PA Lumber Heritage Region

PA History

Government

“Pennsylvania helped build this great nation, now, we are building tourism opportunities and making investments that are attracting visitors and revitalizing our communities.”

 - Governor Ed Rendell

State Mandated Funding 2006:

Lumber Heritage Region, $89,000

· To develop and market a Smethport Mansion District walking tour.

· To create a Civilian Conservation Corps educational video.

· To create new interpretive exhibits at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum Visitor Center.

 

From the Constitution:

 

Article I, Section 27

 

The people have the right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the nautral, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.

 

This amendment, which was adopted in 1972, encompasses two basic principals. First, Pennsylvanians have a right to a decent environment, and second, Pennsylvanian government has a trusteeship responsibility to protect that environment on behalf of future generations.

 

 

 

Approaches to History

 

Materialist

· The jobs that forests lent to industrious immigrants, the integral supplies the forest provided to the railroad, coal, steel, and other industry that helped build a nation.

· Emphasis on the labor and hard work of the people.

 

Consensus

· PA forests were quickly uncovered as the nations new prime lumber grounds.

 

· The burgeoning national market for timber products spurred a vast arena for lumber production within Pennsylvania.

 

· Williamsport transformed into the Lumber Capital of the World.

 

· Helped bring out the railroad boom, when the use of rivers to transport wood decreased.

A group of Woodhicks on a Sunday outing in Tioga County, 1890’s.

Impact of Designation

 

The Lumber Heritage Area has some positives and negatives to it.

 

· The region focuses heavily on the concept of natural tourism, which abandons much of the history of the area. This can be problematic, while visitors may be attracted to the region they fail to understand the history and heritage, which was why the Lumber Heritage Area was designated in the first place.

 

· With any draw that focuses on nature you stand to lose much of what the original attraction was, wilderness and nature. The Lumber Heritage Area prides its self with its rural identity but risks losing it and the open space in it for the sake of commercial tourism.

 

· Locals may stand to gain some economic growth at the cost of tourists, however, locals also stand to lose the most from the heritage area designation. It is the members of the region that will suffer the consequences of making nature a tourist destination.