Old CCC Truck Trail

Approximately 27% of Pharsalia Woods State Forest is conifer plantations established by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) with most of the remaining area in a mix of mature stands of native hardwoods. Tall, dark stands of planted Norway spruce are interrupted by blocks of young forest created after a tornado touched down on the forest in 1998. The roadside fire ponds with laid up stone and neatly channeled waterways recall the fastidious work of the CCC. A woodland cemetery pays tribute to Revolutionary War heroes, and the miles and miles of stone walls are monuments to the brute labor necessary for transforming forest into farmland. The cows and plows are gone but the walls remain as a reminder of both faded agriculture and nature's power to reclaim the fields. From NY.Gov.