The Pennsylvania Guide, compiled by the Writers' Program of the Works Progress Administration, described Laporte in 1940 as:[7]a mountain resort founded in 1847 and named for John Laporte, Surveyor General of Pennsylvania, [and] formerly a lumbering and tannery center.

Among the deeds preserved in the courthouse here is one recorded in 1864, which transfers the ownership of a large tract of land on a mountain plateau four miles west of Laporte to 'Almighty God.'

The plateau was once the site of the Celestia Community of Adventists, founded in 1853 by Peter Armstrong and his wife.

A small group of Adventists, interested in Armstrong's plan for communalism in preparation for the expected coming of the Lord, maintained the experiment for several years.

Forced by hardships and the dissatisfactions of other members to abandon it, Armstrong returned to Philadelphia, after deeding the property to the Lord.

LaPorte has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), with warm summers and cold, snowy winters.