This cache is part of the 25 cache Pennsylvania State Parks America250PA GeoTrail. Have fun exploring and discovering Pennsylvania's history!
Imagine standing in this spot over 120 years ago…
In the late 1800s, the area that would become Lyman Run State Park was still a vast wilderness, relatively untouched by the logging industry booming throughout the Commonwealth. That was about to change. Hemlock trees, like the ones surrounding you right now, were becoming a hot commodity.
The forests began to rumble with the clangs and smells of active railroads. In 1905, Frank and Charles Goodyear constructed a large
lumber camp and engine terminal in the area that currently is the park day use area, tucked between the beach and the Daggett campground. Locomotives used this camp as a base to haul 100 train cars of lumber a day out of Lyman Run to the sawmill in Galeton. By 1910, Galeton was a bustling city of nearly 4000 people with a sawmill, tannery, and wood chemical plant. At night, trains hauled hemlock bark (just like the trees around you) to leather tanneries in Galeton, Westfield, and Elkland. Today, hikers in the park walk on the grades of the old railroads. If you continue along this trail, and wade across Lyman Run, the next portion of the trail follows one of those Historic grades. How many trains do you hear in this spot today?
In addition to providing the wooden bones of the industrial revolution, Lyman Run State Park has ties to an even earlier revolution – the Revolutionary War. The park is named for Major Isaac Lyman, an American Revolutionary War soldier believed to be the second permanent settler in Potter County. In 1809, Lyman built his home east of what is now Coudersport, near the present-day UPMC Cole Hospital.
Along with being a veteran of the American Revolution, Issac Lyman and his family were Potter County leaders. Lyman built the first sawmill and first gristmill in Potter County near his home. He also opened the first tavern and served as the region’s first postmaster. His son, Harry Lyman, became one of the first doctors in the county. Isaac’s stepdaughter, Lucretia Spafford, together with her husband, established the Cherry Springs tavern, a local historic landmark.
Now, imagine it’s 1913. The hills are stripped of all marketable timber. That's just 8 years after establishing the Goodyear lumber camp at Lyman Run. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania purchased the land around Lyman Run soon after. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) built Camp S-88 in the area that currently is the park maintenance area, at the upstream end of the lake. The young men of the camp worked on many projects, focusing on forestry improvements and road construction efforts. As World War II was underway, the former CCC camp buildings housed migrant farm workers and served as a German P.O.W. camp. This is slightly uncommon, as CCC camps were d
esigned to be temporary structures demolished at the close of camp.
Prior to the construction of Lyman Run Dam in 1951, and the opening of Lyman Run State Park in 1955, this was an active industrial area. These days, the land tells a different story. Once again visitors, are met with the peaceful silence of a re-wilded landscape. People relax and unwind in the park, reconnecting to the natural world through outdoor recreation.
For more information about this state park and its amenities please visit the website: Lyman Run State Park | Department of Conservation and Natural Resources| Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
