R.B. Winter was a forester with a vision

By Elaine Wintjen
For The Daily Item

June 29, 2009 07:56 am

— The beautiful Bald Eagle State Forest that you see today was once clear-cut lumber company land. By 1900, almost all of the virgin forest in the mountains of Union County was gone. It was mostly bare soil and rocks where there once had been white pines six feet across and 200 feet tall, large hemlocks and many other trees and forest plants. What logging had not destroyed was consumed in wildfires during the 1909 drought.
The land, no longer of value to the lumber companies, was sold off in large tracts, much of it purchased by the state of Pennsylvania.
R.B. Winter’s Halfway Park
Raymond Burrows Winter, 1881-1968, graduated from Mont Alto State Forestry School in 1910. He was assigned to the 20,000-acre White Deer Forest of Union and Centre counties. Isolated pockets of old growth remained. Some deep-rooted deciduous trees and shrubs (such as low-bush blueberry) had survived the fires and drought. Airborne seeds of aspens and others had initiated new growth.
R.B. Winter, with assistants Steven Roadarmel and Leslie Stover, planted trees and dreamed of restoring the land for a park. In addition to reforestation where thousands of trees were planted, Winter and his rangers made fireplaces and picnic tables. Soon funds were secured for about 400 acres for Halfway State Forest Park. The park was situated where the Halfway House once stood, marking the halfway point on the early road through the mountains.
Except for serving during World War I in the Heavy Artillery Officers Training Corps and briefly working, in 1920, in the Corn Planter Forest District near Titusville, R.B. Winter spent his career as a forester in Union County.
In June 1933, the Bald Eagle State Forest District got four Civilian Conservation Corps camps of 200 young men each. One group was assigned to the Halfway Park area, where they cleared seven acres of brush and debris, removed the old dam and constructed the first cement and stone dam built by the CCC, making a seven-acre lake. The Fish Department stocked the lake with trout for fishing.
The federal CCC program provided the manpower and funds to make dramatic improvements in a short period of time. They built a bathing beach and diving tower. Brush Valley Road was improved, and new roadways built. Water and sewer lines were installed. Buildings and stone tables were erected. Over the ensuing years, improvements continued at the park, which became a popular site used year-round by local residents and out-of-town visitors.
Raymond B. Winter State Forest Park
Raymond B. Winter worked for the Forestry Department for 45 years, retiring July 1, 1955. That year, Sen. Samuel B. Wolf introduced a resolution in the state Senate with the state House of Representatives concurring:
“Resolved that the recreational area in the Bald Eagle State Forest in Union County now known as Half-Way State Forest be renamed Raymond B. Winter State Forest Park in lasting tribute to his untiring work in conservation.”
In September 1967, a memorial monument was erected at the park. Thanks to Raymond B. Winter’s incredible vision to restore the natural beauty to a landscape that had been destroyed by lumbering and fire, we have a park with a lake for fishing, summer swimming and winter skating; campsites and picnic areas, and hiking trails for year-round enjoyment of this beautiful new forest.
n Elaine Wintjen is on the staff at the Union County Historical Society. The society office and library, in the county courthouse at 103 S. Second St., Lewisburg, is open Mondays through Fridays from 8:30 to noon and 1 to 4:30 p.m. For information on membership, events and reference material, call 524-8666, e-mail hstoricl@ptd.net or visit www.unioncountyhistoricalsociety.org. “Once Upon A Time In ....” is a Monday feature provided by the historical societies in Union, Montour, Northumberland and Snyder counties. The columns focus on people, places and objects of historical significance.

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