Rare Photos Of Local Lumber Era On Display Saturday

Members of the public are welcome to attend a program on the region’s lumbering era on Saturday, Sept. 8, at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum in Potter County. A special collection of striking photographs taken in the region when timber-cutting and population were at their peaks is being spotlighted by Mike Wennin, director of the Pennsylvania Lumber Heritage Region. The program starts at noon.

Wennin will display and discuss the exhibit of 19th century photos by William T. Clarke showing logging operations in northcentral Pennsylvania. The glass negatives were discovered on a farm in the Finger Lakes a few years ago and photographs were acquired by the Lumber Heritage Region to give people who live where these photos were taken a chance to see them. “This will probably be the only opportunity to see the entire exhibit in one place,” Wennin said.

Clarke’s exceptionally clear images cover everything from logging camps to tree-felling tell the story of lumbering and its vast transformation of the region from 1890 through 1917. Pennsylvania Lumber Museum is located across from Denton Hill State Park/Ski Denton on Rt. 6, between Sweden Valley and Galeton.