Poyntelle, Pennsylvania

Poyntelle (/pɔɪˈnɛl/ poy-NEL) is a village in Preston Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, in the Lake Region of the Poconos. It was once a depot of the Scranton Division of the New York, Ontario & Western (O&W) Railway, but today, when it is known outside of its immediate vicinity, it is largely for being the location of Camps Westmont[13] and Poyntelle Lewis Village, since the reputation and commercial reach of both, like those of most rural American summer camps, extend beyond the community in which the camps are physically located.

Poyntelle, Pennsylvania
Village
Village of Poyntelle
Camp Westmont in Poyntelle
Poyntelle Poyntelle's location within Pennsylvania. Show map of Pennsylvania Poyntelle Poyntelle (the United States) Show map of the United States
Coordinates: 41°49′16″N 75°25′12″W
Country	United States
State	Pennsylvania
U.S. Congressional District	10
County	Wayne
School District	Wayne Highlands Region I
Magisterial District	22-3-04[1]
Township	Preston
Named for	William Poyntell I[2]
Elevation	2,067 ft (630 m)
Time zone	UTC-5 (Eastern (EST))
• Summer (DST)	UTC-4 (Eastern Daylight (EDT))
ZIP codes	De jure 18454[3] De facto 18454 18439[4] (Lakewood) 18453[4] (Pleasant Mount) 18465[4] (Thompson)
Area code(s)	570
GNIS feature ID	1204443[5]
FIPS code	42-127-62600[6]-57144[5]
Major Roads
Waterways	Bone Pond,[7] Equinunk Creek, Independent Lake,[8] Johnson Creek,[9] Lackawanna River (East Branch), Lackawaxen River (West Branch), Lake Lorain,[10] Poyntelle Lake,[11] Riley Creek[12]

Municipal status and boundaries

See also: Local government in Pennsylvania § Unincorporated communities

An image of one of Poyntelle's two PennDOT signs, this one facing northeast along Crosstown Highway.

Two Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) signs on Crosstown Highway identify the community as the "Village of Poyntelle." In Pennsylvania, a village is an unincorporated community within a township, but PennDOT identifies most villages with roadside signs, a fact that might reasonably lead those unfamiliar with this practice to believe that these communities are incorporated municipalities administered separately from the townships in which they are located. Since Pennsylvania's villages, including Poyntelle, are, in fact, not municipalities in their own right, they do not have official boundaries, and the United States Census Bureau does not collect statistics for them (unless, unlike Poyntelle, they are census-designated places). In spite of this, because of strong local consensus, as well as the fact that many features are named for the villages they are associated with, it is almost always possible to consistently determine whether a particular feature is in one village or another.

Natural features

Notable natural features located in Poyntelle include Bone Pond[7] (also called Summit Lake [14]), Independent Lake[8] (partially in Orson, Pennsylvania, and formerly known as Independence Pond[15] or Independent Pond,[16] and sometimes known today as Lake Independence[17] or Lake Independent[18]), Lake Lorain[10] (also called Five Mile Pond[19]), and Poyntelle Lake[11] (also called Pointed Pond[20]).In addition, the Equinunk, Riley,[12] and Johnson[9] Creeks run through Poyntelle, and some of the small, unnamed streams that are the source of the West Branch of the Lackawaxen River begin in the southern part of the village (the rest are in Orson).

Independent Lake, Bone Pond, and Lake Lorain are three of the four sources of the East Branch of the Lackawanna River[21] (the fourth being Dunn Pond,[22] or Dunns Lake,[23] in East Ararat, Pennsylvania). Lake Lorain has the highest elevation of any lake in Wayne County, hence the alternate name "Summit Lake."[24] Poyntelle Lake feeds into the Equinunk.[25] Like most of the lakes in Preston Township, all of Poyntelle's are fed by natural springs on their lake bottoms.[26]

Roads and intersections

See also: Pennsylvania State Route System § Location Referencing System

Poyntelle is located along Crosstown Highway, which is entirely concurrent with PA-370 (PA-370). Besides Crosstown, there are two other state routes in the village, Cribbs Road (PA-4031[27]), which connects to Crosstown, and South Preston Road (PA-4033[27]). All three of these are paved.

