American Eagle Paper Mills
The historic Tyrone mill reopened in 2003 and today employs about 250 people, producing roughly 300 tons of recycled paper products a day — a modern chapter in the town’s paper-making story.
A small town with an Irish name, a railroad past, and a working heart — Tyrone sits in Blair County’s Bald Eagle Valley, where the mountains meet the Little Juniata River.
The Borough of Tyrone is a community of roughly 5,300 residents in northern Blair County, Pennsylvania — about 15 miles northeast of Altoona and a half-hour from State College. Named for County Tyrone in Ireland and incorporated in 1857, the town grew up around the railroad and the paper industry. Today it blends a working manufacturing economy with a quietly reviving downtown, signature parks, and one of Pennsylvania’s premier wild-trout rivers running right through it.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau — 2020 Census (population 5,480), Vintage 2024 Population Estimates (5,312), and the 2020–2024 American Community Survey (income, home value, age, and educational attainment). These are estimates and are refreshed as new Census data is released.
Tyrone is the town’s fourth name. The settlement was known in turn as Eagleville, then Shorbsville, then briefly Tyrone City before the name was shortened to Tyrone — borrowed from County Tyrone in Ireland. The borough was formally incorporated on July 27, 1857, then home to about 700 people, with Jonathan Burley elected as its first Burgess alongside five councilmen.
What turned a valley village into a regional crossroads was the railroad. After the Pennsylvania Railroad arrived around 1850, Tyrone became a junction where four railroads and three highways met — earning it the nickname the “Hub of the Highways.” Industry followed: the Tyrone paper mill, founded in the late 1870s, grew into one of the largest in the country, and the town’s population peaked near 8,845 in 1940. The Tyrone Borough Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, recognizing the downtown and neighborhoods that date to that era.
The Borough’s government grew up alongside the town. The single five-member council eventually gave way to ward representatives and then to seven at-large members; the office of Burgess became Mayor in the early 1960s under the State Borough Code. Virgie Werner became the first woman to serve on Borough Council in 1972, and Patricia Stoner later became Tyrone’s first female Mayor. In 1982, after a Government Study Commission weighed the options, Tyrone’s voters adopted a Home Rule Charter — the framework under which the Borough still governs itself today. You can read more about how that works on the how-your-Borough-works guides and meet today’s officials on the Borough Council page.
Tyrone’s economy still runs on making and serving. Health care, retail, and manufacturing are the largest sectors for working residents, and a handful of long-standing institutions anchor the town. The Borough also benefits from its close proximity to major community institutions — including the Tyrone Area School District and Penn Highlands Tyrone, both located in neighboring Snyder Township.
The historic Tyrone mill reopened in 2003 and today employs about 250 people, producing roughly 300 tons of recycled paper products a day — a modern chapter in the town’s paper-making story.
Founded in 1897 and still headquartered in Tyrone, Gardners is known for its Original Peanut Butter Meltaway and for helping popularize the heart-shaped candy box. Its flagship store and Candy Museum on West 10th Street draw visitors by the busload.
One of the area’s largest employers, the Tyrone Area School District serves roughly 1,690 students across an elementary, middle, and high school on a shared campus in neighboring Snyder Township.
Located in neighboring Snyder Township, the community hospital — formerly Tyrone Hospital — provides local hospital and outpatient care for the Tyrone area as part of the regional Penn Highlands Healthcare system.
These anchors are only part of the story. For an up-to-date look at everything available in Tyrone — shops, restaurants, services, and the businesses that call the town home — visit the Tyrone Area Chamber of Commerce, which keeps a current member directory and community calendar.
The heart of Tyrone’s outdoors is Reservoir Park, a 33-acre tract donated by one of the town’s most prominent citizens, A. A. Stevens. Its stone pavilion was built by the WPA in 1936, and today the park offers an amphitheater that hosts summer concerts, playgrounds, picnic pavilions, walking trails, and a trout stream. The Borough also runs a community swimming pool, built in the 1950s and since modernized with water slides and accessibility features.
Running through town is the Little Juniata River — the “Little J” — one of Pennsylvania’s premier wild brown-trout streams. Much of it carries the state’s highest Class A wild trout designation and is managed as catch-and-release, drawing anglers from across the region to water threaded with historic stone railroad arch bridges.
Downtown, a volunteer spirit runs deep. The Tyrone Area Chamber of Commerce, along with a number of other committees and nonprofit organizations, organizes the community-wide events that bring neighbors together — among them the Tyrone Irish Heritage Festival and the Hops & Vines Festival, which fill downtown with music and food. Local institutions like the Tyrone Community Players, the Tyrone Area Historical Society Museum, and the Gardners Candy Museum keep the town’s culture and railroad heritage alive.
Tyrone sits in the Bald Eagle Valley at the base of Bald Eagle Mountain, where Bald Eagle Creek meets the Little Juniata River water gap, at an elevation of about 1,100 feet. It is roughly 15 miles northeast of Altoona — part of the Altoona metropolitan area — and about a half-hour from State College.
Interstate 99, U.S. Route 220, and Pennsylvania Route 453 all pass through the area, and Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian stops at the Tyrone station daily in each direction — a living reminder of the railroad town Tyrone has always been. (Film buffs may recognize the area, too: scenes from the 2010 movie Unstoppable were filmed in and around Tyrone, with local residents as extras.)
Have a question about the Borough, or want to get involved? We’d love to hear from you.