Andrew Carnegie leased five hundred acres from Moses Thompson in the iron ore rich pine barrens in the Nittany Valley. The area had been surface-mined since the early nineteenth century for local furnaces. Carnegie sought to finance a mining operation for his modern furnaces in Pittsburgh.[3]
In 1880 Carnegie bought multiple land tracts and financed company housing, a store, a church, an office building, stables, and an ore washer.[3]
Scotia's population peaked at about 400 people, growing to include a civic center with a small library, a baseball team, and a band called the Forest Cornet Band.[5]
In 1899 Carnegie sold the iron works at Scotia to the Bellefonte Furnace Company. The mines would close in 1911. The Scotia Barrens was the site of a lumber operation connected to a sawmill in Waddle until about 1915.[3] These operations along with fires have destroyed all the original forests.[6]The Federal government spent $500,000 to reopen the mines in the wake of World War II, but the ore was considered poor quality and the mines were again shut down and abandoned.[3]
Scotia Barrens
Scotia Barrens
The Scotia Barrens have a micro climate known as a frost pocket. Air from the ridge tops rushes down and gets trapped in the low lying area, making the Scotia Barrens usually colder than the surrounding areas.[5]
Ecology
The Barrens are biologically diverse and are home to endangered plant and wildlife. The Scotia Barrens are one of the largest pitch pine/scrub oak barrens left in Pennsylvania, and the habitat of a high diversity and number of birds, including over thirty-three species of warblers, and the northern saw-whet owl.[7]
Parks and Recreation
The Barrens lie on the 6,200 acres of State Game Lands #176. The Game Lands include paths for hiking, biking, and horseback riding, as well as a shooting range.[8]
The ruins of the ore washing site are covered in graffiti and serve as an attraction for hikers.[3]
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