[female voice] This place has a heartbeat of its own.

[male voice] You just get a vibe that you're here at home.

[female voice] It's given me opportunities that I never thought I'd have.

That atmosphere is infectious.

[female voice] It's a magic little place in the mountains.

[announcer] Made with the state fruit of North Carolina, Mighty Muscadine offers a line of superfruit supplements and juices made from the Muscadine grape, including the Cellular Health Antioxidant Beverage, Vinetastic.

More at mightymuscadine.com.

[water trickling gently] [guitar music] [Joshua Deel] Tucked away in the dense, untamed expanse of the Pennsylvania wilds, there's a town most people have never heard of.

But Ridgway, Pennsylvania doesn't care.

It's got bigger things on its mind... adventure... artistry... and nature that'll knock you on your ass, if you let it.

[♪♪♪] Located in the northwest of the Commonwealth in Pennsylvania's Great Outdoors Region, just a couple hours drive from the Canadian border in Elk County, Ridgway is the chainsaw carving capital of the world.

Yeah, you heard me.

In a town this rugged, even the art comes with an edge.

Raw, unpolished, and impossibly intricate.

[♪♪♪] Here, the Clarion River snakes through the Allegheny Mountains, inviting you to drop a line in its quiet waters at dawn, or paddle out in a kayak as the sun dips below the horizon.

Sure, it's beautiful, but there's more to it.

The river isn't just scenic wallpaper for Instagram.

It's the town's lifeblood.

It carried loggers and settlers to this place, built industries, and in a way, carved Ridgway's very identity.

Ridgway's the kind of place you've gotta experience to get adventure... art... nature... all rolled into one rough and ready package.

The journey, it starts here.

I've heard it said, "Where we are affects who we are."

Makes sense, right?

I've always believed you can't really understand yourself until you understand where you come from.

Hi, I'm Josh, and I'm hosting this series with PBS Appalachia to explore the places people still call home, their hometowns, and to uncover the stories that make them unique.

Hometowns is about exploring the communities that give America its character.

This season, we're going off the beaten path on a journey from Virginia to Wyoming.

Now, don't get me wrong, many of these places have their flaws, warts and all, but if that's all you focus on, you're missing the bigger picture, the raw, untamed beauty of the land, and the depth and complexity of its culture.

These are the things that speak to the heart of understanding what it really means to be an American.

It's a journey worth taking.

Trust me.

Sitting in a brewery that was once a bank where both Taylor Swift's great-grandfather and grandfather worked, I met with a local historian who shared the history of how this place came to be.

[Bob Imhof] Well, this area here was what they called the Six Nations Confederacy, which was like the Iroquois, Onondagas, that you have the Native American influence.

And then, most of everything that happened after 1817, when Mr. Ridgway bought this land, was enticing settlers to come here and buy up pieces of this land.

There was nothing here.

[Joshua Deel] The Mr. Ridgway Bob speaks of was none other than Jacob Ridgway, a Philadelphia businessman and ship builder, whose net worth in 1817 would have exceeded $130 billion in today's money.

White pine trees were the premier shipbuilding timber, and that is how he discovered the land that is now Ridgway, because it possessed some of the finest stands of white pine in the world.

Many people came here to make their wealth in the lumber industry, well into the Gilded Age.

Easy access to downriver markets made this a lucrative proposition, not only in nearby Pittsburgh, but men would bind logs together, making huge timber log rafts and would ride them all the way to markets as far as New Orleans, where they would buy a horse to ride for the return journey.

This created so much wealth that by the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, Ridgway had the highest concentration of millionaires in the entire Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which is evident in what they call "Millionaires' Row."

I also discovered that the renowned Hyde-Murphy wood molding, which can be seen in buildings in New York and places like the Library of Congress and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., originated right here in Ridgway.

It's also in many of the mansions here and even in the Brew Bank.

[water gushing] At first glance, you'd never guess the Clarion River was once a dumping ground, a casualty of the logging industry and unchecked industrial waste.

It's hard to imagine that this serene stretch of water, now teeming with wildlife and drawing in kayakers, hikers, and anyone craving a little slice of untouched nature, was once considered too far gone to save.

But here it is, thriving, living proof that when a community gets behind something and when nature's given half a chance, it fights back.

