magnifier
Image
magbottom
 
Hunters in the Black Forest near Slate Run, PA, circa 1900.
Close Window

Hunters with guns pose with their dead deer and a dead bear, which hang from a large branch of a tree that has been made into a rack.

Credit: Pennsylvania State Archives

Named for the dense and dark coniferous forests that covered the region, the Black Forest of northern Pennsylvania was once a hunters" paradise. A hundred years of unrestrained hunting, however, took its toll. Moose were extinct by the early 1800s, elk by 1870s, and the Pennsylvania "Big Deer" (Odocoileus americanus borealis Miller)–mature stags weighing well over 300 pounds– by the early 1900s.

Back to Top