Scott A. Yeager, M.A., special to GANT News
The Bennett Branch Water Trail is approximately 39.8 miles of some of the most picturesque and historically significant trails in the Pennsylvania Wilds.
It’s a segment of the over 75-mile Sinnemahoning Water Trail, which cuts right through the Pennsylvania elk country.
On the first leg of the trail, you begin your journey in the headwaters of the Bennett Branch of the Sinnemahoning near Sabula. As you move along, you may find yourself caught up in the beauty of the hardwoods and hemlocks.
If nature nurtures the human soul, this is the place where even nature itself comes to rejuvenate.
Whether you’re on foot or floating your way down to places like Driftwood or Keating, the trail that you’re on is replete with a rich history.
As you embark upon the trail’s head, you slide down into Bennett’s Valley. Once considered “wilderness” by early settlers, Bennett’s Valley, or “The Valley” as it’s referred to by locals, is very different today than it was when the first settlers arrived.
It’s still surrounded by forest land; however, much of that forest land isn’t considered virgin forest. The timber and coal industries were what brought settlers to this wild region of Pennsylvania years ago. They literally carved their living and quality of life out of the hills.
The first town that one comes to on the Bennett Branch Water Trail is Penfield. While the area was originally frequented by the indigenous peoples, the area in which Penfield resides has been visited and surveyed by settlers as far back as 1729.
It was Gould Hoyt who, in 1854, earned Penfield its name. He had good penmanship and was committed to getting Penfield its own post office.
The postal department was so impressed with Hoyt’s letters of request that they named the town Penfield in his honor. Prior to Hoyt’s request for a post office in his community, Penfield had many settlers who came to the region, saw liberty and opportunity and made the land their home.
As you traverse through the first leg of the Bennett Branch Water Trail, you’ll find yourself sandwiched between Boone and Rockton Mountains.
As legend had it, Daniel Boone once visited and hunted the mountain range north of Penfield, hence the naming of that terrain in his honor.
While Penfield began as a logging town, the further you travel down the Bennett Branch Water Trail, the more interesting the local history gets.
As you near Tyler Point, one of the most majestic mountains in the region, you’ll draw close to the towns of Mill Run, the village of Hollywood and Tyler.
It was this region that gave birth to Philip Paul Bliss, a prolific musician, composer and teacher. Philip’s father, Isaac Bliss, built an early log cabin on a patch of land between Mill Run and Hollywood near the Bennett’s Branch of the Sinnemahoning, just off of Tyler Point.
Moving with the timber industry in those days was akin to how many people move with the oil and gas industry today.
As you travel alongside the singing Bennett’s Branch, you may experience a kind of grace that resonates throughout the hills and forests that surround you.
Philip, while known for his evangelism and musical talents, also has left an unusual mark on history.
It’s reported that survivors of the sinking of the R.M.S. Titanic sang a hymn, Pull For The Shore, as they awaited rescue in the bitter cold North Atlantic.
As you pass through this quite section of Bennett’s Valley, it’s easy to see how these hills could have inspired a deep appreciation for a higher power and for music in Philip’s family.
Before leaving Tyler and crossing over into Elk County, you’ll pass by the section of the mountains where many a coal mine once provided a living for local families.
What you might not realize is that many of these small coal companies had their own baseball teams – and some were actually good at the game!
A coal miner’s life was rough, but great pride was taken in their work, their communities and in the companies that they represented.
Bragging rights were – and still are to some – worth more than a mere week’s pay and are the currency that spends anywhere.
The beauty and rich history of the Bennett Branch Water Trail is undeniable and has a warm way of deepening one’s connection to both the land and the waterway.
The people who call “The Valley” their home today are much like those who came before them – they love nature, they value hard work, liberty means something to them and they never lose sight of how special the mountains are that cradle their homes.