I sat down with Kylie from the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, someone who's been in the trenches of this river's resurrection.

The work they've done to pull the Clarion out of the abyss, it's nothing short of remarkable.

And it's a reminder that in the right hands, even the most damaged places can heal.

-This is the Clarion River.

It is a major tributary to the Allegheny River.

Back in the timber industry, they used this river for navigation and to get wood and logs down to the city of Pittsburgh, so it was a major industrial route.

As cities and communities developed along the river, they also brought with them different types of industry.

And a lot of those industries polluted the river with tanneries and chemical pollution.

[Bob Imhof] This town was beautiful, it was wealthy, it was vibrant, it was cultural.

But there'd be a lot of times it would not have smelled very good at all 'cause you had a tannery in the west end of town and you had the Eagle Valley tannery, which is just out this road right here.

It was huge.

-[Joshua Deel] Yeah.

[Bob Imhof] It was one of the largest tanneries in the United States.

[Kylie Maland] At the beginning of the 1900s, some scientists, Carl Ortman was one of the major studiers of this river, claimed that it was a dead river devoid of life.

There was nothing growing in it, and the water ran black like ink.

-How long did it take to recover?

I mean, you said early 1900s, it was running black?

-Yes.

-Oh, God.

I mean, how long does it take to look normal again?

-I'd say around the '70s and '80s is when efforts really picked up to clean up the river.

It's critical to our life and the quality of life, especially for residents along the rivers, to have a clean, healthy river that can attract business and economic growth to our areas and help support our livelihoods.

And it's important for people to care about that because this is their drinking water at some point, or somebody's drinking water downstream.

So we all play a part in the health and quality of the environment around us.

And it's important to protect that and make it better where we can.

The focus now is on improving things for the future so we can ensure that generations to come can continue to enjoy these resources.

[Joshua Deel] Like the loggers and settlers before him, Don Cameroni of Brown Trout Addiction makes his living off the Clarion River.

But instead of chopping down trees or building mills, Don's chasing trophy trout.

He runs drift fishing tours, guiding both seasoned pros and wide-eyed newbies through these waters that, thanks to years of hard-fought conservation, are now as pristine as they come.

His business thrives, not just because he's good at what he does, but because the river got a second chance.

I had the chance to cast a line with Don.

And let me tell you, the guy's got passion for fishing that's infectious.

He's the kind of guy who knows every bend, every riffle, every fish in that river.

This isn't just about catching trout.

It's about being part of something bigger, something that runs deep through the veins of Ridgway.

[Don Cameroni] Yeah, my whole life, I grew up in Thermopolis, Wyoming, 60 feet, or 60 yards from the Bighorn River.

If you don't fish there, there's probably something wrong.

You might not be invited to dinner on Sunday.

I don't know how that really works these days, but it was a way of life.

As a young child out there, there wasn't a lot to do.

You know, you might go to the playground or whatever, but the river was my playground.

I had a black lab.

Her name was Lindy.

-[Joshua Deel] Yeah.

[Don Cameroni] She was my best friend.

And we hung out on that river every day.

So I was about 10 or 11, we moved to Pennsylvania, and I can remember being heartbroken.

And my mom telling me, "Don't worry, Don, there's trout fishing in Pennsylvania."

And sure enough, by the time I was 11, my dad showed me this river, and I was hooked.

And it became the primary river that I fished my whole life.

[gentle music] There's a lot of good people around here, Ridgway's a booming little community.

I moved down Virginia Beach a long time ago.

I used to live in Cape Charles across the Chesapeake Bay.

It was a big change from this.

I'll tell you, I couldn't wait to get back here to Ridgway.

That's what's important, it's getting out there and enjoying the water.

You know, whether it's with your friends or family or by yourself, you're seeking some solitude or maybe forgetting about some problems.

And staying in the water for a little while, you tend to forget about your problems.

[gentle music] [machine whirring] [Snuffy Destefano] Before I started doing the chainsaw carving, at that point, I was doing other artistic things, such as being a musician.

I wrote 100 original songs.

I released five music CDs myself.

I was working in the lumber industry.

I was working in the carpentry industry.

And so, these are, you know, everything with wood.

I enjoyed the process of creating things, and I just needed, you know, some way to tie it all together.

