Beaver Meadows, PA

Beaver Meadows is a Carbon County borough in northeastern Pennsylvania, where the 2020 census counted 897 residents. It sits in the Beaver Creek valley north of Spring Mountain, inside the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians. The place grew with anthracite: Nathan Beach discovered coal nearby in 1812 and opened a quarry the next year, sending early loads by wagon toward Berwick and Bloomsburg. Pennsylvania Route 93 follows the old transportation corridor through the borough, with Hazleton to the northwest and Weatherly four miles east via Spring Mountain Road.

Coal no longer sets the daily schedule, but the valley still gives Beaver Meadows its shape. Beaver Creek and nearby Hazel Creek gather in the mountain country around Weatherly, while the old roads connect the borough with Hazleton and the rest of Carbon County. Students attend Hazleton Area schools, with Hazleton Area High School in Hazle Township. The local mix is a classic upper coal-region map: a compact borough, a creek valley, steep wooded ridges, and roads that grew out of the work of moving timber and coal.