Clarion-Little Toby Rails to Trails Tour – Brockway to Ridgway

Ghost Town Tours

Brockway Trailhead

Baghdad Run – Named By

Buzzard & McCain Sawmill on Baghdad Run

Beadle & McCauley Mine on Baghdad Run Headwaters

Jenkins Run

• First sawmill built on what would be know as Jenkins Run by Dr. William M. Bennett in 1843.

• 1892-93 John Cassidy cut timber on Jenkins Run for Ellmont. Logs were run to Toby Creek on a log slide and downstream to Ellmont.

• 1895 - John Cassidy’s lumber camp burned and was rebuilt with a barn and blacksmith shop. Next slide is believed to be that camp.

John Cassidy’s Lumber Camp on Jenkins Run - 1895

Jenkins Run and “The Saws”

“The Saws” a unique feature on upper Jenkins Run is a site of much speculation regarding what happened that led to the lumberman working on Jenkins Run to leave all the crosscut saw blades stuck in the trees at the site. One possibility is a forest fire peaked over the ridge directly behind the site and the men left fearing for their lives.

Galusha’s Mill 1850-1878Nick M. Brockway 1878-1890Cassius M. Carrier 1890-1899

Reynolds L. Buzard 1899-August 11, 1901– Mill Burned

Original Township Bridge at Carrier in 1896

Brockwayville to Ridgway Iron Township Bridge at Carrier in 1900

Carrier Iron Bridge Survived until World War II

Township Road-Bridge Abutments

Forest Hill Train Station on the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg Across From

Carrier

Little Vineyard RunPhoto of Outlet For Log Dam Used to Provide Water to

Trains Bringing Timber out of Little Vineyard Run Valley

Vineyard Run History Sign

Vineyard Run Sawmill 1883-1895

Vineyard Run Sawmill in 1888Mill Had Extra Length Carriage for

Cutting BridgeTimbers

Building The Tramroads/Railroads on Vineyard and Little Vineyard Runs

Chow Time on Vineyard Run - 1885

Blue Rock and Ellmont1802-1803

General Wade (and family) and Mr. Slade moved to the mouth of Toby (now Carman) where they built a log house. At the site that would become known as Blue Rock the General and Mr. Slade noticed an Indian maiden (shy, backward, and beautiful) was following their movements as they headed to their log cabin at the mouth of Toby Creek where it joins the Clarion River. They referred to her as the “Maid of the Blue Rock” because of the blue-gray sandstone she was standing near. The hillside behind the ghost town site is full of these blue-gray sandstone formations so determining which stone she was standing next to would be purely speculative.

The General and Mr. Wade induced the “Maid” to follow them to their home and in 1809 she married Mr. Wade in front of Chief Tamasqua. Following their marriage ceremony they moved to the site that would become Portland Mills and established a trading post.

Blue Rock in 1893-1894

Swinging Bridge Crossing Toby Creek at Blue Rock- Was the Brockwayville to Ridgway

Township Road Bridge

Construction Plaque Found in Toby Creek By the Swinging Bridge

Name Change From Blue Rock to Ellmont

According to a newspaper article dated 1-29-1887 the name of the station at Blue Rock was changed to Ellmont the same as the post office. Locally the sites divided by Toby Creek have always been referred to as Blue Rock on the East side of Toby Creek and Ellmont with it’s own sawmill and residential area on the West side of Toby Creek. Significant field research by Rob Keith of Brockway and Bob Imhof of Ridgway have determined that Ellmont was a larger community than originally thought.

Ellmont Sawmill in 1893

Findings at Ellmont Site

Short’s Mills and Coward Run1898, June 24A large article titled “LAND FOR SALE” appeared in the Brockwayville Record this week. “The Oyster & Short lands at Carrier, and the Short lands at Empire, embracing 5,000 acres, are now in the market for purchasers in quantities to suit. Liberal terms will be given. Those who have heretofore purchased from those tracts will be given warrantee deeds upon payment for the same. The title is now in the hands of C. M. Carrier, of Carrier, PA, and Kate Wellman, of Friendship, NY. I have the management in full for the sale of above lands for farming purposes

Ghost Town of Grove

Garovi-Urmann Quarry Building

Garovi-Urmann Quarry Building in Operation

Keystone Driller Used For Cutting Stone at Garovi-Urmann Quarry

Garovi-Urmann Quarry – 470 Feet Above Rails to Trails

Empire Ridge Tunnel – Built With Rocks Cut at The Garovi-Urmann Quarry

Indian Rock Trail

Croyland 1895-1902

Croyland Sawmill - 1895

Croyland Sawmill – 1895 – Photo 2

CCC Camp S-101 – Croyland, PA 1933-1941

CCC Camp S-101 Diagram

CCC Camp S-101 – Company 5446 Roster

Aerial View of CCC Camp S-101 in 1937

Clarion River Railway Bridge Abutments

Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Trestle Crossing the Clarion River Below Mill Haven

Mill Haven – 1840-1900

Mill Haven Sawmill Crew – April 24, 1894

Mill Haven Dam Destroyed By the Great St. Patrick’s Day Flood of 1936

Idlewild Cut With Mill Haven in Left Center

Log Booms in the Clarion River for the Mill Haven Sawmill and the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad Heading

To Ridgway

Island Run Junction in 1897

Frank Thompson Tramroad on South Branch of Island Run in 1886

Typical Boat Bottom Building on the Clarion River

Clarion River Timber Statistics – 1862-1895The Clarion River as the only reliable method of transporting goods out of Ridgway, Elk County, PA until the first railroad was completed in October of 1864 was a very busy “highway”. Starting shortly after the founding of the town site of Ridgway in 1824 the early pioneers developed business relationships with down river markets in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville and as far away as New Orleans. During the winter months the lumbermen built rafts or banked logs all along the river waiting on the spring thaw to raise the level of the river. Jerome Powell, Editor of Ridgway’s first newspaper ”The Ridgway Advocate” and the community’s first Burgess (Mayor) wrote in 1854 that “The Flood – The Flood is Here” a yearly major event in a river community like Ridgway. The rafting and log drive era lasted into the 1900’s but was substantially impacted in the 1860’s by the completion of the first of three railroad systems that would make Ridgway an industrial dynamo. Prior to the railroads the yearly average of timber and finished lumber products transported down the Clarion River from 1862 to 1895 was 40,000,000 feet of sawed timber, 3,000,000 feet of squared timber and over 500 boat bottoms destined for the steel mills along the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio Rivers. Visual evidence of the boat bottom building areas along the Clarion are still evident to this day.