And, you know, with the Bonis having this Chainsaw Carvers Rendezvous, it just opened so many doors for so many people that I've met over the years.

I mean, thousands and thousands of artists have come through this town that were in the same boat as I was, that were maybe a carpenter, maybe a tree trimmer.

Somebody that appreciated wood and thought that they could do more with, you know, our raw materials that were really just gonna be thrown away or pushed over the bank at a, you know, a logging site.

[Joshua Deel] It is against the backdrop of this timber and artisan woodworking past that Ridgway today is home to both chainsaw carvers and the international Chainsaw Carvers Rendezvous... [gentle music] started by this woman.

-Hi.

I met my husband in Florida.

He was from Ridgway, and we kind of decided that if we were gonna have a family, we were going home.

And, you know, we came back here, and it was a bit of a challenge 'cause he was an artist, so to speak.

He had gone to art school with a degree in arts, and we knew it was gonna be more of a challenge here than anywhere else, but it was what we knew, and it was a great place to raise our kids.

And it's been, it's been a journey.

It's been wild and crazy, and a lot of fun.

-Tell us about the wild and crazy and fun.

-Well, the wild and crazy was the day he said to me, "I'm gonna quit my job and be a full-time chainsaw artist."

And I'm like, "Are you kidding me?

Who's gonna buy one of those?"

And, believe me, I have eaten my words, so make 'em soft and tender.

Chainsaw art has taken us around the world.

It has opened doors to awards and just wonderful, meeting wonderful people from everywhere, and a cultural exchange, you know, not only in art, but in communities and in spirit and just a lot of love and compassion for the arts, and it's just been wonderful.

The chainsaw has done for the world of sculpture what the electric guitar did for music.

[Joshua Deel] I learned from Liz that chainsaw carving is now considered the first American art form to originate in the United States.

The Bonis have been recognized with international awards for opening the world up to chainsaw art.

[saw whirring] [upbeat music] [saw whirring] [upbeat music] -When you think that, you know, you're living in this little area, in this little woods, and that's just how your life is gonna be.

And all of a sudden, you're handed an airplane ticket, you know, to travel.

Over the years, the Rendezvous has grown exponentially.

I mean, it has gone from 30 carvers to I think the most we ever had was 237 carvers.

You know, and I have to give kudos to Pennsylvania Great Outdoors.

Over the years, we have gone from maybe 2,000 or 3,000 people attending this event to well over 40,000 people coming.

And this year, thanks to them, and once again, we've noticed that we are reaching over a million people.

So I'm very excited to see what this year will bring.

So I mean, it's worldwide.

It blows me away when I hear these stories about people in other parts of the world that hear about Ridgway, little old Ridgway, you know, that they wanna come here and take part in this event.

'Cause we are just a bunch of woodhicks.

[laughs] [Joshua Deel] Before leaving, I asked Liz about this area's connection to Appalachia, since it's in the name of their studio, the Appalachian Art Studio, to which she replied, they feel this place is untapped Appalachia, in the sense of outdoor experiences as well as the arts, both deserving of recognition.

I recognize that Appalachia holds different connotations to different people, but to Liz, in her own words-- -That's roots, that's music, that's art, that's family, that's, it's huggable, as you said.

It's love.

[Joshua Deel] Ridgway's got a creative soul.

You can see it everywhere, from the chainsaw carvers turning hunks of wood into something that actually looks like art, to places like Mudbeard's Bike & Boards.

It's more than just a bike shop.

It's a launch pad for adventure.

Just like those carvers shaping nature's beauty, Mudbeard's helps people carve their own paths, only this time, on two wheels.

They'll set you up with whatever you need to tear through the trails that wind along the Clarion River, offering up a front row seat to the wild, rugged beauty of Ridgway and Elk County.

[Jason Armagost] Born and raised in Ridgway.

I always rode bikes, did that type of thing, always wrenched on my own bikes, you know.

Neighborhood bikes, all of us kids, you know, at my grandfather's house, wrenching on them in the garage.

So I always sorta had a passion for that type of thing.

Maybe even the wrenching more than the riding, you know.

-[Joshua Deel] Okay.

-Like tinkering on things.

Ridgway's home, you know.

And Ridgway is growing.

And I think Ridgway is getting better by the minute.

