 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 ( 0 @.@ 9 to 1 @.@ 8 m ) in diameter and 150 feet ( 46 m ) or more tall , eastern hemlock 9 feet ( 2 @.@ 7 m ) in circumference , and huge hardwoods . Each acre ( 0 @.@ 4 ha ) of these virgin forests produced 100 @,@ 000 board feet ( 236 m3 ) of white pine and 200 @,@ 000 board feet ( 472 m3 ) of hemlock and hardwoods . For comparison , the same area of forest today produces a total of only 5 @,@ 000 board feet ( 11 @.@ 8 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 . 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 . A spar sold for one dollar and three spars up to 90 feet ( 27 m ) long were lashed together to make a ship 's mast . The largest spar produced on Pine Creek was 43 inches ( 110 cm ) in diameter 12 feet ( 3 @.@ 7 m ) above the base , 93 feet ( 28 m ) long , and 33 inches ( 84 cm ) in diameter at the top . By 1840 , Tioga County alone produced over 452 such spar rafts with more than 22 @,@ 000 @,@ 000 board feet ( 52 @,@ 000 m3 ) of lumber . 
