Canadian Forestry Journal, June, 1918 1741 



The Tragedy of Cross Forks 



Bv Samiel T. Dana, U. S. Forest Service. 



The effects of forest devastation on community development are seen 

 most clearly in the smaller towns in the regions primarily adapted to timber 

 production. Here deserted villages are signposts that too often mark the 

 trail of lumbering operations. As in the mining regions of the West, towns 

 spring up almost overnight, flourish for a few years, until the adjacent timber 

 is cut out, and then sink rapidly to inactivity or even complete extinction. 

 Unlike mining towns, however, there is not the same necessity for their dis- 

 appiearance. Timber is a renewable resource, which can be so handled as to 

 insure continuity of cut and therefore of industry. 



In the mountain counties of Pennsylvania, particularly in the northern 

 part of the State, one comes upon town after town that has declined with the 

 passing of the forest. Run down and deserted houses still standing give an 

 idea of the towns' former prosperity. Six and eight room frame houses with 

 up to half an acre of land can be bought for from $200 to $400. 



Most striking of all, perhaps, is the rise and fall of Cross Fork, in the 

 hills of southeastern Potter County. In the fall of 1893, before lumbering 

 operations started, perhaps five or six families were living on the site where 

 two years later stood a busy town. For some 14 years Cross Fork led a 

 feverish existence while the forest wealth was stripped from the surrounding 

 hills. The life of the town was, of course, the big sawmill, which had a daily 

 capacity of 230,000 board feet and was up to date in every respect. In 189'? 

 a stave mill was established also, and various other minor wood-using indus- 

 tries existed at different times. In its prime, Cross Fork had a population of 

 2,000 or more and was generally known as one of the liveliest, most hustling 

 places in the State. A branch line of the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad 

 was built to the town. Stores of all kinds flourished. There were seven 

 hotels, four churches, a Y. M. C. A. with baths and gymnasium, a large, up- 

 to-date high school, two systems of waterworks, and two electric light systems 



But the prosperity of the town was as short-lived as the timber supply. 

 In the spring of 1909 the big sawmill shut down for good. From then on the 

 population dwindled rapidly. Fires became so frequent that the insurance 

 companies canceled their policies. Five-room frame houses with bath were 

 offered for sale for from $25 to $35 without finding a buyer. In the winter of 

 1912-13 the stave mill also ceased operations, and the next fall railroad service, 

 which for sometime had been limited to' three trains a week, stopped alto- 

 gether. To-day the total population consists of but 60 persons. It it had 

 not been for the State, which bought up the cut-over lands and has under- 

 taken in earnest the work of reconstruction, the town would be as desolate 

 as the surrounding hills. As it is. Cross Fork is now a quiet little hamlet, the 

 merest shadow of its former self and without hope for an industrial and useful 

 future until the timber grows again. 



The cut-over lands of the Lake States tell the same story of temporary 

 prosperity characterized by the rise and fall of mushroom towns. Immense 

 tracts of little value for anything except timber production have been left 

 dotted with deserted villages as the lumber industry devasted them and 

 swept on. Meredith, for example, was once a prosperous town in the north- 

 eastern corner or Clare County, Mich., for which one looks in vain on any 

 modern map. To-day its hotels are in ruins, the town hall has been moved 

 elsewhere, the railroad which connected it with the outside world has been 

 torn up, and its population has dwindled from 500 to 3. 



