BEAR MEADOWS
An Attractive Bit 'of. Nature Near
College.
Regarding the Bear Meadows, an
interesting bit of wild nature in our
neighborhood, the following article,
written by Dr. Buckhout about
twenty years ago may serve to give
a good idea of its former state, but
as to its present condition the results
are what might have been antici
pated. Commercialism has done
its work and left its trail of con
sequences.
Now that the state has accquired
the property along with the region
about it, we may expect that it may
be slowly restored to its pristine con
dition. This may- take many years,
but it is much more probable and
will require less of artificial aid than
will be the case in the surrounding
mountain lands, since there will be a
measure of protection from fire, that
greatest obstacle in any reforesting.
. "To the many who in times past
have visited the "Bear Meadows,"
in Center County, the announcement
that a lumber company has begun
operations there will come with a
feeling of genuine regret. The isola
tion -by which the meadows have
been preserved so long has been
overcome at last, and it is now only
a question of time when they will be
despoiled of their' chief attraction,
the trees, and-it-is to be feared, left
as barren and uninviting as modern
lumbering methods can make them.
The place is unique, and has its like
nowhere else in this region, though
common enough elsewhere; and
from time immemorial has been a
favorite resort of hunters, fishermen,
and others, who have found a spe
cial attraction in its curious peat bog,
whose treacherous surface, shaking
like jelly, has mired' many a ven
turesome explorer, and about whose
margins- pitcher plants and cran
beiriei;' with' many less conspicuOus
plants, - grow in - profusion. - Various
THE STATE COLLEGIAN
orchids and ferns, particularly north
ern' forms, found- a shelter here.
But the crowning glory lay in the
fringe of noble spruces, black and
an occasional balsam spruce, which
reached a great- size, and because of
their beautiful symmetry and color
always attracted attention. Various
other trees are especially fine,
notably the so-called tulip poplar
(Liriodendron), and any one who
was ever rash enough to try a short
cut through the laurel (rhOdoden
dron) generally paid for it both in
time and temper, and was made to
declare that it was a little thicker and
worse tangled than any he had ever
tried before. Here were the favorite
places for bear pens, and probably
every fall and winter since the settle
ment of Penn's valley, bears have
been caught in these traps set in the
raurel thickets. On the outskirts
and hillikies occur the usual trees of
the region—the oaks, particularly
the chestnut oak,
, pitch pine, etc.
Parties,coming here to hunt and fish
were wont to make free use of
everything which nature had so
14yishly produced, and which
seemed to have no owner and no
value. If huts were_ needed, es
pecially in summer, they were made
of huge plates, of bark peeled from
the standing spruces, and half hid
den by the dark green of their living
comrades, many blighted, spiry
trunks could be seen, silent witnesses
accentuating the barbarity of des
truction. Here, too, in time past
came the shingle maker when he
wanted some extra good hand
shaved pine shingles; and whenever
a farmer needed a particularly neat,
long, straight stick for any purpose,
a trip to the "meadows" was gen
erally undertaken to get it. Per
haps the fascination and air of
mystery about the place had more
to do with it than the special ex
cellence, of the timber; for such a
trip was a.promise of a day's fishing
after harvest, a something held in
anticipation by many people, where
in distance lends its usual enchant-
.."The Indians were reputed to
have come here for this and that,
and the dark waters of the little
stream charged with organic matter
have been thought to favor the curi
ous idea that the meadows held
some peculiar mineral wealth. Many
of the so-called. 'coal' mines .
, east
of the Alleghanies have been opened
hereabouts, commonly in the lower
silurian shales, which, as they crop
out below the meadows, are strange..
ly deceptive in their blackneSs.
Specimens of them have several
times been sent to the writer, and
they have always come from near
the 'Bear Meadows,' evidently a
point much in their favor. Upon
one visit to a 'mine' which had 'al
most reached the coal,' some fine
specimens of pyrites were shown,
which the miner remarked, 'were
almost too bright for iron, and not
quite the right color for copper, but
mightn't they be brass ?"
"Witn the extension of the Lewis
burg and Tyrone railroad through
the seven mountains and into and
through Penn's Valley, considerable
timber land bef6re inaccessible has
• .‘
been opened to a market. That
about the Bear Meadows has
. • .1
remained untouched, however, until
now. Recently some 5,000 acres,
in which the meadows are included,
have been secured by a lumber' com
pany, who are now making prepara
tions to cut from it. A tramway is
being constructed to it, and active
lumbering will soon begin. The
actual amount of timber is not great,
for some parts have none at all and
others a very scanty growth of any
thing usable, and much of it is past
its prime, and should have been cut
long ago. The regret that this'iso
lated spot has at length been invaded
is rather _for _the fear that wholesale
cutting will be followed by neglect,
and we shall - have - another, case ad