*Was used as a major highway for logging
*PA had large amount of Pine and Hemlock

Philadelphia opened the first sawmill in Williamsport

Major Perkins and John Leighton figured out how to reduce the chances of timber being rushed down the river. They figured that a bend in the river moved the logs south and contained them. Then they designed a holding pen of sunken cribs filled with rocks. This held the logs until they could be sorted and floated to the sawmill.

The boom turned Williamsport into the Lumber Capital of the World. In the years 1868-1906, Williamsport milled eight billion feet of White Pine.

Williamsport became rich from the amount of lumber they milled. They also made furniture, toys, packing boxes, and whole houses waiting to be assembled.

After clear cutting the forests, little lumber was left. Williamsport was no longer needed to transport lumber because they used portable sawmills and railroads to transport lumber.

It became cheaper to transport logs by railroad than by water. Also the flood of 1894 washed 2 million board feet of lumber down the river. This broke the boom. In 1908 the Susquehanna Boom Company disbanded.

Now that most of Pennsylvania doesn't have their lumber recourses, logging became popular in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other western state. Pennsylvania had to work towards regeneration of forests to regain their natural recourse.