Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Lock Haven, PA

Lock Haven is a city and the county seat of Clinton County, located near the confluence of the West Branch Susquehanna River and Bald Eagle Creek.

Lock Haven began in 1833 as a timber town and a haven for loggers, boatmen and other travelers on the river and the West Branch Canal; it was incorporated as a borough in 1844 and as a city in 1870.

The 2020 census counted 8,108 people in Lock Haven, living in about 3,415 households.

Only about 38.5 percent of Lock Haven's homes are owner-occupied, a college-town housing profile in which renters hold the majority.

William T. Piper Sr. built the Piper Aircraft Corporation factory in Lock Haven in 1937 after his plant in Bradford burned, and Piper built its famous light airplanes there until production moved to Vero Beach, Florida, in 1984.

The Piper Aviation Museum opened in 1985 at the site of the former Piper factory and exhibits aircraft, documents and memorabilia from the Piper era.

Lock Haven is home to Commonwealth University-Lock Haven, created in 2022 when Lock Haven University merged with Bloomsburg and Mansfield universities into Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania.

Lock Haven's population fell 17 percent between 2010 and 2020, from 9,772 to 8,108, one of the steeper declines among Pennsylvania cities.

In the twentieth century, a light-aircraft factory, a college and a paper mill, along with many smaller enterprises, drove Lock Haven's economy.

Lock Haven is the largest community in Clinton County and the principal city of the Lock Haven micropolitan area.