There are also eight township roads in Poyntelle. Three of them are entirely located within the village: Czapnik Road (designated Township Road 571, or T571[28]), which connects to both Cribbs and South Preston; Poyntelle Road (T722[28]), which connects to Crosstown, Cribbs, and South Preston; and Lake Lorain Road (T729;[28] referred to as "Lorain Road" on the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Orson Quadrangle topographic map, which includes Poyntelle[29]), which connects to just Crosstown. The other five cross into other villages: Paluch Road (T567;[28] the USGS map says "Poluch Road"[29]), which connects to Cribbs; Clark Road (T579[28]), which connects to Crosstown; Dix Road (T594;[28] referred to as "North Road" on the PennDOT General Highway Map for Wayne County[27]), which connects to Paluch; Spruce Lake Road (T688[28]), which connects to Crosstown and Clark; and O & W Road (T727;[28] the USGS map says "Old State Road"[29]), which connects to Cribbs and Poyntelle. Like many township roads in the state, Paluch, Czapnik, Clark, Dix, Spruce Lake, Poyntelle, O & W, and Lake Lorain are all unpaved.

Finally, there are seven officially-named (i.e., their names may be used in addresses) private roads in the community, all of which fall entirely within its boundaries. They are Bone Pond Lane, which connects to just Crosstown; Forest Road; Hemlock Lane, which connects to just Crosstown; Lake Drive, which connects to Forest; Lakehill Road, which connects to Clark, Forest, and Lake; Lakeside Drive, which connects to Spruce Lake, Forest, and Lake; and Spruce Road, which does not connect to any of the others. All of these are unpaved.

Nearest communities

References

1. "District Magistrate". Wayne County, PA. Wayne County Courthouse. 2014. Archived from the original on 27 November 2014. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
2. Ham, Thomas J. (1995) [1905 - 1907]. Fluhr, George J. (ed.). The Nomenclature of Wayne: A History of Wayne County, PA (Compiled from articles originally published in the Honesdale Citizen.). Honesdale, PA: Wayne County Historical Society (published 2003). p. 49.
3. "Look up a ZIP Code^TM". USPS.COM. USPS. 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
4. "US Postal Code Boundaries". Google. Google Maps. 3 February 2014. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
5. "Poyntelle". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. 2 August 1979. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
6. U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000. "Census Demographic Profiles, Preston Township" (PDF). CenStats Databases. Retrieved 2009-01-31.
7. "Bone Pond". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. 2 August 1979. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
8. "Independent Lake". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. 2 August 1979. Retrieved 4 November 2014.
9. "Johnson Creek". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. 2 August 1979. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
10. "Lake Lorain". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. 2 August 1979. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
11. "Poyntelle Lake". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. 2 August 1979. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
12. "Riley Creek". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. 2 August 1979. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
13. Camp Westmont, Inc. "Camp Westmont". Camp Westmont. NewtekCamps.com. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
14. Water Supply Commission of Pennsylvania (1917). Water Resource Inventory Report (Report). 4. Wm. Stanley Ray, State Printer. p. 29. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
15. Goodrich, Phineas G. (1992) [1880]. History of Wayne County. Baltimore: Gateway Press, Inc. p. 239.
16. Water Supply Commission of Pennsylvania. p. 90.
17. Camp Westmont, Inc. "Camp Map". Camp Westmont. NewtekCamps.com. Retrieved 10 November 2014.
18. "Map". Independent Lake Camp. 1.I.L., Inc. 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
19. Water Supply Commission of Pennsylvania. p. 65.
20. White, Israel Charles; Dolph, John M. (1881). The Geology of Susquehanna County and Wayne County (Report). 23. Board of Commissioners for the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania. p. 23. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
21. McGurl, Bernard (2002). Arthur Popp (ed.). The Lackawanna River Guide (PDF) (Report). Daniel Townsend, PhD, Len Gorney, Dominic Totaro, Jack McDonough, Pamela Lomax, Deilsie Heath Kulesa (2 ed.). The Lackawanna River Corridor Association. p. 1. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
22. "Dunn Pond". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. 2 August 1979. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
23. Water Supply Commission of Pennsylvania. p. 57.
24. Pennsylvania State Commissioners of Fisheries (1897). Report of the State Commissioners of Fisheries. Harrisburg: Clarence M. Busch. p. 275. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
25. Pennsylvania State Commissioners of Fisheries. p. 270.
26. Pennsylvania State Commissioners of Fisheries. p. 269.
27. "GENERAL HIGHWAY MAP: WAYNE COUNTY" (PDF). Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 2014. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 November 2011. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
28. "PRESTON: SECOND CLASS TOWNSHIP MAP" (PDF). Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 17 November 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
29. "USGS ENHANCED QUAD: Orson". MyTopo. MyTopo, a Trimble Company. 1992. Retrieved 24 November 2014.