The Town of Ricketts 1890-1913

The Town of Ricketts 1890-1913. 23 Years and Over 800 Residents. , The town of Ricketts was a major lumber town named after civil war veteran and Gettysburg hero Colonel Robert Bruce Ricketts of Wilkes-Barre. After the war, Ricketts purchased 65,000 acres of virgin forest land in Sullivan, Wyoming and Luzerne counties. He leased large tracts to the lumber firm of Trexler and Turrell in 1890., The town boomed after the Bowman's Creek Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad was completed through the region in 1893, with lines connecting Ricketts to the town of Lopez and the Ricketts summer estate at Ganoga Lake., Downtown Ricketts, in Forkston Township, Wyoming County, was a commercial and residential center with softwood mills that produced barrels for shipping various grades of products and a mill that produced excelsior (shredded wood) packing material. A company store, railroad station, town hall, and hotel were located here, as well as a Lutheran church, Wyoming County schoolhouse and several homes., Uptown Ricketts, in Colley Township, Sullivan County, was a more industrial lumbering area with a large hardwood mill that produced 75,000 to 125,000 board-feet of lumber daily. In addition to the mill and related structures, the Sullivan County schoolhouse, blacksmith shop, and additional homes were located in uptown Ricketts., Trexler and Turrell built miles of temporary railroad lines into the surrounding forests, utilizing six Heisler, Climax and Shay locomotives to remove timber. By 1910 the town of Ricketts had a population of over 800 men and women, with additional logging crewmen living in bunk-houses along the railroad lines., Mill operations ceased in the summer of 1913 and the town was abandoned. The area is now part of Pennsylvania State Game Lands No. 57 and No. 13. Other Ricketts land holdings became the core for Ricketts Glen State Park.