Dustin Elder
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Green Gold: ‘The Prince of Loggers,’ Bellefonte’s John Ardell Jr., Was a Keystone of Pennsylvania’s Timber Market
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Covering 90 percent of Pennsylvania’s nearly 30 million acres, forests served as “green gold” to her early colonists. Timber provided stability to Pennsylvania’s economy, just as it did for the structures it built. As America grew, timber fueled progress. The logging boom of the 1800s was at the heart of America’s industrial revolution, and the…
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The Journey of James Potter: A British Officer Ascends Mt. Nittany and Spots a Fertile Valley Below
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This Local Historia column appears in the April 2021 issue of Town&Gown. “My God, Thompson, I have discovered an empire!” From his perch at the peak of McBride’s Gap on Mount Nittany, Captain James Potter marveled at the pristine valley that stretched before his company. The company had been traveling for days searching for suitable…