Endeavor's Neat Numbers

5,500

Cameron County's population is now at about 5,500. Emporium Borough is still the most populous municipality at 2,652 (as of 2000), followed closely by Shippen Township at 2,495. Far down the scale are the townships of Portage (258), Lumber (241), Gibson (222), Grove (129) and Driftwood Borough (103).

20

Northcentral Pennsylvania's fall foliage attracts a rising number of tourists. Foliage tourism is up by about 20 percent over the past three years, say state tourism officials.

This year, organized tour groups from Canada, Cleveland and downstate Pennsylvania have passed through the region.

4,500

Many people have never seen one, but there are an estimated 4,500 bobcats in Pennsylvania.

The sly animals prefer rocky out-croppings and avoid contact with their main predator, man. Bobcat hunting and trapping are controlled by permit. The Game Commission reports an average annual kill of 185 over the past two years.

150

Students at the Chestnut Street Elementary School in Kane used 150 pounds of clay to produce a life-sized sculpture depicting a young boy kneeling down to count the rings on a black cherry tree stump. The theme was "Kane: Black Cherry Capital of the World." Each of the more than 500 students at the school had a hand in creating it.

1,126

You may have seen some big pumpkins around these parts in recent weeks, but none of them can top this one: a massive specimen weighing 1,126 pounds won the Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off last weekend in Altoona. Gerry Checkon of North Cambria grew the monster pumpkin, which dwarfed in comparison to her husband Larry's world-record 1,468-pounder last year. However, that record is going down this year. A Rhode Island farmer entered a pumpkin weighing 1,502 pounds in a contest there.

83

An 83-acre site off U.S. Rt. 219, close to the Holiday Inn Express, has been targeted for a new cultural/convention center to serve the greater DuBois area.

The city-owned property behind Roadside Cafe and Creamery was formerly used as a solid waste dump. Initial plans call for using only a portion of the land for the center itself, with the remainder to be offered to private interests who might build hotels or restaurants. It's all part of a $19.9-million plan that would be funded in part by a $15 million state grant.

2

Americans are spending a higher proportion of their income on housing. The figure was 21 percent in 2005, up from 19 percent the previous year.

The median home value has risen from 32 percent from 2000 to 2005, to $167,500. Home ownership rates are also rising: some 68.7 percent of American adults owned homes as of 2005.

1.65B

Popular on-line video service, Youtube, has been bought by Internet powerhouse Google for $1.65 billion. In the last year, Google has purchased Writely, an on-line word processor, and has also teamed with on-line personal site, MySpace, in an attempt to bring more visitors to the two websites.