Hawk Mountain is a mountain ridge, part of the Blue Mountain Ridge

Blue Mountain (Pennsylvania)

Blue Mountain is a ridge that forms the eastern edge of the Appalachian mountain range in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It cuts across the eastern half of the state from New Jersey to Maryland, providing a distinct boundary between a number of Pennsylvania's geographical and cultural regions...

 in the Appalachian Mountain chain

Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...

, located in central-eastern Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

 near Reading

Reading, Pennsylvania

Reading is a city in southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, and seat of Berks County. Reading is the principal city of the Greater Reading Area and had a population of 88,082 as of the 2010 census, making it the fifth most populated city in the state after Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown and Erie,...

 and Allentown

Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown is a city located in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is Pennsylvania's third most populous city, after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and the 215th largest city in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 118,032 and is currently...

. The area includes 13,000 acres of protected private and public land, including the 2,600 acre Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary is a wild bird sanctuary in Albany Township and East Brunswick Township, located along the Appalachian flyway in eastern Pennsylvania. The sanctuary is a prime location for the viewing of kettling and migrating raptors with an average of 20,000 hawks, eagles and falcons...

.

The River of Rocks is visible and accessible from the Sanctuary. The boulders were formed by periglacial

Periglacial

Periglacial is an adjective originally referring to places in the edges of glacial areas, but it has later been widely used in geomorphology to describe any place where geomorphic processes related to freezing of water occur...

 processes in the Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....

 epoch, or "ice age."

History

In 1929, the Pennsylvania Game Commission

Pennsylvania Game Commission

The Pennsylvania Game Commission is the state agency responsible for wildlife conservation and management in Pennsylvania in the United States...

 offered hunters offered $5 for every goshawk shot during migrating season, as the birds were considered pests. In 1932, Richard Pough

Richard Pough

Richard Pough was an American conservationist who served as the first president of The Nature Conservancy. He helped publicize and protect Hawk Mountain. He was instrumental in acquiring large tracts of land for the Open Space Institute. While at the American Museum of Natural History, he was...

 (a birder and photographer from Philadelphia) photographed hundreds of killed hawks and published these photos in Bird Lore, the predecessor to Audubon. Thanks largely to the publicity brought by Pough's photographs, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary was incorporated in 1938, and in 1946 began year-round operations. The Game Commission bounty was terminated in 1951, although birds of prey continued to face threats, including from chemical pesticides like DDT

DDT

DDT is one of the most well-known synthetic insecticides. It is a chemical with a long, unique, and controversial history....

. Bird counts have been taken at Hawk Mountain since the end of World War II, with the Sanctuary counting its millionth raptor on October 8, 1992.

Scouting and Civil Air Patrol

The mountain is also home to the Hawk Mountain Scout Reservation

Hawk Mountain Scout Reservation

The Hawk Mountain Council serves Boy Scouts in Berks, Schuylkill, and Carbon counties in Pennsylvania. The council has headquarters near Leesport, PA.The Council was formed in 1970 with the merger of the Appalachian Trail and Daniel Boone councils....

  and Hawk Mountain Camp (two Boy Scout

Scouting in Pennsylvania

Scouting in Pennsylvania has a long and rich tradition, from 1908 to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live.-Early history :...

 camps) and the Civil Air Patrol

Civil Air Patrol

Civil Air Patrol is a Congressionally chartered, federally supported, non-profit corporation that serves as the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force . CAP is a volunteer organization with an aviation-minded membership that includes people from all backgrounds, lifestyles, and...

's Colonel Phillip Neuweiler Ranger Training Facility (also known as the Hawk Mountain Ranger School

Hawk Mountain Ranger School

Hawk Mountain Ranger School is a Search and Rescue school operated by the Pennsylvania Wing of the Civil Air Patrol . The school, located in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, is a National Cadet Special Activity operated by Pennsylvania Wing; it is the only NCSA not operated by National...

).