Use the map below as a reference as you scroll through photographs of the museum’s exhibits and features.
Main entrance, along Route 6 at mile-marker 188. 
The museum Visitor Center building. 
Admissions desk, museum and tourist information, orientation film, core exhibit: Challenges and Choices in Pennsylvania’s Forests, gift shop and administrative offices. 
Museum Gift Shop 
In the 1880s Ephraim Shay, a Michigan lumberman, invented a unique gear-driven steam locomotive. The vertical cylinders and flexible drive shaft of the Shay transmit power to each axle, allowing it to traverse light and crudely-laid rails; climbing up to 15 percent grades with ease. 
The museum’s 70-ton Shay locomotive was delivered to the Davis-Aken Lumber Company in Erbacon, WV, in 1912. Last used by the Ely-Thomas Lumber Company in Fenwick, WV, it was retired in 1962. It joined the museum exhibit in 1972. 
Loader Shed 
Loading log cars by hand was slow and labor-intensive. Large lumber companies moved to mechanized log loaders by the 1890s. This Barnhart log loader employed a rotating cab with stationary boom and cable pulley. Tongs at the free-end of the cable were hammered into a log. Retracting the cable brought the log under the boom and then elevated it over a waiting log car. 
Log Cars 
Early log cars were loaded by a dozen men using hand tools and draft animals. These cars had smaller wheels, making them lower to the ground for ease of loading. The added weight of mechanized loaders required heavier log cars with stronger axles and larger wheels, typically 28 to 33 inches in diameter. 
Stable & Hay Storage 
The average late-19th century lumber camp included 60 men, and half-as-many horses. Teamsters worked a pair of horses that would skid logs from where they were felled in the woods to where they could be loaded for transport to the mill. 
Filer Shack: Crosscut saws required expert attention to maintain proper performance. A sawfiler could sharpen and repair about 12 eight-foot-long saws daily, for a wage of about $2/ day at the turn of the 20th century. 
Blacksmith Shop: Because most lumber camps were remote, new tools were not always easy to come by. The camp blacksmith was essential in making and repairing iron tools and hardware needed in camp. Many blacksmiths also shod the horses. His average daily wage in the early 20th century was about $2.50. 
Jobber’s Residence: The jobber was an experienced woodsman who contracted with landowners to cut a tract of timber over a specified length of time. Jobbers hired a crew of woodhicks based upon the size of a job and owned and provided most of the equipment the men used. The jobber was often the only man in camp to bring his family along with him. 
Laundry Shed: Woodhicks were responsible for doing their own laundry, often on Sundays, the only day-off. Laundry was hung over branches or bushes to dry. 
Bunkhouse & Mess Hall: During the 19th century, cook shanties and bunkhouses were often separate buildings to remove summer heat and risk of fire. By the 20th century, two-story buildings like this one were common. 
Dining areas included long wooden tables and benches. Breakfast, served at sun-up, consisted of biscuits, steak, eggs, fried potatoes, oatmeal, cakes, donuts, prunes & other fruit, and coffee. Lunch was often taken out to the job site, and dinner was served when the men returned at sun-down. Meals were substantial to supply the massive number of calories needed for a full day of hard labor. 
The kitchen at the end of the building includes a small room to house the cook. Good camp-food helped to attract the best workers. This along with the necessity for a cook to work seven days a week often made them the highest-paid employee, earning about $3.50 a day. If the cook hired a helper, they were called a “cookie.” 
Sleeping quarters were spartan; bunks made of lumber nailed to uprights around the sides of the room slept up to three men. Straw-stuffed mattresses and woolen blankets were used as bedding, and seniority often determined proximity to the lone heating stove. Socks, shirts and other laundry were hung on lines near the stove to dry. 
Circular Sawmill: Circular saws were invented in the late 18th century, but were not widely adopted until the 19th century. Steam-powered sawmills ranged in size from portable models requiring two men to large factories employing hundreds of workers. 
The museum’s mill is typical of a medium-sized facility capable of sawing 12,000 to 15,000 board feet of lumber daily. Mills of this size became common in Pennsylvania following the end of the Civil War. 
The mill is a two-story structure housing sawing equipment above and steam-powered drive engines below. 
Logs are moved from the mill pond to the log deck using the jack ladder. 
Logs are rolled onto the saw carriage, “dogged” in-place, and then run through the head saw, edger saw, and cut-off or “tail” saw. Boards would be stacked in high piles using the elevated lumber ramps in the mill yard to dry and cure for six months to a year. 
Boiler Room: Steam boilers replaced water wheels in most Pennsylvania sawmills by the mid-1850s. Waste wood and sawdust from the mill were used to fire the boilers, often kept in a separate building due to risk of fire and explosion. 
Log Holding Pond: Logs were easier to manipulate when floating in water. Keeping the logs saturated also helped to prevent cracking and splitting of timber waiting to be sawn. 
Shingle Mill & Saw Carriage House 
White pine shingles were a common roofing material in Pennsylvania during the 19th century. Shingle mills operated near sawmills to take advantage of left-over materials too small to be sawn into boards. 
This large saw carriage, powered by steam, was used in a bandsaw mill during the early 20th century. 
The museum’s Model T cut-off saw is stored in this building, and demonstrated during museum special events. 
The Birch Still 
Extracting birch oil known as “spirits of wintergreen” from the bark of black birch was done using expediently constructed box stills until the mid-twentieth century. After that, chemists were able to synthesize the same compound and the need for birch stills disappeared. 
The Sustainable Forestry Trail 
This trail passes through regrowth forests surrounding Commissioner Run. It is about one mile in length and can be completed in one hour. 
Sixteen interpretive waysides explain elements of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative such as harvesting treatments, forest management practices, and ecological principles. Signage also identifies various tree species in the forest. 
CCC Cabin: In 1933 President Franklin Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to help the unemployed during the Great Depression. In nine years CCC workers planted over 200 million trees, constructed thousands of miles of roads and trails, and helped to establish hundreds of historic battlefields, parks and other recreation facilities. These projects gave 2 million young men an income and an opportunity to serve their country through public works; restoring, maintaining and improving the nation’s natural infrastructure. 
There were 153 CCC camps across Pennsylvania between 1933 and 1942. This cabin is one of eight built for public recreation purposes by enrollees at Camp S-135, known as Dyer Farm, located in southeast Potter County. It was scheduled for demolition in 1992 but was instead relocated to the museum. The worker statue is one of dozens of identical castings found across the U.S. placed to honor the legacy of the CCC. 
Brookville Building: Brookville Locomotive Works manufactured this 15-ton switch engine in 1945. It was used to transfer cars of hemlock bark and animal hides at the Wilcox Tannery in Elk County, PA. Exhibits about hemlock bark leather tanning are presented inside. 
The Eastern Loggers HO scale model railroad display depicts various facets of PA’s lumber industry from around the turn of the 20th century. It is operated during several museum special events through the year. 
Picnic Pavilion: Have your lunch here and start your walk to the Webber cabin 
Webber Cabin 
This 500-square-foot cabin with no electricity, plumbing or running water was home to forester and outdoor enthusiast Bob Webber and his wife, Dotty, for more than 50 years. Exhibits tell the story of their contributions to Pennsylvania’s forests. 
A variety of hiking trails connect with the museum campus, including the Lumberman’s Trail; located just downhill from the maintenance building, along US Route 6. 
