When the first European settlers came to this part of Pennsylvania, they found dense forests of huge timber, cleared land for farms, and used trees to build homes. During the 1800s, hemlock was logged for bark used in tanneries and for construction wood, hardwoods supplied cabinet wood for furniture, and vast stands of white pine, including trees more than 150 feet tall, were cut and floated on giant rafts down large rivers to be made into masts for Clipper ships. By the 1830s, Warren County had become a major lumber center with more than 100 sawmills. The Wheeler and Dusenbury Lumber Company, which logged in this region, owned land with a stand of huge timber, built a logging camp there, and called it Hearts Content after a nearby homestead of the same name. A small remnant of that forest was never logged and remained in the family to be appreciated by future generations. In 1922, descendants of William F. Wheeler and Henry Dusenbury donated the original 20-acre stand of old-growth timber to the U.S. Forest Service in memory of the original logging families. Later, more land was added, creating the 120-acre Hearts Content Scenic Area, which was dedicated a National Natural Landmark in 1977. The old-growth forest there, with towering hemlock and white pine and old beech snags among ferns, preserves a rare reminder of how many forests once looked in a region where most old trees were cut over the last two centuries.