Pennsylvania once produced more timber than anywhere in the world. That heritage is maintained in the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum on Route 6. Tips on visiting, seasons and location.
At the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum more than 3000 artifacts tell the story of the days more than 100 years ago when the Pennsylvania mountains were the epicenter of the American lumber industry. When the first settlers began pushing across the state it is estimated that 90% of the land was covered with thick stands of white pine, Eastern hemlock and mixed hardwoods - more than 18 million acres in all. By the mid-1800s these trees were AmericaÕs most valuable resource.
Pennsylvania's eastward flowing rivers - the Susquehanna, the Delaware, the Schuylkill - were clogged with rafts of lumber and logs heading to ocean seaports. The timber would build a rapidly expanding America and the bark tanned leather. After the Civil War, Williamsport, in central Pennsylvania became the lumber capital of the world with 29 sawmills alone. Two of the largest sawmills in the world were in this region.
So much pine and hemlock were harvested the mountainsides were stripped bare. When the woods were depleted, towns would disappear and new ones would spring up over the next mountain. By 1920, the seemingly inexhaustible forests were gone. The pine and hemlock never came back. The forests blanketing northern Pennsylvania today are almost exclusively hardwood forests.
The history of the hemlock forests and the colorful heritage of Pennsylvania logging are preserved in the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum. The Visitor Center screens a 12-minute orientation film about logging operations and features models and dioramas on felling trees, life in logging camps and working in sawmills.
The highlight of the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum are the weathered structures of a makeshift lumber camp on the grounds. The Engine House contains a 70-ton 1912 Shay steam-powered locomotive, which could haul timber up a 15-percent grade with ease. Logs were loaded on cars in the Loader Shed. Operations that once required a crew of a dozen men were eventually performed by a stationery boom and steam-powered log loaders, which are on display.
"Woodhicks," as the lumbermen were called, lived and worked the entire logging season in such makeshift camps. Most men had a specific skill within the overall operation: sawyer, teamster, blacksmith, sawfiler. Prior to 1910 the men worked six 11-hour days a week with time off only during extended periods of heavy rain, very seldom for cold or snow. Sundays were spent maintaining needed tools or sharpening personal axes at a grinding wheel exhibited in the filer's shack. Wages ranged from $1.50 to $3.00 a week.
The most important man in camp was the cook. If the food was good the men were willing to work hard. A good cook earned his $3.50 a week. A bunkhouse, a mess hall and a kitchen are recreated at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum. Also on the grounds is a medium-sized sawmill, typical of north-central Pennsylvania, that would churn out 15,000 board feet of lumber every day.
Each year on July 4 the woodhicks would gather to celebrate not only America's birthday but the completion of another year's hard work. The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum version of these celebratory days is the Bark Peelers' Convention featuring sawmill demonstrations, woodhick skills, blacksmithing, log skidding, axe throwing, bark peeling, chopping, basket making and other contests.
The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum is located on Route 6 in north-central Pennsylvania, midway between Galeton and Coudersport. From April through November the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum is open every day except Veterans Day, Columbus Day and Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday. At other times of the year the museum is open "by chance."
