A family member visited a friend out there about 20-25 years ago; he described television commercials encouraging young people to stay in the state.
There had been (and may still be) a trend of people attending college out of state (in the south, mostly), lining up a job there, and never looking back.
It's not the flight to sanity that today's migration is, but the exodus from PA is not new.
Right. What you describe there has been going on for years out in western PA. That region has been cursed with a combination of declining industry and terrible weather — both of which have a way of chasing ambitious young people away.