Beach area of Raccoon Creek State Park

🏊Swimming at Beach area of Raccoon Creek State Park

The swim area is a 500-foot sand/turf beach on Raccoon Lake's south shore, ADA accessible, open late May to mid-September from 8:00 A.M. to sunset. A shower house (bathhouse) and concession stand sit adjacent to the beach, and an ADA-accessible fishing peninsula is located on the lake nearby. The official guide states 'Swim at your own risk' and directs visitors to read and follow posted rules; no lifeguard service is documented in official sources. In winter, once the beach area closes for swimming, the park designates the same spot as an ice-skating area on the frozen lake.

📍How to get to this swimming hole

Raccoon Creek State Park is in southern Beaver County, PA (address: 3000 State Route 18, Hookstown, PA 15050), reached from the east and west via US Route 30 or from the north and south via PA Route 18, which passes directly through the park. The Beach Day Use Area sits on the south shore of Raccoon Lake off Beach Road, a spur from Raccoon Park Road; it can also be reached on foot via the 0.3-mile Beach Trail from the campground's D Loop.

Parking: The official park map shows paved and ADA-accessible parking at the Beach Day Use Area on Raccoon Lake's south shore, directly adjacent to the beach, shower house, and concession stand.

📜Backstory

The park's earliest buildings were constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1935 in National Park Service Rustic style and were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987 as a 114-property historic district. The park land previously hosted Frankfort Mineral Springs, a mid-19th-century Victorian health resort (hotel, dance hall, livery stable, guest cottages) that closed in the early 20th century; the springs were sold to Edward McGinnis in 1827, and the resort's growth gave the nearby village of Frankfort Springs its name. Raccoon Creek was designated one of five Recreational Demonstration Areas (RDAs) in Pennsylvania developed under FDR's New Deal-era Emergency Conservation Work Act; land acquisition began in 1934 and the CCC and WPA (more than 700 men, housed in camps SP-6 and SP-16) developed the park for the National Park Service between 1935 and 1941, before it was transferred to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in September 1945. Levi Dungan, who claimed 1,000 acres at the head of Kings Creek in 1772, was the first European settler in what became Beaver County; the on-site Kings Creek Cemetery holds 142 graves of early settlers (1810-1906), including veterans of the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, and Civil War.