Welcome to Slippery Rock!

We're glad to have you join us for a day, four-years or a lifetime. Slippery Rock is a safe and friendly community located about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh. Two major interstates, I-79 and I-80 intersect about seven miles north of the borough, so it's easy to reach us from the north, south, east or west.

Slippery Rock is a name known around the world. It's the name of the university we host, a creek and our village. There are a lot of legends about how Slippery Rock got its name. Legend has it that in colonial times, soldiers were being chased by the local Seneca Indians. The troops, wearing heavy boots, were able to cross the creek, but the Indians, wearing moccasins, slipped on the rocks in the creek bed. They named the creek Wechachochapohka - a slippery rock. Some versions of the story have George Washington as the object of the Indians' pursuit. While a young Washington did visit the area, (we are near the George Washington Trail), his place in the story is highly suspect. As is the rumor that Elvis' "everybody let's ROCK" was inspired by a visit.
