Cook Forest State Park

History of Cook Forest

When Europeans arrived, the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy used this area as hunting grounds. In 1757, the Proprietary Council of Pennsylvania sent Moravian missionary Christian Frederick Post to convince the Seneca to join the British in the French and Indian War, but the Seneca sided with the French. The English won the war and eventually purchased the land from the Iroquois.

John Cook was the first permanent American settler. He arrived in 1826 to determine the feasibility of building an east to west canal along the Clarion River for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. John purchased 765 acres and settled here with his wife and 10 children in 1828.

At the mouth of Tom's Run, present day Cooksburg, John built his one story cabin and the first of many water-driven sawmills. He worked his mills, logged with oxen, rafted logs to Pittsburgh and also engaged in flatboat building through the years.

John's son, Andrew, bought 36 acres from his father, then gained the rest of his acreage when his father died in 1858. Anthony erected three sawmills, one flouring mill, one planing mill, a boat scaffold, several dwellings and a store. About 1870, he built the Cook Homestead at the corner of land where Route 36 and River Road intersect. Many of the large homes on River Road are still maintained by the Cook Family and descendents. After Anthony’s death, the business was managed under A. Cook Sons Company.

The Cook Forest Association formed in the 1920s to save the few areas of surviving old growth timber. Early pioneers in this effort were M. I. McCreight, Theo Wilson and John Nicholson. The Association, endorsed by national natural resource groups and Governor Gifford Pinchot, raised $200,000.

Publicity such as the following helped raise funds:

"This Wood will become a forest monument, like those of the West, known not only in Pennsylvania, but throughout the Country. The East possesses few scenes more impressive than this magnificent area of primeval white pine, surrounded by giant hemlocks and hardwoods. The venerable splendor of these trees is a heritage for the future of the State. Many of them have lifted their heads to the sunshine of more than two hundred summers and the largest of them were here before the colonization of America..."

Money from the Association helped the Commonwealth purchase 6,055 acres from A. Cook Sons Company in 1927 for $640,000. Cook Forest became the first Pennsylvania State Park acquired to preserve a natural landmark.

Historic Areas

Log Cabin Inn: Cook Forest's environmental learning center is a large log building built in 1934 by the CCC. It is at one end of Longfellow Trail and contains a variety of displays, taxidermy animals and logging tools from early lumbering days.

River Cabins, Indian Cabins, Log Cabin and the Old Contact Station: In the 1930s, the CCC constructed these buildings from salvaged American chestnut killed by the blight. These buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places.

CCC Camp: On March 31, 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The purpose of the CCC was to provide employment and restore our nation's natural resources.

In 1934, CCC Camp SP-2 was built in the present-day River Cabins area along River Road. A typical CCC camp had barracks, a mess hall, bathhouses and other structures. This camp housed 200 enrollees and staff until 1937 when it closed, and the buildings were razed and used to construct CCC Camp SP-6 at Raccoon Creek State Park in Beaver County.

A large wayside interprets CCC Camp SP-2 and is where the camp once stood within the River Picnic Area.

Work of the CCC in Cook Forest still remains. Indian and River cabins were built, trails and roads constructed and forest resources preserved by these hard-working men.

During the nine years of existence, the CCC nationwide employed three million young men and produced conservation work valued at over $1.5 billion!

For more information on the CCC, explore the Civilian Conservation Corps Online Archive.

Memorial Fountain: Built in 1950 on Longfellow Trail, the fountain was dedicated to the original Cook Forest Association. The association was instrumental in raising additional funds needed to purchase the land from the A. Cook Sons Company.

Cook Forest Fire Tower/Seneca Point Overlook: The 80-foot fire tower built in 1929, gave firefighters a 15- to 20-mile view of the area. The tower retired from service in 1966. Periodically, the cab on top of the tower is open during interpretive programs.

American Indians used the sandstone of the area to grind seeds and grains. Look for unnatural indentations in the stone used for these 'Indian mills.'

Cobbtown and Bracket Dams: A walk along the four miles of Tom's Run, starting at Picnic Pavilion #2, can take you back to the hectic, rowdy days of the 1800s logging boom. Although time and nature have erased much of the past, a keen-eyed observer can still find clues.

Stone and earthen foundations of bracket dams can be found along the banks of Tom's Run. Bracket dams created an artificial flood to raise the water level for floating logs to the Clarion River. Three miles up Tom's Run are the scant remains of Cobbtown, one of many temporary logging boomtowns.

Seneca Trail Mineral Springs: Along Seneca Trail, about 0.25 mile from the PA 36 entrance at Cooksburg, little remains of the natural mineral springs that produced waters with white sulfur and iron. These springs were popular in the early 1900s. A boardwalk fringed by gaslights was lit 24 hours a day while visitors bathed and drank the spring waters believed to have curative powers.

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