Dennison Run is the tract's biggest attraction. It is a high-quality stream that flows 3.25 miles, and its ravine is filled with giant boulders, wildflowers, ferns and mosses.

Dennison Run is specially managed. It is described by the state as an exceptional value watershed with a reproducing native brook trout population.

The trail system near Dennison Run and in the southern part is restricted to hiking. All other trails are open to mountain biking, horses and cross-country skiing. You can make a 7.3-mile loop on the Iron Furnace, South, Kennerdell, Overlook and Dennison Run trails.

Only primitive camping is permitted in the Kennerdell Tract. Boat camping is also permitted on the Allegheny River.

The Kennerdell Tract, sometimes called the Allegheny River Tract, has a varied history: farming, timbering, iron and charcoal making and oil development. The iron-making era ran from the 1830s to the 1850s.

In 1840, William Cross built what was called the Bullion Furnace on Bullion Run in Clinton Township on state game land property. No mortar was used; the sandstone blocks were cut to fit.

It operated for about 10 years with a crew of eight or nine men. It consumed one acre of forest every day it operated. It was shut down in the summer so the workers could farm.

The colliers (charcoal makers) cut the trees and stacked them in piles that were covered with dirt. The piles were then burned in a smoldering fire that turned the wood into charcoal. Small flattened areas containing charcoal can be found on hillsides near the furnace.

Iron ore was mined in shallow open pits along the hillsides. The pits, with trees up to 2 feet in diameter growing in debris piles, are evident in many places.

The furnace could produce up to three tons of iron per day. It was hauled to the Allegheny River by cart or sled and loaded on rafts to be floated to Pittsburgh.

A section of the furnace was damaged by ice in 1959. A 100-ton chunk of iron sits nearby in Bullion Run. The foundation of an old house sits about 100 yards from the furnace.

The first white man to travel the Allegheny River Valley was French missionary Louis Hennepin in 1611. He was a Franciscan friar.

The area was occupied by the Seneca Indians when the first white settlers arrived in the 1740s. There is even what's left of an Indian petroglyph, the Indian God Rock, on the Allegheny River's east bank five miles south of Franklin. What was carved into the rock is barely visible now.

Keelboats traveled the river in the 1790s and steamboats came in 1828. In the early 1800s, logging was the major industry.

The early mills were generally on streams and cut mostly white pines. Most of the timber and boards were then made into rafts and floated downstream to Pittsburgh.

Logging railroads were developed in the 1860s. By 1905, nearly all the virgin forest had been cut. The second-growth forest that followed the timbering contained many more hardwoods than the original forest.

Kennerdell offers its own overlook above the Allegheny River on the east bank. You simply drive through Kennerdell on Kennerdell Road and ascend the hillside. The overlook with its kiosks offers a look at the river valley and the Kennerdell Tract.

For more information, contact Clear Creek State Forest, 814-226-1901, www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/stateforests/clearcreek/index.htm.

For tourist information, contact the Franklin Area Chamber of Commerce, 888-547-2377, www.franklinareachamber.org. Also, the Oil Region Alliance, 800-483-6264, www.oilregion.org.

Bob Downing: bdowning@thebeaconjournal.com