Black Lick, PA

Black Lick is a census-designated place in Burrell Township, Indiana County, named for Blacklick Creek. The creek's name refers to the dark mineral stain associated with the water, and the stream remains the geographic thread through the community and the surrounding southern Indiana County hills. A post office called Black Lick has operated since 1809, giving the place an unusually long paper trail for an unincorporated community. Route 119 runs through the area, with Blairsville, Indiana, and the Conemaugh valley serving as the larger destinations for work, schools, and services.

The local landscape is a mix of homes, churches, wooded slopes, and old roads following the creek and its tributaries. Black Lick sits inside the Blairsville-Saltsburg school area, while nearby Indiana provides larger medical, shopping, and college connections. The community's history is tied to the pattern common across western Pennsylvania: a creek gave the place its name, a post office fixed that name on the map, and roads gradually took over the carrying work once done by waterways and nearby rail lines. The 2020 census counted 1,268 residents in the CDP. Black Lick is small enough to feel rural but large enough to function as a recognizable settlement within Burrell Township.