Cook Forest State Park

Cook Forest State Park is a 8,500-acre (3,440 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Farmington Township, Clarion County, Barnett Township, Forest County and Barnett Township, Jefferson County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is a heavily wooded area of rolling hills and mountains along the Clarion River in northwestern Pennsylvania. Cook Forest State Park is known for some of America's finest virgin white pine and hemlock timber stands and was once called the "Black Forest" due to the preponderance of evergreen tree coverage.

Cook Forest is now a National Natural Landmark and was rated one of America's top 50 state parks by National Geographic Traveler magazine. It was chosen by the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and its Bureau of Parks as one of "25 Must-See Pennsylvania State Parks".

History

When European-Americans reached this part of Pennsylvania it was inhabited by the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. They used this area as a hunting grounds; the land of Cook Forest was then purchased by the English. Seneca Rock is still named after the first inhabitants, and the Paramount Pictures' film "Unconquered" was shot here in 1946 by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard.