 Lock Haven was laid out as a town in 1833 , and it became the county seat in 1839 , when the county was created out of parts of Lycoming and Centre counties . Incorporated as a borough in 1840 and as a city in 1870 , Lock Haven prospered in the 19th century largely because of timber and transportation . The forests of Clinton County and counties upriver held a huge supply of white pine and hemlock as well as oak , ash , maple , <unk> , cherry , beech , and <unk> . The wood was used locally for such things as frame houses , shingles , canal boats , and wooden bridges , and whole logs were floated to Chesapeake Bay and on to Baltimore , to make <unk> for ships . <unk> driving and log rafting , competing forms of transporting logs to sawmills , began along the West Branch around 1800 . By 1830 , slightly before the founding of the town , the lumber industry was well established . 
