While the general area has seen some growth as a result of this tourist activity, the borough proper has suffered several setbacks in recent years including the closure of an Evenflo plant that was a major employer and a 2002 fire that leveled an entire block of the borough's downtown area.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the borough has a total area of 1.3 square miles (3.4 km2), all land.

The Sherman Memorial Lighthouse, located on a 22.5-acre island in the Allegheny River, about 60 miles southeast of Erie.

It is finished and decorated as a showcase for the Sherman family memorabilia and to display a collection of more than 280 lighthouse replicas.

The 25-foot-tall aluminum and glass lantern room is equipped with the kind of beacon that a small regional airport would use.

Tionesta was the childhood home of Howard Zahniser, who became a conservationist and eventually the executive director of The Wilderness Society in Washington, D.C., and in that capacity wrote the Wilderness Act of 1964, which today permanently preserves from all forms of development more than 111 million acres of federal public lands all across America.

[15][16] Tionesta was the hometown of Congressional Medal of Honor recipient O. O. Spence, killed during the Indian Campaign in 1876.