 By the early 19th century the demand for lumber reached the Pine Creek Gorge , where the surrounding mountainsides were covered with eastern white pine 3 to 6 feet ( 1 to 2 m ) in diameter and 150 feet ( 50 m ) or more tall , eastern hemlock 9 feet ( 3 m ) in circumference , and huge hardwoods . Each acre ( 0 @.@ 4 ha ) of these virgin forests produced 100 @,@ 000 board feet ( 200 m3 ) of white pine and 200 @,@ 000 board feet ( 500 m3 ) of hemlock and hardwoods . For comparison , the same area of forest today produces a total of only 5 @,@ 000 board feet ( 10 m3 ) on average . According to Steven E. Owlett , environmental lawyer and author , shipbuilders considered pine from Pine Creek the " best timber in the world for making fine ship masts " , so it was the first lumber to be harvested on a large scale . The original title to the land that became Colton Point State Park was sold to the Wilhelm Wilkins Company in 1792 . Pine Creek was declared a public highway by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on March 16 , 1798 , and rafts of spars were floated down the creek to the Susquehanna River , then to the Chesapeake Bay and the shipbuilders at Baltimore . The lumbermen would then walk home , following the old Pine Creek Path at the end of their journey . 
