Saxton, PA

Saxton is a Bedford County borough in Pennsylvania's Broad Top region, where the 2020 census counted 726 residents. It sits in Woodcock Valley along the Raystown Branch of the Juniata River, about a mile south of the point where the river widens into Raystown Lake. Tussey Mountain rises to the west, and Pennsylvania Route 913 runs through town toward Stonerstown and Broad Top City.

James Saxton founded the borough in 1855 as the central hub of the Huntingdon and Broad Top Railroad. Coal from the Broad Top moved through Saxton for nearly a century, with rail lines connecting the valley to Bedford, Huntingdon, Everett, and larger industrial markets. The railroad brought workers, shops, a power plant, factories, and a 7 Up bottling plant before the old industrial center contracted. Today the river, Route 913, Raystown Lake, and the former railroad geography still give Saxton its shape. It is a small borough whose map was built by coal and rails, then redrawn around water, roads, and the surrounding mountains.