Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Natrona, PA

Natrona is an unincorporated river village in Harrison Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on the Allegheny River about 24 miles northeast of Downtown Pittsburgh.

Natrona was built in the 1850s as a company town for the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Company, and the original village was first known as East Tarentum.

The name Natrona comes from natron, a naturally occurring mineral of sodium carbonate and bicarbonate - a nod to the salt and soda works that created the town.

Penn Salt began with two salt wells in 1850 and operated in Natrona until 1959, more than a century of production.

By 1860 Penn Salt employed about 800 men in Natrona, and the village's population had reached roughly 1,870.

By 1876, Penn Salt was processing cryolite imported from Greenland at Natrona to make pure carbonate of soda.

Natrona sits beside Lock and Dam No. 4 on the Allegheny River, and the Pennsylvania Canal once passed through the village.

A major fire destroyed the Penn Salt works in 1918, and the company also once operated the Natrona No. 1 and No. 2 coal mines nearby.

West Penn Railways streetcars connected Natrona with neighboring river towns from 1906 to 1937.

The U.S. Census Bureau only recognized Natrona as a census-designated place in 2023, so it has no long official census record of its own.