Driftwood Branch, Sinnemahoning Creek, Pennsylvania

Driftwood Branch, Sinnemahoning Creek,
Cameron County, Pennsylvania

This photograph of lower Driftwood Branch of Sinnemahoning Creek was made from the state route 555 bridge at Driftwood, Pennsylvania, in early July 2003. This spot is one of my favorites, and not just when I'm "back home" in northern Pennsylvania. Such a sublime view of the creek and the steep, undeveloped forested hills really tugs at me. Most of the land in the distance is public land, part of the Elk State Forest. The borough (village) of Driftwood is just out of the scene on the right.

I received an email from Sinnemahoning native Pete Bennett about this photo. He told me he met his first wife on this bridge. He wrote: "It was 1959 and I was just out of the US Marine Corps, lived in Sinnemahoning and as all guys do was riding around with friends in a car. While in Driftwood met my wife Doris who was sitting on the abutment to the bridge with one of her girlfriends...just hanging out as there was not much to do in a small town. Although I married her in 1961 and was married to her for 39 years thereafter." He adds that his lovely wife died of leukemia several years ago. Pete has written a number of articles of local interest; his web page is here. He gave his permission to use his remembrance here, and it's a nice touch to a wonderful spot in the northern Pennsylvania mountains.

One of the articles Pete has written is about the history of the volunteer Pennsylvania Bucktail Brigade in the U.S. Civil War. They were a wild bunch of backwoods lumbermen who organized in response to President Lincoln's call to defend the Union following the bombardment of Fort Sumter. The Bucktails were so named because they wore whitetail deer tails on their hats as a symbol of their woodsmanship.

The above photo was taken at the spot where the Bucktails built rafts to float down the Sinnemahoning and the West Branch of the Susquehanna River to Lock Haven. (A monument to the brigade is nearby). The volunteers did so because the railroad had not been built that far up into the backcountry at the time. The men even had to chip in money from their own pockets to pay for the logs from a nearby sawmill to make the rafts.

The Bucktail Regiment went on to fight in nearly every major battle in the Civil War. They were most often used as "skirmishers," due to their sharpshooting skills and, presumably, their ability to move about the woods with ease.

Related photos of the Allegheny Plateau region of Pennsylvania: