Pennsylvania’s rural population has been on a steady decline for decades, but the appeal of living off the beaten path remains as strong as ever.

The Commonwealth boasts the third largest population of rural residents in the nation, at more than 3 million strong. Of the state’s 67 counties, 48 are designated as rural by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, with those residents spread out across 75% of the state’s land mass.

Although researchers worry about deeper population drops over the next 25 years (see article on page 18), rural Pennsylvania continues to beckon people from all walks of life.

Take the story of two sisters who grew up on a family dairy farm in Tioga County, left for college and to see the world, and returned to build a thriving yogurt business to sustain their family’s legacy.

Or the investment banker from Sullivan County who spent years living in New York City and Australia’s two largest metropolises, only to retire to her home county. Today, she’s spearheading an effort to build a pioneering health and wellness center there.

Then there’s the woman who left the bustling streets of the Bronx in search of wide-open spaces and close-knit communities and wound up restoring a house and several dilapidated cabins in Huntingdon County.

And of course, there are those, like the administrative assistant at the Warren County Visitors Bureau, who never left — and never plan to.

These stories are more than anecdotes; they represent a growing movement of people who see the value in the land, the community, and the lifestyle that rural Pennsylvania offers — despite the statistics.

WARREN COUNTY IS HOME: Lisa Card, a seventh-generation Warren County resident, shares her passion for rural living and local history with visitors who stop by the Warren County Visitors Bureau, where she serves as the administrative assistant.
 

‘Barefoot and wild’

Stephanie and Hayley Painter grew up “running barefoot and wild” on their family’s organic dairy farm, Painterland Farms, in Tioga County. When they weren’t milking cows, feeding calves, or doing other farm chores, the girls played sports, hiked in the woods and rode four-wheelers. They also dreamed of raising their own families on the farm, which receives power from Mansfield-based Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperative (REC). 

The siblings always loved farm life, especially working with family — siblings, cousins, parents and grandparents — to support the 400-head dairy operation. But they learned at an early age that financial struggles are common.

“When I was in third grade, I remember getting off the bus, and our dad and grandpa were sitting there crying when we got home,” Hayley recalls. “They were getting their milk dumped for three weeks straight, and they thought if something didn’t change, we would have to sell.”

While Painterland Farms survived, many of the neighbors’ farms did not. And the instability of the milk market and resulting financial scares remained in the back of the sisters’ minds. 

“We always knew we were going to do something together on the farm,” Stephanie says. “We always knew we were going to get back to our roots.”

A plan takes shape

After graduating from college — Stephanie holds a business degree from Susquehanna University and Hayley earned an animal science degree from Iowa State University — the pair traveled internationally and took a months-long road trip across the United States to tour farms and make connections.

Their goal: to preserve their family’s rural way of life. “We didn’t know exactly how we were going to do that,” Stephanie says, “but we had a million ideas.”

They ultimately settled on producing Icelandic-style organic yogurt using milk sourced from the family farm. Partnering with a co-manufacturing creamery in Carlisle, Pa., Painterland Sisters Organic Skyr Yogurt began production in March 2022. Described as thicker, richer and more nutrient-dense than other yogurts, Painterland Sisters found a niche, and success came quickly.

“We were national in about three months,” Stephanie says. “That’s almost unheard of. Our second full year in business, we were in stores in all 50 states and sold about $4 million worth of yogurt. Last year, we reached $12 million in sales. This year, we are on track to sell $30 million worth of yogurt, and we will be in about 6,000 locations nationwide by the end of the year.”

In addition to sourcing milk directly from the family farm, the business also supports an additional 25 organic dairy farms, mostly in Pennsylvania. “That means we can keep farmers farming,” Stephanie says. “The yogurt is giving us a voice for the change we want to make.”

That change, Hayley adds, ensures farming and rural traditions continue. Ultimately, though, it’s helping to revitalize their rural community. The sisters have more than 15,000 Instagram followers and host numerous public events on the farm each year. Through these channels, they’re striving to engage consumers and the community about the benefits of farming and being good stewards of the land. 

“We want to bring the farm to the world,” Hayley says, “and the world to the farm.” 

SOMETHING ABOUT SHUNK: Mary Baumunk Blondy pauses before setting out on cross-country skis along the Summit Loop, a hiking trail on the grounds of the future site of The Summit: Center for Wellness near Laporte, Pa. A former investment banker who lived in New York City and abroad, Blondy has returned to her native Sullivan County, where she’s leading an effort to create a much-needed health and wellness center for the community.

‘I’ve always come back to Shunk’

While the Painter sisters returned to their rural roots while still in their 20s, Mary Baumunk Blondy took a longer, more circuitous route to get back to her native Sullivan County.

Mary grew up in the tiny community of Shunk, where her family owned the village’s general store and a lumber company. After graduating from Sullivan County High School in the late 1970s, Mary attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., earning a degree in economics. Mary’s first job was with The Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City.

Her career and marriage took her many places, including Australia, where she and her late husband, Steven, lived in Melbourne and Sydney for six years, New Jersey, and North Carolina. Eventually, though, Mary returned to Pennsylvania, purchasing a home overlooking Loyalsock Creek in Sullivan County in 2018.

“Wherever I’ve lived around the world, I’ve always come back to Shunk,” she says. “I always consider [Sullivan County] my favorite place in the whole world.”

A member of Forksville-based Sullivan County REC, Mary, now retired, says she loves the area’s scenic beauty, tranquility and outdoor opportunities. She enjoys figure skating, cross-country skiing, fishing, kayaking and, especially, swimming.

