The smooth and scenic part of Route 322, that makes for a pleasant drive through Union Township, may have once been scenic but far from smooth.
The hemlock timber was still being cut in the 1880’s when the photo shown was likely taken. The trail looks to be little more than a steep and rocky footpath.
Nevertheless, these hard-working men kept a steady pace to clear the beginnings of a navigable roadway.
One of them, Charles Peoples, had a specific task to peel and remove the bark from the downed hemlock logs using a tool known as a “spud.”
Two men, Arthur Schofield and Jesse Dressler, are shown using a nearly six-foot long saw. The work was tough and labor intensive enough to make most of us today seem soft.
Others shown with axes are Charles Spicher, Austin Hendricks, Floyd Shaffer, Bill Kirk and Woody Kelly.
The logs were, of course, used for lumber, but the sheets of peeled bark were hauled to local tanneries to be used in the production of leather.
Hemlock bark was a great source of tannic acid. When dissolved in water, the solution was used to cure animal hides to be processed into leather.
A number of early tanneries existed in Clearfield County where the resources used to manufacture raw leather were easily available.