The early Anglo-American settlers had a difficult time dealing with raids from Native Americans.

The English defeated the French in the war and took over their territories in North America east of the Mississippi River.

When the Pennsylvania Turnpike was built, this interstate toll road became the main highway through Bedford County.

The story of the Lost Children of the Alleghenies originates from Blue Knob State Park in the county.

[5] It has a humid continental climate (Dfa/Dfb) and average monthly temperatures in Bedford borough range from 28.1 °F in January to 72.0 °F in July.

[6] Bedford County is one of the 423 counties served by the Appalachian Regional Commission,[7] and it is identified as part of "Greater Appalachia" by Colin Woodard in his book American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America.

[8] Bedford County is situated along the western border of the Ridge and Valley physiographic province, which is characterized by folded and faulted sedimentary rocks of early to middle Paleozoic age.

[9] The stratigraphic record of sedimentary rocks within the county spans from the Cambrian Warrior Formation to the Pennsylvanian Conemaugh Group (in the Broad Top area).

The primary mountains within the county (From west to east: Wills, Evitts, Dunning, and Tussey mountains) extend from the southern border with Maryland to the northeast into Blair County, and are held up by the Silurian Tuscarora Formation, made of quartz sandstone and conglomerate.

Chestnut Ridge is a broad anticline held up by the Devonian Ridgeley Member of the Old Port Formation, also made of sandstone and conglomerate.

Several limestone quarries exist in Bedford County, most of which are owned and operated by New Enterprise Stone and Lime Company.

[12] Natural gas fields and storage areas exist in southeastern Bedford County, primarily within folded Devonian rocks south of Breezewood.

Another deep gas field exists in the vicinity of Blue Knob on the border with Blair County to the north.

[13] Bedford County is overwhelmingly Republican, with that party winning the vote of nearly all presidential elections, recently by great margins.

Pennsylvania resident students may also attend any of the Commonwealth's 13 public cyber charter schools which provide instruction via computers and the Internet.

Under Pennsylvania law, there are four types of incorporated municipalities: cities, boroughs, townships, and, in only one case (Bloomsburg, Columbia County), towns.