Cooke Township, Pa. - Cumberland County historian David Smith says historic places and events rarely stand alone; they often interconnect.

Take, for example, the blast furnace at Pine Grove Furnace State Park.

"Iron making was a major factor in Cumberland County's economy," Smith said. "Not just here, but all along the South Mountain."

For nearly a century, men working the furnace and the iron ore pits were fed from nearby farms; one known as Bunker Hill Farm. The fields were last turned in 1919, but the farm later hosted a camp for the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.

Crumbling foundations and a stand-alone fountain are what's left of the camp where thousands of young men from around the country found work replanting acres of trees originally cut down to feed the blast furnace some 50 years earlier.

When World War Two broke out, the camp gave way to a secret prisoner of war camp housing 1,500 German and Japanese prisoners.

"You had hundreds of POW camps, but only three of these interrogation centers in the whole country," Smith said.

Shortly after the war, the abandoned POW camp was converted into a popular religious education center called Camp Michaux.

The Cumberland County Historical Society offers walking tours of Camp Michaux. The next tour is scheduled April 11. For more information, visit www.historicalsociety.com.

 

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