There is a rugged knot of mountains where Cumberland, Franklin, and Perry Counties come together, crossed now by roads with odd names such as "Cow Pen Road" or "Three Square Hollow Road". It is lovely in the Fall with the foliage in bright color and again in the late spring when the mountain laurel froths in sunlit openings. The Tuscarora Trail and other roads and trails make it accessible to the casual driver or serious hiker. Here and there occasional clearings hint at some long forgotten mountaintop farm.
This area, stretching from above Roxbury to Henry Valley on the Laurel Run Road, was once more than a hunter or hikers' paradise. It was a vital part of the agrarian economy of the area for nearly a hundred and fifty years. From the late 1700's until 1908 this was "open range" for the local farmers' livestock.
After the danger from attack by Indian raiders on the frontier during the 1750's and 60's ended, settlers began to establish the townships at the foot of the Blue Mountain in Cumberland County and Sherman's and Scheaffer Valley in Perry County. The townships of Upper and Lower Mifflin, and Hopewell in Cumberland County; Jackson and Toboyne in Perry; and Lurgan and Fannett in Franklin were settled and cleared.
Following the centuries-old pattern from Europe, herds were taken up to the high pastures in late spring. They were rounded up and sorted out in early fall. These mountain pastures were not as treeless as the ones Germanic settlers were accustomed to in the Black Forest, Jura, or Vosges area of central Europe, nor the open moorland of Dartmoor, Yorkshire, and Scotland in Britain, but woods pasturage was used all over Europe. In Europe, a few herders stayed with the herds all summer, and used the milk to make cheeses. This was done on the Welsh "hafods" or mountain farms, and the "sennereis" of the Germanic areas.
The North Mountain provided a large, easily accessible area to use for pasturing. Native Americans had used periodic fires to keep down the underbrush and promote grazing by animals they hunted, such as deer, elk, and woods bison. There remains only the faintest hint of what may have been done in the mountain pastures in this area. A valley not too far from Fowler Hollow State Park was used to access the flats and was formerly called "Cheese Hollow" according to the memories of former residents of the area who also recall shacks, cabins, and a few hermits living in the area.
Cattle, sheep, and hogs were driven up the ridges in late May and left for the summer. At first, wolves may have been a problem, especially for the sheep. This only gave the settlers a further incentive to eradicate them. There was little or no competition for grass from grazing wild animals. Unchecked hunting had reduced the deer and elk herds to insignificant numbers. Only the name "Elk Hill" (near Col. Denning State Park) remains. A Perry County man in the late 1800's said the first deer he ever saw was one his father shot while they were out hunting. The boy was horrified, thinking his father had shot a calf belonging to the mountain herds. There is some evidence turkeys might also have been pastured on the mountains. There is an area called the "Turkey Pens" on the north side of Bower Mountain, and turkeys were known to have been driven to markets by drovers.
There were no roads to the mountain flats for many years. The Three Square Hollow road followed an Indian trail. Farmers drove their herds by foot, carrying salt for them on their backs. The open woodland made for easy hiking up to the pastures.
The Old Salting Place was located near the present intersection of the Tuscarora Trail, the Old Ramp Road (now a trail) and Three Square Hollow Road. In the early days of the mountain pasturage salt did not come in blocks, so the herdsmen carried bags of salt up the trails. Selecting a boggy spot such as the head spring of the south branch of Laurel Run, a tree could be felled and holes bored into it. Loose salt could be poured into the holes, and perhaps watered to get the salting process started. The natural leaching of salt through the tree and into the damp soil could create a "salt lick".
When John Bratton, editor of the American Volunteer newspaper, paid a visit to the village of Churchtown in April 1875, and then wrote about it in his newspaper, little did he know he would rile up the editor of a competing newspaper and send him off on his own trip to Churchtown.