8 miles along the East Branch of Tunungwant Creek between Lewis Run and the south edge of Bradford in McKean County. The surface is crushed stone, with a short paved section where the trail dips under US Route 219 near the Bradford end. Trailheads sit at Main Street in Lewis Run, Browntown Road, Custer City, Minard Road, and Owens Way. The midpoint passes the Penn-Brad Oil Museum, where a wooden standard rig stands beside the corridor. The grade is rail-trail flat the whole way, with a gentle overall drop toward Bradford, through mixed woods, farm edges, and a cemetery.

• In 1881 the Bradford Oil Field produced 83 percent of the total oil output of the United States.
• More than 90,000 wells were drilled in the Bradford field, which is called the world's first billion-dollar oil field.
• The Penn-Brad Oil Museum beside the trail keeps a 72-foot-tall standard rig of the 1890 era on its grounds.
• The Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad pushed its trackage south from Salamanca in 1883 to reach the Pennsylvania coal fields.
• In 1893 the railroad opened a 40-mile detour to bypass the bottleneck at its bridge over Kinzua Creek.
• The trail was known simply as the South Trail before it took the Blaisdell-Emery name.
• A preserved railroad bridge carries the trail over Tunungwant Creek, which locals shorten to Tuna Creek.

Oil built this valley before the trail did. In 1881 the Bradford field around Custer City and Degolia produced 83 percent of the oil pumped in the United States, and more than 90,000 wells were eventually drilled in the field. The corridor the trail follows is credited by trail guides to the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad. In 1883 that road extended its trackage south from Salamanca toward the Pennsylvania coal fields. Ten years later it opened a 40-mile detour to escape the bottleneck at its high bridge over Kinzua Creek. The grade along the East Branch of Tunungwant Creek served the oil towns and Bradford's industry until the trains stopped, and the rails came out. The Tuna Valley Trail Association took over the embankment and opened it as the South Trail, a crushed sandstone path from Owens Way in South Bradford to Main Street in Lewis Run. The association later renamed it the Blaisdell-Emery Trail. Work since then has replaced the deck on the Browntown Road bridge and built a new bridge near Minard Run. The trail now links South Bradford, Custer City, Degolia, and Lewis Run and hands off to the association's South Trail at the Lewis Run end.

• Lewis RunMILE 0Directions
• Browntown RoadMILE 0.8Directions
• Custer City: Penn Brad Oil MuseumMILE 2.2Directions
• Minard RoadMILE 2.8Directions
• BradfordMILE 3.8Directions

• Tuna Valley Trail Association · Blaisdell-Emery Trail
• Pennsylvania DCNR · Blaisdell-Emery Trail
• The Rail Trailster · Blaisdell-Emery Trail, Bradford, PA
• WeConservePA · Tuna Valley Trail Association
• Allegheny National Forest Visitors Bureau · Penn Brad Oil Museum