Peaceful, rural county has alarming reality A change of heart Peaceful, rural county has alarming reality Forest County has highest heart disease death rate in the Pennsylvania. Beer is not sold in dry Tionesta, population 634, the Forest County seat. Neither is there a fast-food restaurant nor a hospital.
Deer outnumber the residents and churches outnumber the industries.
It's no wonder movie siren Sharon Stone in March picked the county as a secluded honeymoon spot. Yet while the county in northwestern Pennsylvania is postcard-pretty, there is something wrong with the picture. A greater percentage of people is dropping dead from heart disease here than in any county in the state. In Forest County, the heart disease death rate from 1992-96 was 198.3 per 100,000 residents, far above the state average of 147.2 deaths per 100,000 residents. The national average was 134.5 deaths per 100,000 residents.