The McMichael Lookout

No one of this day can realize the barren and desolate condition of the east end of the Muncy Valley basin, from the trout ponds to the hills beyond Hughesville, for a number of decades during the early settlement of this section. Samuel Bryan, father of the late venerable Ellis Bryan, of Eagle Mills, settled in the valley soon after the year 1800. When he first visited the dale he rode a handsome black stallion. For this animal he was offered all the land from near the mills on Muncy Creek (then Shoemaker's Mills) to the hills, but could not be induced to trade, as he thought the land worthless for farming, and that it would never produce enough to pay the taxes. The uninviting waste was long known as "The Pine Barrens." The forest had been destroyed by fires, and only a charred tree trunk or stump was here and there standing. The very soil seemed to have vanished. The surface was covered with pebbles and boulders, with here and there a patch of scrub oak waist high. "You could see a deer run for half a mile or more," said Ellis Bryan to the writer thirty-five years ago, when describing the scene.

• Gernerd, J. M. M., The Muncy Valley: Snap-Shots of Scenery, Geology and History, 1909, Press of the Gazette and Bulletin, Williamsport PA