|
Quebec Run Wild Area is a 7,441-acre (3,011 ha) section of Forbes State Forest located in Fayette County, Pennsylvania just north of the Mason–Dixon line and the Pennsylvania border with West Virginia. Situated on the eastern slope of Chestnut Ridge, one of the westernmost ridges in the Appalachian Mountain Range, Quebec Run is heavily forested and contains several miles of maintained, interconnected trail. As is the case with all Pennsylvania state forest wild areas, no development of a permanent nature is permitted “in order to retain the undeveloped character of the area.” Quebec Run is the largest wild area without a road in southwestern Pennsylvania and serves as a destination for various outdoor activities including hiking, mountain biking, and cross-country skiing. Quebec Run Wild Area is one of two wild areas most recently added to the Pennsylvania state forest system in 2004 (the other is Hammersley Wild Area in Susquehannock State Forest). ==History== While surveying the Mason–Dixon line in 1767, the English astronomer George Mason and a team of colonial surveyors ascended Chestnut Ridge and passed within three miles of the southern tip of Quebec Run. Mason described the area in his journal as "a wild of wildes: the laurel overgrown, the rocks gaping to swallow up, over whose deep mouths you may step. The whole is a deep melancholy appearance out of nature.” At this time Quebec Run was blanketed by old-growth forest dominated by American chestnut, eastern hemlock, oak, and maple. Quebec Run Wild Area has since seen extensive logging activity. The area was most recently harvested between 1938 and 1940 by the Summit Lumber Co. of Uniontown. Evidence of this activity lingers to the present day, as seen by the remnants of old logging roads and the presence of brown sawdust piles. The vestiges of a building foundation situated along Mill Run marks the site of a saw mill which was built in the late 1930s or early 1940s. A local legend exists about a group of Confederate soldiers who buried a large cache of gold, allegedly stolen from nearby Union banks during the Civil War, just north of the stream known as Quebec Run. While no evidence has been found to support this story, several excavation sites believed to be attempts to recover the gold still exist and are accessible from Hess Trail.〔〔 Quebec Run Wild Area has been managed as a wild area since 1972〔 〕 but was not officially designated a Pennsylvania state forest wild area until 2004. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Quebec Run Wild Area」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|