West Mifflin Tutors

About West Mifflin

Just down the Monongahela River from Pittsburgh, West Mifflin, Pennsylvania is a suburb in Allegheny County. Colonial settlers began trickling into the Pittsburgh area in the years after the French and Indian War and Pontiac’s Rebellion. West Mifflin is one of many places in Pennsylvania named after Thomas Mifflin, the state’s first governor. Mifflin’s grandfather, a Quaker, had come to Pennsylvania in the 1600’s and settled in Philadelphia. Mifflin’s father was a successful businessman, a trait he passed on to his son who was born in Philadelphia in 1744. As a young man, Mifflin became involved in politics and sided with the colonial resistance against British policies. In 1774 he was chosen as Pennsylvania’s delegate to the Continental Congress and, when war broke out, he joined the Continental Army under the command of General George Washington. At the time Mifflin had to renounce his Quaker faith because military service contradicted the pacifistic tone of Quakerism. Washington promptly appointed Mifflin Quartermaster General of the Army, but accusations that Mifflin had mishandled the army’s finances caused a rift between the two men. After the war, however, Mifflin had retained his reputation and in 1791 was elected the first governor of Pennsylvania. He served for nine years before he died in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1800.

Communities and townships throughout Pennsylvania as well as an entire county were named after Mifflin so that one might visit Mifflinburg, Mifflintown, Mifflinville, Mifflin Township (two of those), Upper Mifflin, West Mifflin and Fort Mifflin. Like many towns in the Pittsburgh area, West Mifflin was heavily impacted by the industrial revolution with much of the landscape changed by consistent dumping of steel mill byproducts such as slag and ash. Brown’s Dump in West Mifflin is one of the largest man-made mountains in the nation. Today, the borough is mostly a residential community although it does retain some industry including the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory and U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works. West Mifflin is also home to the Allegheny County Airport.

A West Mifflin tutor will keep you caught up on your studies so you can take time away from the books to experience the interesting things to do in West Mifflin and the surrounding area. Opened in 1898, Kennywood is one of the oldest amusement parks in America. Named after Anthony Kenny, a farmer who once owned the land, Kennywood quickly caught on as a popular destination for fun seekers. Within a few years, the site had a carousel, bandstand, dance pavilion, and, in 1901, the park’s first roller coaster, the Figure Eight Toboggan. More rides and roller coasters would be added over the years. To keep up with the competition Kennywood added Raging Rapids in the 1980’s and a looping roller coaster named the Steel Phantom in 1991. As it was nearly 120 years ago, Kennywood is still visited by thousands of patrons each year.

For those interested in the rise and fall of the steel industry in western Pennsylvania it’s just a short drive north to the Rivers of Steel Museum in Homestead which collects and preserves the history of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area, a 5,000 square-mile region of southwest Pennsylvania related to steel manufacturing and subsidiary industries. The museum archive includes photographs, documents and memorabilia from the heyday of big steel from the late 1800’s into the 1970’s. Just across the Monongahela River, the Carrie Furnaces is a preserved steel mill which offers tours of the facility that at one time produced 1,000 tons of iron a day.