Courthouse - Franklin, PA

Reprinted from Nature Photographer magazine

Northwestern Pennsylvania lies in the Allegheny plateau region of the Appalachian mountain range. Here damp, rolling uplands are cut by deep, steep stream valleys. During the Devonian Period, 350 million years ago, stagnant pools of decaying organic sediment formed oil deposits in the loose sandstone and clay.

Wetland oil seeps which had trickled into the Allegheny River had been long known to exist. Generations of Native American inhabitants would frequently dig shallow pits near the shale-rich tributaries of the River, and use the collected oil for medicinal purposes, waterproofing, as well as for barter.

In 1859, Edwin Drake was responsible for the creation of the modern Petroleum Age by drilling a shallow well sixty-nine feet deep in what is now the 7,075 acre Oil Creek State Park. His successful oil rig spawned a huge stampede of wealth-seeking wildcats who furiously competed in the drilling frenzy. Oil derricks by the thousands sprouted from the once virgin forests. Needless to say, environmental preservation and protection issues were essentially nonexistent during the drilling manias of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The environmental pillage was a disaster of the first order, but it yielded, paradoxically, an unintended benefit. If cleared hillside was found dry or free of oil, the ravaged woodland seemed worthless, and much of the abandoned acreage reverted to state ownership since taxes were not paid. These seemingly worthless lands have become the core of the Pennsylvania state forest and parks system.

Today, the Oil Country landscape consists of broadleaf deciduous forest with zones of occasional needleleaf evergreen trees. The resultant patchy mosaic of maples, oaks, birch and white pine delivers colorful and textured seasonal patterns which rival the New England states for Fall foliage intensity. Gone are the hundreds of oil derricks which characterized the region years ago. The Allegheny River once teemed with activity in the transportation of oil products in barrel and barge to Pittsburgh. Such river life, and the railroad traffic alongs its banks have been abandoned to the benefit of the naturalist, the nature photographer and the cyclist in rails-to-trails pathways.

Scores of secondary streams, creeks and runs with accompanying idyllic-named hollows provide an endless supply of subjects. The region's transitional landscape patterns create slopes and drainages which foster unique ecosystems and wildlife habitats. The resultant range of avian, mammalian and wildflower subjects is large throughout all four seasons.