Bellefonte, PA is a community located in Center County just east of State College.  It is a historic community founded in 1785 http://bellefonte.com/history.html  and proud of its Victorian Historic District.  Big Spring is a naturally occurring limestone spring that discharges on average 11.5 million gallons of water per day making it the second largest spring in Pennsylvania. The spring is the primary drinking water source for the community and forms the headwaters of Spring Creek in the downtown portion of Bellefonte.

http://www.bellefontearts.org/Smith_pages/Smith_spring.htm   "The Big Spring is the defining element of Bellefonte.  By legend, the French statesman Talleyrand visited the spring with Mrs. Ann Dunlop Harris and exclaimed  "La belle font," leading her to suggest the name Bellefonte to her father Col. James Dunlop and her husband James Harris, who together laid out the town in 1795.  Talleyrand was in exile in America from the French Revolution, from March 1794 to June 1796.  On a visit to nearby Centre Furnace, he may have come to Bellefonte to visit James Harris, and may have seen the spring."

http://bellefonte.com/imagearchive/displayimage.php?album=search&cat=0&pos=36

There are a series of linked parks along the course of spring creek.  Talleyrand Park is the largest of these units.  Rob Frank and I visited the park to measure some of the black willow remnants growing along the streams.  At one time these must have been impressive trees.  We measured a series of snags with girths in the 20 foot range. Unfortunately these were typically hollow half-shells standing from 6 to 15 feet tall, their tops broken off, along the stream banks.  Many showed evidence of fires that had burned in the interior of these shells.  Still they were all alive.  New sprouts/trunks extended upward from the upper edges these half shells reaching heights of 20 to 30 feet.  In addition we measured several intact willows growing along the streams. These were smaller in girth than the lost giants, but did have intact canopies.

Black Willow snags

Black Willow trees

These shells of snags were impressively big around.  In several cases half the stump was missing.   The original cbh would have been larger if the missing segments would still have been present. 

Ed Frank