I’ve been fascinated lately by the mammoth History of Erie County, Pennsylvania Vol. 1, published in 1884 and available from the Erie County Library System.
In my wanderings I’ve found that outdoors recreation and our area’s history are intrinsically intertwined, or that at least each is more satisfying as a result of the other.
At Oil Creek State Park, for instance, a trout fishing trip drew my wife and I past a couple of cemeteries in which are buried Revolutionary War soldiers and early settlers of Venango County. A bit of research led us to truly overrun cemeteries and other manmade features deep inside the park, and those hikes opened up opportunities to go geocaching in areas we otherwise probably wouldn’t have traveled.
The History of Erie County, Pennsylvania Vol. 1 stirs those same twinned opportunities, revealing history that undoubtedly will lead to road trips, a deeper understanding of our region’s history, and new places to visit, fish, hike, go birding and otherwise get outdoors.
Of the 1,006 pages (plus index) in the book, less than one page is spent on the outdoors scene, but the descriptions in Chapter 12: The Pioneers, are as telling as curl-edged photos pulled from a forgotten corner of the county’s attic. That there were wolves in the county isn’t new, but the book hints at a great number of them, as well as panthers, a bear population far greater than we know today, and venomous snakes on today’s Presque Isle State Park.
“When the county was opened to settlement (starting in 1795), it was covered with a dense forest, which abounded with deer, bears, wolves, rabbits, foxes, raccoons, squirrels, opossums, minks and martens.* This was a fortunate circumstance for the people as the flesh of the wild beasts afforded them the only fresh meat many could obtain. Every man kept a gun and went into the woods in pursuit of game whenever the supply of food in his household ran short. Deer were abundant for years. There were numerous deer-licks, where the animals resorted to find salt water, at which the hunters lay in wait and shot them down without mercy. Bears were quite numerous, and did serious mischief to the corn fields. Wolves were also plenty, and committed much havoc. Packs of these animals often surrounded the cabins and kept their inmates awake with their howling. A bounty was long paid for their scalps, varying in amount from $10 t0 $12 per head. Accounts are given of sheep being killed by wolves as late as 1813. Occasionally a panther or wild cat terrified whole neighborhoods by its screaming. The last panther was shot at Lake Pleasant by Abram Knapp in 1857.
“Besides the animals, the country was full of pigeons, ducks, geese, partridges and turkeys, in their season, all of which were more tame than now, and fell easy victims to the guns or traps of the pioneers. The lake, of course, contained plenty of fish, and most of the small streams abounded in trout. The rivulets emptying into French Creek were particularly famous for this favorite fish, and the stories told of their size and readiness to leap into the sportsman’s hands are enough to drive an angler wild with enthusiasm. It does not appear that the county was ever much troubled with poisonous snakes. There were some massassaugies and copperheads on the peninsula, but the interior seems to have been remarkably free from dangerous reptiles.”
*A French memoir, written in 1714, says: “Buffalo are found on the south shore of Lake Erie, but not on the north shore.”
