Hastings, PA

Hastings is a Cambria County borough of 1,213 people in the 2020 census, set in the valley of Brubaker Run. The creek flows into Chest Creek, which runs north to the West Branch Susquehanna River. Hastings is 13 miles north of Ebensburg, 24 miles northwest of Altoona, and 31 miles northeast of Johnstown, placing it within the hill-country network of central Pennsylvania towns. Coal shaped the borough's early economy: in 1887 the Blubaker Coal Company acquired about 14,000 acres of coal land around the future town.

The borough's name came from one of the company's principals, General Hastings, while Brubaker Run supplied the name first intended for the company. Pennsylvania Coal and Coke later operated in the area, and the creek valley carried the roads, rail, and industrial traffic that connected mines to larger markets. Today Hastings is a small borough in the Johnstown metro area, with its location on the watercourse still easier to read than any boundary line. Brubaker Run, Chest Creek, and the road north toward the Susquehanna place Hastings in a chain of valleys where coal history and river geography belong to the same map.