"The early pioneers were farmers who thought that the forests were a nuisance. The clearing of the forest lands for farms was a difficult matter. Trees had to be chopped down, cut into suitable lengths, drawn to the log pile, stacked and then burned when dry. Early legends of the county recall that humus was so burned out of the soil from logging fires that the soil was not and has not been fertile since that time. Plowing and cultivating around the stumps required patience. Farmers either had to wait a long time until the stumps were so decayed they could be easily removed or had to dig out the stumps soon after cutting by means of the grup-hoe, stump lever and a team of oxen or horses. Practically all the pioneer buildings were constructed of either logs squared to fit or of logs rolled into place with intervening cracks chinked by rails, moss, straw and mud. For many years the construction of crude cabins and barns was the only practical use the settlers made of the forest.
As soon as cities began to develop "down the river" there was an urgent need for lumber in the form of boards, planks and squared timbers that in those days took the place of iron and steel in modern construction. As late as 1881 when the McKean County Court House was built, the contract used great beams, some of then eighteen inches square and forty feet of more in length as sills. plates and rafters.
It was pointed out by one author about this topic saying, "In the spring and fall such large quantities of these great pine trees were put afloat on the river in rafts that the perils of navigation were great, as the rafts were compelled to run both day and night to get to market before a summer drought or a winter freeze tied them up for the rest of the season. Small rafts were made at Coudersport and Canoe Place. These were tied together at Larabee and then again at Warren."
Another writer at Franklin gave an account of a still different use of these rafts. He stated, "It was not an unusual thing to see an Olean raft on the river with a team of horses, a dog, a girl cooking, and a mother spinning flax. These were migrants going to Ohio or Indiana."
The men following the lumber business in the rafting
days were a vigorous and hardy lot, capable of enduring any amount of hard
work and exposure to the dangers of the forest and the river. After
the rafts were sold down the river the men walked the greater part of the
way home. The last stage of the return trip for the men who lived
in the eastern part of the country was to walk from Kane to Port Allegany,
a distance of forty miles, which was made in one day.
The second period of the lumber
industry might well be called the sawmill and hemlock era. The coming
of the railroads made it possible to saw the logs locally and then ship
the lumber to market by branch and main line railroads. As time passed
it became evident that there would be experts who declared that "hemlock
is worthless" that were greatly mistaken. The products of the great
hemlock forest were more valuable than the pine had been. Not only
was there much more hemlock lumber, but there was also the bark which was
used for tanning of leather.
In the year 1888 records show
that Potter and McKean Counties yielded respectively 150 million and 225
million board feet of hemlock lumber. Many hemlock trees in McKean
County not only furnished more than a thousand board feet of lumber each,
but also provided bark stripped from up to hundred fifty feet of their
length. One of the earliest great industries in Port Allegany was
the Root and Keating Tannery, which employed more than one hundred men.
Annually a thousand acres of hemlock timber was denuded of bark to supply
the needed product to properly tan the thousands of sides of leather.
Numerous sawmills existed in the county. If anyone should explore
the banks of the Allegheny River from Burtville on the Potter County line
to New York State at Bullis Mills, a distance of about 22 miles, it is
likely that the remains of many sawmills would be discovered. As
one crosses the same stream at Larabee, a glance upstream will show the
poles in the middle of the river that enabled the men to sort the loose
logs being run down the river in the spring to the mills of the respective
owners.
Lumbering operations in the
county took place the twelve year period from 1911 to 1923 when the Central
Pennsylvania Lumber company took the timber from 26,00 acres situated in
Norwich Township. A great sawmill ran night and day in the village
of Norwich. A stave factory was busy at Betula, While large chemical
factory was located at Keystone. At one time the community had a
population greater that 3,000 people with stores, hotels, movies, professional
services and other activities of a well organized community. Now
there are not more than two dozen families in the whole neighborhood.
During a seventy year period
the pine and the hemlock forests were completely depleted. In some
areas small stands of hardwood were left. The former pine and hemlock
lands became reforested with hardwood seedlings so that the forest now
covers 75 percent of the county consisting mainly of hardwood trees.
Once again there are many sawmills producing excellent hardwood lumber.
During World War I there was
a great demand for chemicals that could be obtained only by processing
hardwoods. To meet this urgent need many wood alcohol and acetate
plants were erected in the county, often in wooded and remote areas.
Large timber management companies
presently own thousands of acres of hardwood forest lands in the county.
These forests are being professionally managed by selective cutting and
other forestry practices. Paper wood is a very big item in McKean
County today. International Paper Company, formerly Hammermill Paper
Company, takes out a tremendous amount of paper wood and ships it to the
processing plant in Erie."
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