In 1879, only a few hundred people lived in the Galeton area amid forested wilds, but William McClure Gale soon launched an industry that rapidly transformed the region by building the W. and L.R. Gale Tannery on the land now occupied by John J. Collins Memorial Park. By the 1890s, the tannery had grown into one of the nation’s largest leather tanneries, and around 1890 lumber companies entered the area, followed by the Buffalo and Susquehanna Railroad, bringing a booming local economy. During the early 1900s, more than 4,200 people lived there, and after its incorporation in 1897, Galeton was named for William Gale. The area’s hemlock-based industries included the Galeton Hemlock Mill, which sawed hemlock logs into construction timbers, boxes, shingles, and lath, while the Penn Tanning Company relied on hemlock bark for the tannic acid used to tan hides. Logging railroads with specialized locomotives replaced horse-drawn log wagons and allowed lumbermen to reach remote hemlock forests.