Like many kids in the area, Mary learned to swim by taking lessons at the home of Bill and Lucy Sick in Dushore. The couple allowed instructors to use their in-ground pool to offer swimming lessons to the community for around 50 years, Mary says.

“Lucy passed away in 2017,” Mary recalls, “and I was at the funeral, and I said, ‘Where is everyone going to learn to swim?’ ” 

Now she’s spearheading a project to address that question. It’s The Summit: Center for Wellness, which will offer an indoor swimming pool and track, a fitness center, exercise classrooms, community rooms and outdoor hiking trails.

Mary established the Loyalsock Foundation in 2019 to build The Summit. Since then, the organization has secured 72 acres near the Sullivan County High School in Laporte to house the $20 million facility, which Mary hopes to open in the next five years.

“I’m trying to find a good way to give back to the area that I was raised in,” Mary says. “I’m using my experiences in life, from working in finance to building a house, and bringing that together with my passion for swimming and living a healthy lifestyle for this project.”

Despite the scope of the project, she says she has received considerable support from businesses, government entities and the community. Mary has no doubt The Summit will 
be built.

“It will get done,” she says. “It will happen.”

Born and raised — and stayed

While it’s not uncommon for young people to grow up in a rural community, move away and return later in life to raise families or retire, there are plenty of folks who never leave.

Lisa Card, a seventh-generation Warren County resident, is among them.

“I never left,” she says. “I never wanted to, and I never will. I love everything about where I live. I love walking through town. I love walking in the woods. I like the peace. I don’t like congested places, noisy places. I like what rural living has to offer.”

STAYING PUT: Growing up in the Bronx, Monique “Moe” Payne only knew city life. That changed a few years ago when she and her husband, Robert, bought a 150-acre campground in Huntingdon County, revived the business and embraced the slower pace of life. “Here,” she says, “they wave.”
 

More than anything, Lisa cherishes the sense of community.

“If my car broke down anywhere in this county, I could walk up to the nearest home and ask for help, and I’d receive it,” she says. “What I like most is that people here come together, and they help one another.”

She found that out firsthand in 2023. Her husband, Mike, suffered a massive heart attack, and she was diagnosed with lymphoma. Mike has since recovered, and Lisa’s cancer is in remission, but during that difficult period, the family received an outpouring of community support.

“I had hundreds of people call me,” she says. “Friends, neighbors, and even people I didn’t know were asking what they could do to help. I got an anonymous check for $1,000 in the mail. You don’t realize the goodness of people. It just humbles you.”

Lisa’s affinity for her community and home county, coupled with a passion for local history, prompted her to apply for a job as the administrative assistant with the Warren County Visitors Bureau about three years ago. 

“Out of 110 who applied for this job, I got it,” she says. “Not because of my education, but because of my love for the county and my knowledge of it.”

The bureau, located on Route 6 between Warren and Youngsville — where Warren Electric Cooperative is headquartered — receives about 4,000 visitors a year. Lisa is the enthusiastic woman behind the counter, sharing local history, highlighting upcoming events, shopping, and dining opportunities, and directing folks to points of interest, like nearby Kinzua Dam and the Allegheny National Forest.

Like most of Pennsylvania’s rural areas, Warren County is experiencing a population decline, but Lisa is doing her part to highlight its attributes. She says getting visitors to shop and stay locally boosts the economy and promotes the area to prospective residents. 

“I love my life here,” she says. “We got married here. I had my kids here. Everything significant in my life is here and, when something happens, people here have your back.”

‘I’m going country’

Growing up in the Bronx, Monique “Moe” Payne’s only connections to rural living came from television shows and visits to City Island, a nearby neighborhood where her mother would treat her to a horseback ride each summer.
Yet, from childhood on, she says she dreamed of living in the country. She loves animals and appreciates greenery, noting her mother, who is Caribbean, always maintained a small vegetable garden on their city lot.

After getting a degree in human services, Moe moved to Wilkes-Barre, where she worked for the school system and owned a beauty shop. She met her husband, Robert, online. He had a good job with the Port Authority of Allegheny County, so Moe moved to Pittsburgh in 2009.

“Before I moved out there, I told him, ‘I don’t know where this relationship is going, but I’m going country,’ ” she recalls, adding she dreamed of having horses and land.

Robert had lived in the Steel City his entire life and wasn’t as enthusiastic about the idea of rural living, but he relented. “He was so sweet,” Moe says. “I was on realtor.com, and every weekend we went shopping for land. I was looking for 100 acres and a house.”

After three years of searching, Moe found her Pennsylvania dream home: a 50-acre site near Raystown Lake with a house and nine rental cabins in various stages of disrepair. 

They closed on the property in 2016, and Moe immediately moved to Huntingdon — by herself — and began updating the buildings and clearing the overgrown property, which had been vacant for at least seven years.

“I was here four years by myself,” Moe says, noting her husband had to work those four years before he could retire and join her at what is now called Urban Saddle Ranch. The property now encompasses 150 acres, and the updated cabins, featuring a rustic western decor, are rented as vacation get-aways.

As a lifelong city resident, Moe admits she experienced some culture shock when she first moved to the remote mountain property. But, she says, she immediately fell in love with rural life.

“You don’t know none of your neighbors in the city,” she says. “They ain’t waving at you. Here, they wave. When I first moved here, everybody was bringing me eggs. It was just more homey, and I always wanted that.”

Moe says she is blessed to live in such a beautiful area with great neighbors. “They’re gonna cremate me and spread my ashes right here,” she says. “I’m not going anywhere.”