Slate Run in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania — The American Northeast (Mid-Atlantic)
Slate Run
An Industrious Past
| | Pine Creek Rail Trail | |
Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 28, 2013
1. Slate Run Marker
Far from here though, men had big ideas. The Industrial Revolution was beginning.
In 1881, James B. Weed brought his big idea to Slate Run. He schemed to purchase the nearby Black Forest and turn its timber into cash. He built a powerful, steam driven sawmill and railroad, and by 1910 the magnificent Black Forest stood no longer.
Weed sold what was the Black Forest, some 15,000 acres, to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for pennies per acre. It was the beginning of a long journey back...
(photo caption)
A vast, dense and exceptionally dark forest once existed here. Known as the Black Forest, it is said that sunlight barely penetrated her canopy.
Erected by Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Horticulture & Forestry • Industry & Commerce • Railroads & Streetcars • Settlements & Settlers. A significant historical year for this entry is 1795.
Location.
this page online
Regionally, this marker is in the Pennsylvania Wilds and in the Susquehanna Valley. It is also in the American Northeast, in the Mid-Atlantic, in Appalachia, and specifically in Northern Appalachia. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy and also one of the original Thirteen Colonies.
Other nearby markers. At least 4 other markers are within 17 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Site of Tiadaghton Camp (approx. 10.8 miles away); Tiadaghton (approx. 12½ miles away); The Waterville Bridge (approx. 13.3 miles away); Camp Kline (approx. 16.4 miles away).
Another marker is no longer nearby. Blossburg Coal (was approx. 15.6 miles away but has been replaced with another marker now near it).
Also see . . . Slate Run, Pennsylvania (Wikipedia). Pioneer settler Jacob Tomb and his family established a home, sawmill, and gristmill at the mouth of Slate Run in the 1790s, and others settled nearby along the Pine Creek floodplain. Driving the local economy toward the end of the century was the James B. Weed and Company hemlock sawmill, which operated in Slate Run from 1886 to 1910 and produced up to 100,000 board feet of lumber a day. (Submitted on March 11, 2020, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)
Thomas Tucker Collection
2. Marker detail: The J.B. Weed Sawmill
The J.B. Weed sawmill at Slate Run worked around the clock to produce an average of 80,000 board feet of lumber per day — about 7,000 boards measuring 12 feet long, 12 inches wide, and 1 inch thick.
Thomas Tucker Collection
3. Marker detail: Slate Run Railroads Shay Locomotive #1
Thomas Tucker Collection
4. Marker detail: The last log went through the Slate Run mill on July 28th, 1910
You are standing where the mill once stood.
Photographed by Cosmos Mariner, August 28, 2013
5. Slate Run Trailhead (park here to access marker)
Credits. This page was last revised on March 11, 2020. It was originally submitted on March 8, 2020, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 1,146 times since then and 87 times this year. Photos: 1. submitted on March 10, 2020, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. 2, 3, 4, 5. submitted on March 11, 2020, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
