Clearfield County
Clearfield, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Formed March 26, 1804 out of Huntingdon and Lycoming counties. Clear fields, found by early travelers, gave rise to the name. County was important for logging and rafting on the West Branch, 1850-1901. The county seat, Clearfield, was incorporated 1840.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Clearfield County, formed in 1804 from Huntingdon and Lycoming, drew its name from the open 'clear fields' that early travelers found in the wilderness. Through the second half of the 19th century it was a great timber county, its loggers felling the forests and running rafts of logs down the West Branch of the Susquehanna between 1850 and 1901. The county seat, Clearfield, was incorporated in 1840.
Why it matters
The log rafts of Clearfield County were part of the vast Pennsylvania lumber boom that supplied the wood to build a growing nation — and stripped the forests in a way that later helped spark the American conservation movement.
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