Quebec Run Wild Area

While surveying the Mason–Dixon line in 1767, the English astronomer Charles Mason and a team of colonial surveyors ascended Chestnut Ridge and passed within three miles of the southern tip of Quebec Run. Mason described the area in his journal as "a wild of wildes: the laurel overgrown, the rocks gaping to swallow up, over whose deep mouths you may step. The whole is a deep melancholy appearance out of nature.”{{cite book

|title=French Perceptions of the Early American Republic 1783-1793

|year=1988

|publisher=American Philosophical Society, 1988

|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dKBKSiIICH8C

| author=Peter P. Hill

|isbn=9780871692269

|access-date=2014-03-02

|pages=371

}}{{cite web

| url=http://www.psu.edu/dept/nkbiology/hike/pdf/QuebecRun.pdf

| author=W.E. Hamilton, D.Y. Sillman

| title = Between Stones and Trees: An Ecologist Hikes Western Pennsylvania

| work=Quebec Run Wild Area

| access-date = 2014-03-02}}{{cite web

| url = http://www.kansas.com/2010/09/28/1515441_pa-wilderness-doesnt-give-up-its.html

| archive-url = https://archive.today/20140303112701/http://www.kansas.com/2010/09/28/1515441_pa-wilderness-doesnt-give-up-its.html

| url-status = dead

| archive-date = 2014-03-03

| title = Pa. Wilderness Doesn't Give Up Its Gold, But Hikers Will Enjoy Trek In Area Where Loot Is Believed Hidden

| date = 2010-09-28

| author = BOB DOWNING

| publisher = Akron Beacon Journal

| access-date = 2014-03-02

}} At this time Quebec Run was blanketed by old-growth forest dominated by American chestnut, eastern hemlock, oak, and maple.

Quebec Run Wild Area has since seen extensive logging activity. The area was most recently harvested between 1938 and 1940 by the Summit Lumber Co. of Uniontown. Evidence of this activity lingers to the present day, as seen by the remnants of old logging roads and the presence of brown sawdust piles. The vestiges of a building foundation situated along Mill Run marks the site of a saw mill which was built in the late 1930s or early 1940s.{{cite web | url=http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/ucmprd1/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_002563.pdf | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110601130032/http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/ucmprd1/groups/public/documents/document/dcnr_002563.pdf | url-status=dead | archive-date=June 1, 2011 | title = Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry: Forbes State Forest | work=Quebec Run Wild Area | publisher = Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources | access-date = 2012-05-20 }}

A local legend exists about a group of Confederate soldiers who buried a large cache of gold, allegedly stolen from nearby Union banks during the Civil War, just north of the stream known as Quebec Run. While no evidence has been found to support this story, several excavation sites believed to be attempts to recover the gold still exist and are accessible from Hess Trail.{{cite book

|title=60 Hikes within 60 Miles, Pittsburgh: including Allegheny and surrounding counties

|year=2006

|publisher=Menasha Ridge Press

| author=Donna L. Ruff

|isbn=9780897325912

|pages=207–210

}}

Quebec Run Wild Area has been managed as a wild area since 1972{{cite web

| url=http://www.naturalheritage.state.pa.us/CNAI_PDFs/Fayette%20County%20NHI%202000%20WEB.pdf

| title = FAYETTE COUNTY NATURAL HERITAGE INVENTORY

| work = Upper Quebec Run Watershed BDA

| date = July 31, 2000

| publisher = Western Pennsylvania Conservancy

| access-date = 2014-03-04 }}

but was not officially designated a Pennsylvania state forest wild area until 2004.

[[File:Quebec Run waterfall Fayette County Pennsylvania 2013-12-06.jpg|thumb

|One of many waterfalls found along Quebec Run

|alt=Waterfalls along the Quebec Run stream]]

Today Quebec Run Wild Area is a healthy third-growth forest in the Appalachian mixed mesophytic ecoregion. The woods are composed of chestnut oak, red oak, red maple, black cherry, eastern hemlock, and pine. Mountain laurel and northern maidenhair fern are common along the higher slopes and ridges, while wood nettle and rhododendron thickets line the banks of many streams. Wildlife includes white-tailed deer, beaver, skunk, wild turkey, red fox, coyote, timber rattlesnake, bobcat, and American black bear.

Several fast moving, rocky streams flow through the area, including Hess Run, Tebolt Run, and Quebec Run. These streams intersect many of the area's trails, and all are tributaries of Big Sandy Creek.

The limestone solutional cave known locally as Barton’s Cave lies within the upper reaches of the Quebec Run watershed. The cave is used by bats for hibernation and is frequently visited by cavers.

The Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources states that "a wild area is an extensive area, which the general public will be permitted to see, use and enjoy for such activities as hiking, hunting, and fishing." Hiking is therefore permitted on all trails in Quebec Run Wild Area, while cross-country skiing, mountain biking, and horseback riding are permitted on designated trails. A permit is required for camping only when staying in the same location for more than one night. As a state-designated wild area, bathrooms and rest areas are not available at Quebec Run. Patrons are advised to carry an adequate supply of drinking water.

The Quebec Run Natural Area includes a network of six interconnected and maintained hiking trails totaling more than 23 miles.{{cite book

|title=Backpacking Pennsylvania: 37 Great Hikes

|publisher=Stackpole Books

| author=Jeff Mitchell

|date=30 December 2004

|location=Mechanicsburg, PA

|isbn=9780811731805

|pages=214–216

}} The network includes the Miller Trail, Telbot Trail, Rankin Trail, Mill Run Trail, and Hess Trail, with a variety of difficulty levels and forest ecosystems.Thomas Thwaites, 50 Hikes in Western Pennsylvania, 3rd edition. Countryman Press, 2000, {{ISBN|978-0881504736}}

{{Portal|Pennsylvania}}

• List of Pennsylvania state forest wild areas
• List of Pennsylvania state forests

{{reflist|2}}

{{Protected areas of Pennsylvania}}

Category:Protected areas of Fayette County, Pennsylvania