Wellsboro, Pa. — The PA Wilds Center for Entrepreneurship is proud to announce the opening of two new Conservation Shops. These gift shops source 90% of their inventory from rural artisans in the Pennsylvania Wilds region.
The new shop at Leonard Harrison State Park in Tioga County was once a mobile pop-up shop around the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. Now the shop has a permanent brick-and-mortar home in the park.
In Forest County, the second new store has opened within a historic train depot in Marienville along the nearly 74-mile Knox and Kane Rail Trail.
The two shops launched with soft openings in early summer and remain open for business, but there will be larger grand opening celebrations held in each shop during autumn. More information about the events will be available in the coming months.
Leonard Harrison State Park has undergone a multi-year renovation by the DCNR, which created an expanded parking area and an updated visitor center. The visitor center building houses the PA Wilds Conservation Shop, offering more space than the old mobile shop.
Related reading: Leonard Harrison State Park completes several amenity improvements
Jenks Township, which owns the train depot where the PA Wilds Conservation Shop is located in Forest County, has led a years-long effort to rehabilitate the building as part of a local revitalization effort. The township began talking to the Center in 2020 about potentially operating a Conservation Shop at the location, given how the nonprofit stores are positioned to help advance local tourism development and revitalization efforts.
The Conservation Shop at Leonard Harrison State Park is open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in summer and fall. The shop will close for winter and early spring.
The Conservation Shop in Marienville is currently open Wednesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
More information and online shopping are available at ShopThePAwilds.com/PA-Wilds-Conservation-Shops .
PA Wilds Center COO Abbi Peters, who co-founded the Center’s commerce platform, says the Center invests thousands of dollars a year buying inventory and value-added products directly from local businesses for its gift shops.
“It’s more than just a gift shop; it’s an investment in our rural communities and a way to support local artisans,” she said. “This creates important market access and work opportunities across our landscape.”
Peters says the shops also intentionally pass foot traffic to other area businesses, visitor bureaus, and attractions. “Our stores help augment visitor services, as well as build local and regional capacity by creating a PA Wilds staff presence in the counties where they are based,” Peters said. “Building new capacity is really important to do in a highly rural region like ours, where we are experiencing growing visitation while also trying to recover from decades of population decline.”
Right now, there are over 40 vendors supplying products for the Conservation Shops, most of whom are located in the PA Wilds region and participate in the free Wilds Cooperative of PA network. The Wilds Cooperative seeks to connect and promote local businesses and is the entry point for those looking to tap into and leverage PA Wilds branding, marketing, and commerce opportunities.
Rural artisans interested in learning more about how to get their products into the shops are encouraged to visit WildsCoPA.org/join .
In addition to providing the region's artisans with new places to sell their wares, each Conservation Shop has a full-time store manager and keyholder, with various part-time jobs.
Libby Bloomquist, the PA Wilds Center Sustainable Commerce Director, says that the new hires live in the region and have a deep understanding of what it means to sell locally produced products.
“We call our employees ‘community connectors’ because that’s truly what they are,” said Bloomquist. “They talk to customers about who made the products, how their purchase makes a difference in the local economy, and other places to visit while they’re traveling in the area.”
To further integrate the shops into their new homes, the PA Wilds Center connected each shop with a nonprofit in their community. This lets the shops get started with a pre-existing partnership and a source for information about local events, vendors, and trends.
Develop Tioga is the partner for Leonard Harrison State Park's shop, and Four Seasons Trail Association is affiliated with the shop at the train depot in Marienville.
The funding to stand up the two new PA Wilds Conservation Shops came from a three-year Area Development grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). ARC funding will also help the Center create new licensing and professional development opportunities for rural entrepreneurs; support outreach efforts; and help underwrite key regional marketing projects. Read more about the PA Wilds Center’s plans for the ARC Area Development grant here.
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