Bilger's Rocks, Pa March 01, 2006
Edward Frank

ENTS,

Today I took a short trip to Bilger’s Rocks near Curwensville,  Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.  Bilger’s Rocks is an impressive “rock city” consisting  of about 20 acres of large block shaped  boulders up to 50 on a side and twenty to twenty-five feet thick.  The Bilger’s Rocks Association currently owns and cares for the 175 acre tract. The group was formed in March 1988 and with grants, donations and fundraisers purchased the property. They are managing the property as a community park and have made major steps in removing trash, bottles, and graffiti from the rock area and have installed some picnic shelters, restrooms, and pavilions on the adjoining ridgetop. The ridgtop in the area is capped by a massively bedded sandstone.  Along the edge of the outcrop the large blocks are breaking free along widely spaced joints and through mass wasting are slowly creeping down the hillside.   There are narrow crevices  forming a maze between the blocks, a few short crevice caves, and large open “rooms”  within the boulder field. 

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Main entrance to Bilger's Rocks

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I wanted to revisit the site to examine the trees growing among the rocks.  Most of the general surrounding area had been timbered again and again over the years and where present the forest is relatively young second growth.  The canopy reaches an average height of about 80 feet in the vicinity of the rocks themselves.   A brief list of species found include:  Eastern Hemlock, White Pine, Red Oak, White Oak, Red Maple, American Beech, Cucumber Magnolia, Yellow Birch,  Rhododendron, Mountain Laurel, and a number of species I can’t identify by the bark alone. 

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Stream just below Bilger's Rocks

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Stream just below Bilger's Rocks

 

Within the rock complex itself there are some larger trees, predominantly Eastern hemlock.  There are several hemlocks with cbh’s in the 8 to 10 foot range.  These are the largest trees found at Bilger;’s Rocks.  The area was covered in snow and ice today, so I was not able to do the bouldering required to get accurate height measurements.  The narrow crevices, rooms, and boulder piles in which they were located made line of sight difficult and would require me to measure the lower section from one location and the rest of the tree from another.  I will return when the snow is gone and climbing is better.

 

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8 foot 7 inch cbh hemlock

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Birch atop a boulder

I am always fascinated by trees struggling to find a purchase on the almost bare blocks of rock, or growing atop boulder piles on the forest floor.  The gnarled nature of the long bare roots stretching down the rock surface to reach the soil below give the scenes a primordial feel.  Three were masses of ferns growing from the sides and tops of the rocks peeking out from underneath the snow cover.  Moss and lichen cover the sides of the rocks and cliffs. 

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Hemlock tree, 9' 4" cbh,  abutting boulder

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Hemlock tree, 9' 4" cbh,  abutting boulder

One large hemlock 9’ 4” cbh was growing tight against the side of a half buried boulder.  At a height of four feet the one side of the tree trunk has started to bulge across the lip of the rock.  The trunk is very asymmetrical with it’s long diameter, parallel to the boulder, twice the perpendicular  diameter where the trunk abuts the large rock.  It is certainly a site worth revisiting in warmer weather. 

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Room within the "Rock City" at Bilger's Rocks

  I want to get heights for the largest of the hemlocks and other trees within the rock city itself.  They are not particularly tall likely just 100 to 110 feet. While the surrounding area has been logged, I believe these large hemlocks likely predate settlement of the area by Europeans.   What is Old Growth?  Tom Diggens speculated that two trees were enough to constitute “Old Growth.”   By that generous definition, this is a small patch of old growth within the heart of the rock field. 

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thorn2a.jpg (111308 bytes) The last tree a measured was a large Hercules Club, Aralia spinosa, 27.5 feet tall, 9” cbh, with a spread of 6 feet in a small hollow across and just up the road from the main entrance to Bilger’s Rocks.  There are a large number of this species growing in the recently cut area of woods in the area.  It is possible that larger ones are present but not measured do to lack of time.  I did not make many measurements, but got some nice photos and enjoyed a nice afternoon in the woods.

 

Here are a couple of links on the web worth checking out:

http://www.offroaders.com/album/clearfield/clear1099/bilgers.html

http://www.offroaders.com/album/clearfield/clear1099/bilgers2.html

http://ctcnet.net/cccra/westbrrept.pdf 

 

 Ed Frank