places where you won't be able to wipe the wag off your dog's tail - Cooksburg PA
Pennsylvania’s white pine and Eastern hemlock forests were the nation’s most valuable resource in the mid-1800s. The timber built America and the bark tanned leather. Two of the largest sawmills in the world operated in the Pennsylvania woods. So much pine and hemlock were harvested the mountainsides were stripped bare. When the woods were depleted, towns would disappear and new ones spring up over the next mountain. The pine and hemlock never came back. The forests that cover northern Pennsylvania today are almost exclusively hardwood forests.
John Cook was the first permanent American settler on the Clarion River. He arrrived in 1826 to investigate the feasability of building a Pennsylvania canal to compete with the new Erie Canal in New York. Instead, he bought 765 acres of land, built a cabin and started operating a water-driven sawmill. the Cook family lumber empire prospered for the next century but the forest cathedral of stately hemlock and white pines lying just outside their back door was so impressive it was never cut. The temptation was great - just four of the giants would provide enough lumber to build a six-room house.
John Cook was the first permanent American settler on the Clarion River. He arrrived in 1826 to investigate the feasability of building a Pennsylvania canal to compete with the new Erie Canal in New York. Instead, he bought 765 acres of land, built a cabin and started operating a water-driven sawmill. the Cook family lumber empire prospered for the next century but the forest cathedral of stately hemlock and white pines lying just outside their back door was so impressive it was never cut. The temptation was great - just four of the giants would provide enough lumber to build a six-room house.
By the 1920s this was one of the last areas of surviving old growth timber east of the Mississippi River. The Cook Forest Association raised over $200,000 with the mission that “...this Wood will become a forest monument, like those of the West, known not only in Pennsylvania, but throughout the Country. The East possesses few scenes more impressive than this magnificent area of primeval white pine, surrounded by giant hemlocks and hardwoods.” More than 6,000 acres were purchased as a state park and in 1969 Cook Forest was designated a National Natural Landmark.
Nearly 30 miles of trails climb through the ancient forest. Your dog is welcome throughout, including some six tranquil miles under the 300-year old trees of the Forest Cathedral. The star trail is the easy-going 1.2-mile Longfellow Trail that visits the heart of thetallest eastern white pinelands in the Northeastern United States. One tops out at 183 foot - the tallest in the Northeast, although it is not marked. Canine hiking loops can be crafted with the rolling Rhodedendron Trail and the flat Toms Run Trail that skirts a picturesque stream. If your cautious dog balks at crossing the swinging bridge connecting the trails, it is an easy scamper through the water.
Hearty canine hikers should head to the Clarion River and begin a one-mile uphill climb to the Seneca Point Fire Tower passing through a patch of of old growth forest ripped asunder by a 1976 tornado as you travel. A side path near the trailhead leads to a hemlock-draped sulfur spring known as the old Mineral Spring. One hemlock here has been documented as the talles found in the Northeast. In Victorian days this trail was lighted by natural gas lights. At the top, your dog can climb the open steps of the 80-foot fire tower and scan the treetops along the Clarion River.
A visit to the Swamp Area takes your dog through forests of ancient red and white oaks, red maples and black cherry, some of which surpass 280 years of age. A beloved tradition in Cook Forest are the rental cabins scattered around the hills that are ideals base camps for exploring the big trees. Many will welcome your dog.
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