The land on which Colton Point State Park sits was sold to the Commonwealth in the late 19th century for by the Pennsylvania Joint Land and Lumber Company, which had no further use for it. Elsewhere in the gorge the state bought land abandoned by lumber companies, sometimes for less than . These purchases became the Tioga State Forest, which was officially established in 1925. As of 2015 the state forest encompasses , mostly in Tioga County, and surrounds Colton Point State Park to the north, west, and south. Leonard Harrison State Park is on the eastern border of Colton Point. In 1922, Wellsboro lumber baron Leonard Harrison donated his picnic grounds on the eastern rim of the gorge to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which named it "Leonard Harrison State Forest Park".