[Danesdad]

Word of warning to anyone who hunts around State Gamelands 79 in Indiana and Cambria county. I went to look over my stand which is (was) about 100 yards from the gamelands boundary. The land just beyond the gamelands ( below where the old sawmill was years ago) has been logged. Actually, bombed would be a better word for it. What was once a solid square mile of forest, broken only by some old logging trails and a few small creeks is now a devastated wasteland. All the trees are gone, even the crappy pine and hemlock. There is nothing left standing that is bigger than a broom handle and very little of that (except some hemlocks right next to the creek where the machines probably couldn't go). There is probably couple hundred cords of firewood in the form of tops and branches that were crushed flat and left to rot just laying around. Huge laurel thickets are completely gone. Even large rocks that used to be reliable landmarks are no longer there. They didn't even pile up the tops to make good brush piles, they just smashed it flat. I've never seen a logging job like this. Tornadoes aren't this destructive. So, if you hunt the gamelands near the old sawmill there, expect the woods to end one foot from where the gamelands border is marked and about a square mile of complete devastation beyond that.

 

[.204]

it's called a strip mine, and you are right they destroyed a huge piece of mountain.

 

[.204]

where is this old saw mill you are talking about? is it in Cambria or Indiana county, a road name or other land mark. If you plan to hunt doe that area is now in 2E not 2C

 

[Danesdad]

it's called a strip mine, and you are right they destroyed a huge piece of mountain.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't a strip mine leave nothing but dirt and rocks? And isn't a strip mine an ongoing process. There are a couple deep mines nearby that have started within the last fifteen years. (One is called Barrett mine). This looks more like a real thorough logging job, moreso than a strip mine, but I could be wrong.

Are you familiar with the area?

 

[Danesdad]

where is this old saw mill you are talking about? is it in Cambria or Indiana county, a road name or other land mark. If you plan to hunt doe that area is now in 2E not 2C

Yeah, I found that out when I looked at the pamphlet that they give you with your license now. For decades, I got 2C or Indiana county tags for there. I was nervous because I thought maybe all those years I'd been hunting in the wrong WMU for my tag, but I found out about the boundary changed this year. I didn't get any doe tags for that area this year. I'm not real familiar with the names of roads up there. I know you go down 403 through Dilltown, past the bike trail, and bear left and go up a long hill. At the top of that hill, is a four way intersection and if you go straight, there is a parking lot for sgl 79. But, I make a right and go about three or four miles down that road, make a left and go another couple miles past some old xmas tree fields, and I end up at another sgl parking lot. At that location probably 40 or 50 years ago, was a working sawmill. Sorry so vague about the description, but I first started going there with my father in 1977 and I knew the way by instinct before I had my drivers license.

 

[.204]

ok I know where you are talking about, factory hollow. That is well inside Indiana County, game lands 79 is made up of several parcels, I thought you were talking about the area around Vintondale, that is a strip mine, I don't know of any strip mines over where you are talking about so must be just timbered. Have you seen the tree house to the right of the parking lot?? Yes I am from the area. Good luck, hope you can figure something out.

 

[Danesdad]

ok I know where you are talking about, factory hollow. That is well inside Indiana County, game lands 79 is made up of several parcels, I thought you were talking about the area around Vintondale, that is a strip mine, I don't know of any strip mines over where you are talking about so must be just timbered. Have you seen the tree house to the right of the parking lot?? Yes I am from the area. Good luck, hope you can figure something out.

The big tree house behind the camp? Lotta deer killed out of there over the years, I bet. If you are from there, that logging disaster I described is only a couple hundred yards away. Right on the other side of the gamelands from there.