The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum features an authentically recreated lumber camp from the turn of the 20th century. The camp was constructed after the Visitor’s Center, as the second phase of the museum complex. It was dedicated in 1972. Continuous improvements and additions have brought other buildings and features, such as the holding pond and birch still.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE COLLECTION
The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum documents the history of lumbering and land use in the Commonwealth. Our collections are diverse in size and scope, ranging from CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) membership pins to steam powered locomotives and everything in-between. We have a wide variety of logging equipment and tools, both hand powered and mechanized, along with clothing, cook ware, personal implements and the like. We also feature forest fire fighting gear, art, all types of documentary artifacts and a collection related to Smokey the Bear! Here are just a few examples of the types of objects you will see during a visit to the Lumber Museum.
WOOD ON GLASS
Wood on Glass was an exhibition originally commissioned by the PHMC (Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission) in 2011 featuring the work of photographer William T. Clarke. Clarke was a professional photographer from Rochester, NY who worked in the counties of North Central PA from about 1890 to 1917. His work documented the lifestyle of the area’s loggers and the transformation of the forest during this period. Part of the exhibition, shown here, was displayed at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum during the summer of 2012. The exhibition is currently on tour, with stops throughout various museums, state parks and other cultural organizations in the Lumber Heritage Region. Some of the larger photographs, and possibly the entire exhibition, will have a permanent home at the Lumber Museum.
“Wood on Glass” is managed by the Lumber Heritage Region. For more information about the LHR or the exhibition, please visit their website: http://www.lumberheritage.org/Clarke.htm
CCC CHESTNUT CABIN
The Civilian Conservation Corps or “CCC” was started in by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 as part of his New Deal Program, designed to help ease the economic suffering of the Great Depression. At the time, approximately 15 million Americans, roughly one out of every four workers, were unemployed. The prosperity of the 1920s had given way to a myriad of problems such as widespread soil erosion, the threat of forest fires and the deforestation of millions of acres of land across the nation. The CCC put young men to work to solve these problems. Organized and operated by the United States Army, the CCC features approximately 4,000 work spread across the nation’s then 48 states. Pennsylvania had 114 camps employing approximately 190,000 men. This was the second highest level in the country, second only to California. The program lasted through 1942, when all efforts shifted to our entry into World War II. There were several camps locally, including one at the Dyer Farm in Potter County. Our chestnut cabin was built on that site in 1935. Slated for demolition decades later, it was painstakingly dismantled and reconstructed at the Lumber Museum in 1992. The commemorative statue was purchased by the Lumber Museum Associates in dedicated n 2012.