Are there cherry trees in Cherry Springs State Park?
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Cherry Springs State Park is an Pennsylvania state park in Potter County, Pennsylvania, United States. The park was created from land within the Susquehannock State Forest, and is on Pennsylvania Route 44 in West Branch Township. Cherry Springs, named for a large stand of Black Cherry trees in the park, is atop the dissected Allegheny Plateau at an elevation of . It is popular with astronomers and stargazers for having "some of the darkest night skies on the east coast" of the United States, and was chosen by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and its Bureau of Parks as one of "25 Must-See Pennsylvania State Parks".
Cherry Springs State Park
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Cherry Springs State Park and the surrounding Susquehannock State Forest have recovered from the clearcutting of the lumber era. However, the composition of the forests has changed, so that there are now more hardwoods, including sugar maple and black cherry, and fewer eastern white pine and eastern hemlock. The park also has apple trees from the CCC orchard. Over 400 species of birds have been found in Pennsylvania, including 186 that breed in the state. Birds such as ospreys, hawks, owls, nightjars, and bald eagles have returned to the park and state forest, and saw-whet owls have been studied in the park.
Cherry Springs State Park
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When lumbermen reached the Cherry Springs area in the late 1880s, eastern white pine and eastern hemlock covered the surrounding mountains. Lumberjacks harvested the trees and sent them down the creeks to the West Branch Susquehanna River to the Susquehanna Boom and sawmills at Williamsport. Clearcutting allowed silt to choke the streams, and nothing was left except the dried-out tree tops, which became a fire hazard. As a result, large swaths of land burned and were left barren, and much of the central part of the state became known as the "Pennsylvania Desert". The Cherry Springs Hotel itself burned in 1897 and the property was abandoned.
Cherry Springs State Park
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Cherry Springs State Park is on Pennsylvania Route 44 in West Branch Township, southwest of Galeton. The following state parks are within of Cherry Springs State Park:
Cherry Springs State Park
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Spring in Inokashira Park is the season of the blooming Cherry blossom trees that line the pond. Looking from the Nanai Bridge, which crosses the pond near the center, the branches of the cherry trees extending from the shore bloom so densely as to all but cover the surface of the pond. The pale color of the blossoms contrasts with the sky and water's surface. During the blooming period of cherry blossoms the park receives many visitors. In addition, on the west side of the park there are many flowers to be seen in the flowering plum grove before the blooming period of the cherry trees. On the north side of the plum grove, on the edge of the pond, there is a spring, but its flow is nowadays weak.
Inokashira Park
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Edgcomb and his wife received of land in exchange for building the hotel and running it for three years. When the contract expired in 1821, they sold their land and left the area, but the hotel and land that Edgcomb had cleared became known as "Edgcomb's Clearing". The Jersey Shore and Coudersport Turnpike was constructed along the wagon path between 1825 and 1834, and tolls were collected for travel on the road until 1860. The park is in West Branch Township, which was incorporated from Eulalia Township in 1856. A post office was opened at Edgcomb's Clearing in 1873; the locals petitioned the United States Post Office to change the name to "Cherryville", for a nearby group of Black Cherry trees. However, since there was already a Cherryville, Pennsylvania, post office in Lehigh Township in Northampton County, the name "Cherry Spring" was chosen as a compromise. In time an "s" was added, hence the name "Cherry Springs". There are also at least two springs in the park.
Cherry Springs State Park
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Cherry Springs began attracting stargazers in the early 1990s. In 1999 the "Dark Sky Fund" was established and continues "to enhance the stargazing and astronomy experience" by funding improvements at the park. In 2000 Cherry Springs was officially named a "Dark Sky Park" by the DCNR, and that same year it became part of the Hills Creek State Park complex, an administrative grouping of eight state parks in Potter and Tioga counties. The headquarters for Cherry Springs are at nearby Lyman Run State Park. The National Public Observatory picked it "as the pilot for the Stars-n-Parks program" in April 2001. The DCNR acquired the Cherry Springs Airport in 2006 "to expand the overall Dark Sky observation area and allow for increased programming opportunities" at the park, and closed it in 2007. On June 11, 2008, the International Dark-Sky Association named Cherry Springs State Park the second "International Dark Sky Park". (The first was Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah.) In 2018, the section of Pennsylvania Route 44 passing through the park was named Highway to the Stars, following an effort led by photographer Curt Weinhold, a Potter County resident, and legislation sponsored by State Representative Martin Causer and approved by Governor Tom Wolf.
Cherry Springs State Park
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Cherry Springs State Park was named Pennsylvania's first dark sky park by the DCNR in 2000. The adjoining Cherry Springs Airport, built in 1935, was closed and its land was added to the park in 2006, to expand its stargazing area. On June 11, 2007, the International Dark-Sky Association named it the second "International Dark Sky Park"; under optimum conditions the Milky Way casts a discernible shadow. Cherry Springs has received national press coverage and hosts two star parties a year, which attract hundreds of astronomers. There are regular stargazing and educational programs for the public at the park, and the Woodsmen's Show attracts thousands each summer. Cherry Springs also offers rustic camping, picnic facilities, and trails for mountain biking, hiking, and snowmobiling. The surrounding state forest and park are home to a variety of flora and fauna.
Cherry Springs State Park
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Japan gave 3,020 cherry blossom trees as a gift to the United States in 1912 to celebrate the nations' then-growing friendship, replacing an earlier gift of 2,000 trees which had to be destroyed due to disease in 1910. These trees were planted in Sakura Park in Manhattan and line the shore of the Tidal Basin and the roadway in East Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. The first two original trees were planted by first lady Helen Taft and Viscountess Chinda on the bank of the Tidal Basin. The gift was renewed with another 3,800 trees in 1965. In Washington, D.C. the cherry blossom trees continue to be a popular tourist attraction (and the subject of the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival) when they reach full bloom in early spring. Just outside of Washington, D.C., the suburb of Kenwood in Bethesda, Maryland has roughly 1,200 trees that are popular with locals and tourists.
Cherry blossom
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The park has had several names through the years, starting with its 1922 establishment as "Cherry Springs Scenic Drive" and the associated "Cherry Springs 'Class B' public campground". The 1941 Pennsylvania Department of Highways official map of Potter County shows it as "Cherry Springs State Park". On November 11, 1954, the Pennsylvania Geographic Board officially named it "Cherry Springs State Forest Picnic Area". Forrey's 1984 "History of Pennsylvania's State Parks" and the 1986 NRHP nomination form still used this name, but Forrey clarified that it was "under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of State Parks". Cupper's 1993 "Our Priceless Heritage: Pennsylvania's State Parks 1893–1993" refers to it as "Cherry Springs State Park", and this remains the official name as of 2009.
In the post-war era, the park was long known chiefly for its isolated location and primitive camping facilities. In August 1952 it played host to the first Woodsmen's Carnival, an annual celebration of the lumbering industry, which was again active in the second growth forests in the area. The festival, originally sponsored by the Penn-York Lumbermen's Club, features lumberjack competitions as a reminder of the past, as well as displays of new equipment. In 1987 the Galeton Rotary Club took over sponsorship, and renamed the event the Woodsmen's Show in 1990.
Cherry Springs State Park