McKean County, Pennsylvania

McKean County is a county in Pennsylvania, United States, on the Allegheny Plateau along the New York border, about 78 miles south of Buffalo, New York. It had a population of 40,432 at the 2020 census, an estimated 38,984 by 2025, and covers 984 square miles (2,550 km2) centred near 41°49′N 78°27′W.

Smethport is the county seat; its postal code is 16749. The county holds 1 city, 6 boroughs and 15 townships, plus roughly two dozen unincorporated communities scattered across them, and it runs on Eastern Time. Its FIPS code is 42083.

Towns & Villages in McKean County

McKean County has 36 named places on record: 1 city, 6 boroughs, 2 census-designated places and 27 unincorporated communities with no local government of their own. CDP stands for census designated place; Unincorp. covers hamlets and crossroads with no formal boundary.

East Kane and East Smethport are not neighborhoods inside Kane or Smethport — both are separate rural crossroads a few miles from the boroughs whose names they borrow, a naming pattern common across McKean County’s hill country.

Townships

McKean County’s 15 townships cover the ground outside its cities and boroughs. Most have no incorporated village of their own; where a named unincorporated place is documented within a township, it is listed below.

ZIP Codes

• 16701 — Bradford
• 16749 — Smethport
• 16735 — Kane
• 16743 — Port Allegany
• 16740 — Mount Jewett
• 16731 — Eldred
• 16738 — Lewis Run

Custer City, Derrick City, Duke Center, Rixford, Klondike and the county’s other unincorporated communities have no ZIP of their own; mail there is delivered under a nearby borough’s code.

Geography

McKean County sits on Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Plateau, a heavily forested upland of steep ridges and narrow valleys hard against the New York border. Of its 984 square miles, 979 are land and 5.0 are water, about 0.5 percent — low because the county has no large natural lake. The Allegheny Reservoir, formed by the Kinzua Dam downstream in Warren County, backs into the county’s western edge, and the East Branch of Tunungwant Creek drains the Bradford area. Much of the southern and western county lies inside the Allegheny National Forest.

Cattaraugus County and Allegany County, both in New York, border McKean to the north. Potter County lies east, Cameron County and Elk County lie south, Warren County lies west, and Forest County touches the southwest corner.

Demographics

McKean County had a population of 40,432 at the 2020 census, and a 2025 estimate puts the county near 38,984 residents, a slow decline typical of Pennsylvania’s rural north. Bradford and Kane are the two largest communities, together holding well over a quarter of the county’s population. Median household income runs about $62,905, well below Pennsylvania’s statewide figure of $73,824 (2023 ACS). Population density works out to roughly 41 people per square mile of land, sparse even by rural Pennsylvania standards, reflecting the county’s mountainous, heavily wooded terrain. Bradford anchors the Bradford micropolitan statistical area, which covers the whole county.

Economy & Local Life

Manufacturing employs the most workers in the county, about 3,530 people, followed by health care and social assistance at 3,322 and educational services at 1,945. Bradford’s economy centers on Zippo Manufacturing, maker of the Zippo lighter since 1932, and Case Cutlery, the pocketknife maker Zippo now owns; the two share a visitor center and museum downtown. American Refining Group, headquartered in Bradford, calls itself the oldest continuously operating refinery in the United States, a legacy of the county’s 19th-century oil boom. University of Pittsburgh at Bradford enrolls roughly 1,700 students and ranks among the county’s larger employers. Port Allegany’s economy runs on glass: Saint-Gobain operates a glass container plant there, and Pittsburgh Corning’s architectural glass-block factory ran from 1937 to 2016. Lafayette Township, between Bradford and Kane, is home to the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution, McKean, opened in 1989 with an adjacent minimum-security camp. Mount Jewett holds a Swedish Festival each August honoring the town’s Swedish settlers, and Bradford’s Zippo/Case Museum draws visitors year-round.

History

Pennsylvania’s legislature created McKean County in 1804, but the county did not organize its own government until 1826, when Smethport became the county seat. The county is named for Thomas McKean, Pennsylvania’s second governor and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Dutch investors had founded Smethport in 1807, naming it for the De Smeth banking family who financed their land purchases; the borough incorporated in 1853.

Bradford emerged as a wild oil boomtown during the Pennsylvania oil rush of the late 19th century, its population peaking at 19,306 in 1930 before the fields declined. In the 1930s, the Taylor Brothers Aircraft Corporation built the Taylor Cub in Bradford; the plane later became the Piper Cub after the company relocated to Lock Haven. During World War II, a munitions plant in Eldred employed 1,500 workers around the clock and produced eight million bombs, mortar shells and fuses between January 1942 and May 1945; the site now houses a World War II museum. A tornado struck Kane on 31 May 1985, killing three people in what the borough calls its worst natural disaster, and a 2003 tornado tore apart the historic Kinzua Viaduct near Mount Jewett, once the world’s highest iron bridge; the surviving span is now the Kinzua Sky Walk. Smethport holds Pennsylvania’s official cold-temperature record, minus 42 degrees Fahrenheit, set on 5 January 1904.

Getting There

No interstate highway crosses McKean County. US Route 6 runs east-west through Smethport, Mount Jewett and Kane, and US Route 219 runs north-south through Lewis Run and Port Allegany. Pennsylvania routes 44, 46, 59, 146, 155, 321, 346, 446, 546, 646 and 770 fill in the rest of the network.

• Buffalo, New York — about 78 miles north
• Erie, Pennsylvania — about 87 miles northwest
• Warren, Pennsylvania — about 27 miles northwest
• Ridgway, Pennsylvania — about 36 miles south

Bradford Regional Airport, 11 miles south of Bradford in Lafayette Township, offers scheduled commercial flights on Southern Airways Express to Pittsburgh International Airport and Washington Dulles International Airport. No Amtrak line serves McKean County.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is McKean County located?
It sits on Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Plateau along the New York border, about 78 miles south of Buffalo, bordered by Cattaraugus and Allegany counties in New York and by Potter, Cameron, Elk, Warren and Forest counties in Pennsylvania.

What is the population of McKean County?
40,432 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 38,984.

How big is McKean County?
984 square miles (2,550 km2), of which 979 square miles are land.

What is the county seat of McKean County?
Smethport, organized as the seat in 1826, is the county seat; Bradford is the county’s largest city.

How many towns and villages are in McKean County?
36 named places: the city of Bradford, six boroughs (Smethport, Kane, Port Allegany, Mount Jewett, Eldred and Lewis Run), two census-designated places and 27 unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes does McKean County use?
16701 for Bradford, 16749 for Smethport, 16735 for Kane, 16743 for Port Allegany, 16740 for Mount Jewett, 16731 for Eldred and 16738 for Lewis Run.

What is McKean County known for?
Zippo lighters and Case knives, made in Bradford since the 1930s; the 19th-century oil boom that built the city; and Kinzua Bridge State Park’s Sky Walk near Mount Jewett.

More counties in this state: Towns and villages in Pennsylvania.