Benton,PA (Scranton, Lancaster, Wilkes-Barre: sale, rent, crime)

[mmzullo]

Hi All,
I bought some acreage in Benton,PA. It was an old farm that got subdivided. I like the area that I'm in. I won't move there until I retire(10 to 12 years). I will build a home there in about 8 to 10 years. Are there any real problems with the town itself. I take day trips but can't learn much about the town. I keep up to date with the Benton News website for news info. But can't really see much.
Can anyone shed some light on this little town that we hope to move to some day?
Thanks and have a great summer and hope to meet some neighbors,
Mike

[graysmom8]

Benton is a VERY small town which is why there isn't a lot of news about what's happening there. Bloomsburg is about 25 minutes away and is where you will probably find most of the activities, socializing, theater, etc. to keep you occupied in your retirement. Benton is nice and quiet with a low cost of living which should make for a peaceful retirement. There is a yearly carnival put on by the Orangeville Firemen and they have great homemade ice cream (Orangeville is right down the road from Benton).

GraysMom

[openless]

There is a great covered bridge just a few miles south of Benton in stillwater, pa. I have drive nthrough there a few times, it has at least 1 gas station that i always remembered being cheaper than everyone else around (but you cant find anyone else for 20 miles or so. Rickett's Glen is not too far away and is a great place to hike and see waterfalls (22 of them)

[ScranBarre]

Personally, Benton is a bit too rural for my tastes (must sound odd coming from a person who hates the suburbs so much), but it is a quiet, safe, close-knit community. Bloomsburg has many of the conveniences you'll need, such as the Columbia Mall, grocery stores, Lowe's, Panera Bread, etc., and more "big-city" amenities, such as the symphony, off-Broadway shows, minor-league sports, outlet shopping, etc. can be found in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, about 45 minutes to an hour away from Benton depending on what destination you're headed to in the metro.

Benton also has an annual Native American Pow-Wow and annual Rodeo that attract quite a few people from out-of-town. Basically, Benton is your small Texan panhandle town with a PA flair. Crime is virtually non-existent, with the exception of DUIs (the people of Benton are admittedly towards the alcoholic side), and the town only ever makes the news for something obscure such as damage from a severe thunderstorm or a bear stuck in a tree or something.

It's a nice, quiet, relaxing place to call home---Depending on where you're moving from though you might be viewed as an "outsider" or a "big-city threat" for quite some time before the townspeople warm up to you and accept you into their in-crowds. (This happens all over small-town PA though, not just Benton). Bloomsburg is also home to Bloomsburg University, which infuses quite a bit of liveliness and culture into Columbia County. As "Openless" stated, Ricketts Glen State Park is nearby, and it's a natural treasure that hasn't yet been discovered by the NY/NJ crowd (I can't wait until my next waterfall hike here in the Spring!)

Welcome to NEPA!

[WasPA]

Benton is very much a quiet farming community, much like anything west of Luzerne County...more agricultural in tone....historically, all Methodists & Lutherans although the 'fundys' (fundamentalist Christians) have gained quite a foothold in manhy of these sections of PA.

Not far away is what's left of the only twin covered bridges in the nation; one of them was wiped out in the flooding of June 2006 after over a century of strong service. They are trying to raise a lot of money to rebuild; donate and you'd win brownie points! heh....

Benton is very quiet and very small (900-1,000 ?) but you'd have the opportunity to know people and to be part of the community...always a nice feeling. I spent most of my teenage years around nearby Huntington Mills, a hamlet enroute between Benton and Shickshinny & know the area very well. An uncle was a gentleman farmer with a huge farm in nearby Stillwater and stores in Nanticoke (back when it thrived); Williamsport isn't very far from Benton and you'll find more and more Amish buying up the farms between Benton, Millville and Billsport as they profit from the sale of their Lancaster farms and seek out quieter areas less subject to the rude intrusion of tourism; of course if you like Little league you can attend the LL World Series in Billsport.

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre has pretty much delivered all the info you'll ever need and in detail about Benton and environs...

....but, as someone who grew up in and loves rural PA but has lived in NYC and loves big cities too, I will say that I would find Benton a bit too quiet 24/7 but I whole-heartedly recommend that you try it; get to know it, perhaps rent a cabin there for a week or two at some point....you should get into gardening if not farming..you'll need constructive hobbies..a good idea no matter where you live....

I ended up as (unwitting) president of our local Methodist Youth Fellowship group as a high school senior, even tho we were Presbyterians (no nearby Presby church); I wasn't in love with the idea, but it was something to do; actually as I reflect back on us kids driving around in the snow to sing Christmas Carols to the ill or 'shut-ins', or skating on the dam in Huntington Mills next to a roaring bonfire, or skinny dipping in the neighbor's dam in the creek upstream from the local covered bridge (where we sneaked cigarettes) I feel awfully good inside.....

[mmzullo]

Thanks for the replies. I have yet to stay in the general area except for Berwick. I'm glad about all the positive things said about Benton. I live in a rural area in northern NJ and the land I bought in Benton will be perfect for me. My property now in NJ backs up to 1800 acres of state park. I hate to push my life into retirement but I can't wait. I think in 5 or 6 years we are going to sell here on put up our new home. My wife has the house picked out already. She has it all planned out.
Thanks to All,
Happy Holidays!!

[openless]

look at the picture in city-data for benton, there is a covered bridge i took. also look in harrisburg, paxtonia, linglestown, colonial park, millersburg, lykens, tower city and last but not least edison NJ and blain PA

[guvjim]

I was just scrolling through the threads and came across the one about Benton and it brought back a lot of memories. I was stationed at the Benton Air Force Station Atop Red Rock Mountain in the late '50s and seeing a lot of the names of the surrounding towns brought back a flood of memories. I lived in a little town called "Lopez", and then Mildred. I left there in '58 but have always wanted to go back. I have a picture that I took (I can't remember exactly where, but I think it was somewhere close to Towanda) of some evergreens on the side of a hill spelling out 1948. I would love to know if they are still there.

[Dawne]

Ooh, Lopez is a very cold place in the winter! Where do you live now, Jim?

[guvjim]

Originally Posted by Dawne

Ooh, Lopez is a very cold place in the winter! Where do you live now, Jim?

I live in Chicago now, didn't help my situation much. We had a few teaser spring days but for the past several days it has been cold and snowing/raining. When I left Lopez in '58 we got out just before they had a major storm and I was told my my next door neighbor that they had 65 inches on the mountain.