Franklin is known for its three-day autumn festival in October, Applefest, which attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors.

Franklin is located at the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny River, an important site used for centuries by Native Americans.

They had long before developed what became known as the Venango Path, passing from the head of French Creek north to Presque Isle Bay on Lake Erie.

In 1740, Scottish fur trader John Fraser built a trading post here at Venango, the Lenape village.

As tensions increased between France and Great Britain prior to the onset of the French and Indian War (as the North American front of the Seven Years' War was called), the French constructed four forts to control their continued access to the Venango Path and these important waterways.

In December 1753, George Washington, then a 21-year-old major in the Virginia militia, was sent to Fort Le Boeuf to warn the French that they were trespassing on British land and should leave.

The British colonists had repeatedly attacked even neutral tribes, such as the Lenape, who then mostly allied with the French.

In 1787 Andrew Ellicott, who surveyed Washington, D.C., was hired to lay out the town of Franklin, which had developed around the fort.

[12] The team included several of the era's top players, such as: Herman Kerkhoff, Arthur McFarland, Clark Schrontz, Paul Steinberg, Pop Sweet, Eddie Wood, and coach Blondy Wallace.

[13] Among other sporting accomplishments, Franklin Area High School has won two state basketball championships.