History
In May 1903, the governor of Pennsylvania established the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy in Mont Alto. It was one of the first forestry schools in the nation along with the Biltmore Forestry School and the Yale Forestry School. The School of Forest Resources was established in 1907 as the Department of Forestry at The Pennsylvania State College, four years after the start of the Pennsylvania State Forest Academy at Mont Alto. The Penn State program absorbed the State Forest Academy in 1929. A wood products undergraduate curriculum was added in 1941, and a wildlife and fisheries science curriculum was added in 1981. Over 100 years later, the Forest Academy, now Penn State Mont Alto, still educates America’s foresters as well as students in many other academic programs. Today, the School of Forest Resources proudly continues its three missions of resident education, research, and outreach in Forest Science, Wildlife and Fisheries Science, and Wood Products.
Yearbooks
These yearbooks are from the Pennsylvania State
Forest Academy.
Forest Echoes, 1947-50, 1959-61
These yearbooks are from the Pennsylvania State
University School of Forestry, Mont Alto Branch.
Books
Forestry Education in Pennsylvania
by Henry Clepper
A century of forest resources education at
Penn State: serving our forests, waters,
wildlife,and wood industries by Gerhold, Henry D.
A history of the Pennsylvania State Forest
School, 1903-1929 by Thomas, Elizabeth H.
Mira Dock Forestry Lantern Slides
468 glass lantern slides of Mira Lloyd Dock (1853-1945), a renowned Pennsylvania environmentalist, botanist, and educator. The images were most likely used in lectures at the Pennsylvania State Forest School in Mont Alto or in public lectures promoting the City Beautiful movement in the early 1900s.
George H. Wirt, An Interview
The George H. Wirt interview (PDF) was conducted by Charles D. Bonsted, The Forest History Society, Durham, NC.
March 1959
George Wirt was Director of the State Forest Academy at Mont Alto, 1903-1910 and Pennsylvania's first state forester.