It's a growing town again.

Ridgway has always been one of those towns I think other towns looked at.

People are looking to get out more.

And what better place to go than here?

Like I said, if you like to play outside, you can't beat Ridgway.

We've got the river.

We've got the forest.

There's State Game Lands.

There's national forests.

You know, there's great parks.

I think it's a great thing, I think, to get people to come into town and experience what I've got to experience for my whole life or the other people in town have got to experience.

I think we take for granted what we have here, because we've just grown up with it.

It's normal for us to have that river in our backyard and, you know, the forest that we have around us and the things that we have.

[Joshua Deel] Ridgway has a lot to offer.

Beyond the sawdust and bigfoots, there's a vibrant entrepreneurial spark that's flourishing here.

[Lori Azzato] Moved to Ridgway because I had retired from my job in a doctor's office for 18 years, and decided I wanted to do a B&B.

It was like a dream that I always had.

And the B&B was built in 1865.

That's why the name's 1865.

It has Hyde-Murphy woodwork, which is pretty much world-renowned.

I had 13 different countries stay in a five-week period.

Different countries, yeah.

Yeah, they come from all over to see our herd of elk that we have in Elk County that's pretty-- I mean, people come from all over to see it.

And then the leaves, the foliage, and the fall.

-[Jason] And the Kinzua Bridge.

-[Lori Azzato] And the Kinzua-- I mean, there's just-- there's a plethora of things here.

It's crazy just in this little area how beautiful of an area we really do have.

[Jason Phipps] I'm originally from Pittsburgh, PA. 1997, I graduated from Slippery Rock College.

I have a degree in music.

And I came up here to be the music teacher.

I decided to start waiting tables here.

I love it.

Coming from Pittsburgh, you go from this big town to this little-- the middle of nowhere.

We're in the middle of the Allegheny National Forest.

But at first, it was just-- even though you think that you're going from this big to a small, it was slightly intimidating.

But then you come to this small town because everybody knows everybody.

And everybody knows that I'm not from here.

So it takes a little while to get your bearings.

But once you do, Ridgway's about as welcoming of a town as you'll ever see.

[Lori Azzato] And I've heard from tons of our visitors, too, that they're just like, if I'll get businessmen coming through, they're like, we're coming back and bringing my wife.

It's like stepping back in time.

It's safe.

People walk downtown to eat, come down here for a beer, whatever.

And it's just safe.

And they love it.

They love it.

It's just quaint.

-People talk with you, get to know your story a little bit.

Yeah.

-You get to know theirs.

And yeah, it's really fun.

People appreciate hometowns.

They really do.

-The one thing I want to say about Ridgway, they're very open to that.

And they're excited for it.

And they're like, what's coming next?

And they're like, what can we do to help?

Which you don't see that in bigger communities.

The small-town feel goes a long way.

-Ridgway is quaint, homey... and it's home.

-Ridgway is a great destination for adventures, many adventures.

[Joshua Deel] Look, I'm a Virginia boy.

I know Southern hospitality.

I've felt that warmth, that easy generosity.

But what I experienced in Ridgway, it was something else.

I've heard the saying, no one retires and moves north.

And yeah, maybe I had a bit of that bias rolling into town.

But the people here, man, they have this way of showing you what it really means to love where you're from.

They wear their pride like a badge.

And they make someone like me, an outsider, feel like I've been part of the fabric all along.

It's something you see a lot in small-town America, that unspoken understanding of community, of taking care of your own, and of welcoming strangers with a genuine smile.

If there's anything that can pull us together in this fractured world, it's that.

So whether you're here to hike through the woods, check out some impressive chainsaw art, or just soak up the vibe of small-town Pennsylvania, Ridgway's got its arms wide open, endless possibilities, all with a side of true hospitality.

[♪♪♪] [female voice] This place has a heartbeat of its own.

[male voice] You just get a vibe that you're here at home.

[female voice] It's given me opportunities that I never thought I'd have.

That atmosphere is infectious.

[female voice] It's a magic little place in the mountains.

[announcer] Made with the state fruit of North Carolina, Mighty Muscadine offers a line of superfruit supplements and juices made from the Muscadine grape, including the Cellular Health Antioxidant Beverage, Vinetastic.

More at mightymuscadine.com.