Changing Technologies and Forest Consumption in the Upper Delaware Valley, 1790–1880

Abstract

Forest clearing wasan essential and often taken-for-granted part offrontierfarming in the early nineteenth century. FHS photo collection. I n the two centuries following initial white settlement of the American Northeast, "clearing the land" became part of the background image of developing American society. This destruction of the wilderness has generally been viewed as a necessary and beneficial aspect of the nation's growth, and the deforestation process has consequently been understudied. The removal of the woods has been seen as simple and straightforward: trees were cut down , and cultivated fields and pastures replaced them. This uncomplicated notion disguises what was in truth a complex of subtle yet critically important relationships between human endeavors and forest ecology. The interaction between forests and the human population of New York's upper Delaware valley illustrates one aspect of the relationship between humans and nature on the early American frontier. During the era of the new republic, settlers on the northern frontier possessed a limited array of cultural and technological means to overcome nature's restrictions on economic growth. The most obvious of the natural impediments was the vast expanse of uncut forest. Initially settlers struggled to removethe woods primaril y to create new farmland. Pioneers in the upper Delaware shared in this process and experienced many of the social, economic, and environmental challenges encountered by frontier residents throughout the middle Atlantic region.