Linn Run State Park in Pennsylvania’s Allegheny Mountains preserves a landscape shaped by both exploitation and renewal. The old-growth forest that once covered these ridges was clear-cut in the 1890s, and logging debris combined with sparks from railroad locomotives to fuel destructive wildfires. In 1909, Pennsylvania purchased this badly damaged land, the first major public acquisition of denuded forest in the Ohio River Basin. Wildlife had also declined sharply, leading to the reintroduction of white-tailed deer in 1910. During the New Deal, the Civilian Conservation Corps and Works Progress Administration built much of the park’s roads, bridges, picnic areas, and rustic cabins, while second-growth forest gradually reclaimed the area.

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Cook, Pennsylvania · USA