Best Wings This Side of Bridge, the sign says — an icon for many families vacationing at Bald Eagle State Park, to say nothing of the fiercely loyal citizens of Beech Creek.

We write, of course, of the Beech Creek Hotel, which we recently featured in a page-one spread to celebrate the history of the business — but more importantly, to celebrate the passing of the torch to its fifth generation of local ownership, as Amy Heltman takes over.

Vanishingly few small, local businesses — mom-and-pops, if you will — can continue to survive and thrive in today’s world.

The deck truly is stacked against them: it is no secret that small businesses generally must charge more and have less selection than big box stores, let alone internet giants.

And, yeah — how can a handful of people hope to keep up with global corporations that employ thousands?

Yet, against the odds, many do survive — some, like the Beech Creek Hotel, even in our very community.

106 years.

Think about the history of that. Think about how much the world has changed in the time.

We have reflected on this previously, when Unkel Joe’s Woodshed closed its Lock Haven location last year.

At the time, we wrote this:

“Again, we recognize that it is not always possible to support local businesses as everyones’ wallets get continually more pinched.

But we would ask that those in the region who vote with their wallets remember the consequences of their decisions.

Your favorite store could be next.

Do what you can.”

The Beech Creek Hotel is a shining example of the other side of this coin, as a local business the community has rallied around and kept afloat even as more fast food joints have moved into the area and big box stores have lowered their profit margins in an attempt to squeeze out competition.

Keep it up.

While we have nothing in particular against corporations like Walmart and McDonalds — and certainly we patronize them ourselves sometimes — there is nothing quite like a business with local flair, owned and operated by local people who we know and want to see succeed.

We aren’t cheering for Walmart or McDonalds. They’re useful to consumers, and they do also good in the community both through their donations and through the number of people they employ.

But they exist to benefit shareholders and CEOs, faceless nobodies who have never heard of Lock Haven, Beech Creek or the other places here we call home beyond being lines on a spreadsheet.

They don’t know the names of their customers, of their customers’ families.

Again, that’s not to say that corporations don’t have their place and don’t fill a useful, and convenient, place in our modern society.

But they have their advocates and their lobbyists.

Mom-and-pops have far fewer resources and must make them stretch far further simply to keep their dreams — and the dreams of their family — alive.

So pull up in Beech Creek when you can, and learn why that Best Wings This Side of Bridge sign speaks the truth, and help to keep a local icon alive for another 106 years.

We look forward to one day, many years from now, writing about the next turning of the wheel, when one day the sixth generation takes over.

Until then, keep the wings crisping and the beer glasses clinking.