GALETON – There’s only one place in the world where a person can
earn fame and fortune by rolling a log, racing a frog, spitting
tobacco, or remaining perched on a shortening-covered slippery log
while being pummeled with a pillow.
It’s the Bark Peelers’ Convention, one of the region’s most
popular tourist attractions. Now in its 33rd year at the
Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, along U.S. Route 6 in central Potter
County, the convention is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday,
opening at 10 a.m. each day.
“Fame and fortune” may be an overstatement, but the museum does
provide cash prizes and recognition for a wide array of
audience-participation activities, all in keeping with the spirit
of the 1890-1910 era.
That’s when timber was king throughout northcentral
Pennsylvania.
There are events for children and adults, as well as exhibits
and attractions blending entertainment with hands-on education
about timber harvesting, wood products and local history.
The Bark Peelers Convention roughly re-creates the annual
summertime celebrations lumber camp workers held to mark another
successful season in the woods.
Diaries and other records from that era reveal that the
lumberjacks traditionally tested their skills in tobacco spitting,
frog racing, ax throwing, greased pole endurance and, for the more
adventurous, “birling.”
That’s a competition that pits contestants on opposite ends of a
huge log set afloat in the lumber mill pond.
The contestant who remains standing after all of the others have
plunged into the drink is the winner.
Winners of the convention’s birling contest (Sunday, 2 p.m.) and
the tobacco spitting competition (Saturday, 3:30 p.m.) can boast of
being the “Pennsylvania State Champions.” In the latter, whoever
launches a sizzler against the pot-bellied wood stove from the
longest distance is the winner.
Novices might have a better chance in the greased pole contest
(Saturday, 2:30 p.m.), always a convention favorite. A huge log of
white pine hangs horizontally a few feet over a sawdust pile. Two
at a time, contestants try to remain on the log as they pound away
at each other with soft pillows.
For youngsters, the Bark Peelers Convention offers the frog
jumping contest (Sunday, 11 a.m.). You can bring your own frog, or
choose from an assortment of leapers captured at the mill pond just
for the occasion.
In true lumber camp tradition, there’s also a fiddling contest
(Saturday, 4:15 p.m.).
Most people attend the convention to watch, relax and learn.
Visitors can climb above the stationary Shay locomotive that once
rolled logs to market. They can watch wood craftsmen at work,
stripping bark from freshly cut timber, carving, producing wooden
shingles or whittling. A blacksmith demonstrates how horseshoes
were made a century ago.
Chainsaw carver Bob Huff will demonstrate his special artistry.
The mess hall will provide slices of the massive log-shaped
chocolate cake or a buttered muffin, fresh from the wood-fired
oven. There’s also a chili-cooking contest and competition for
apple pie-bakers.
Steam-powered equipment from yesteryear will be in operation,
still producing veneer, ax handles, canes and other wood
products.
Entertainment includes performances both days by the popular jug
band, Sadie Green Sales, and colorful interpretive/musical programs
presented by Rich Pawling’s “History Alive” series.
Additional information on the Bark Peelers Convention is
available by contacting the museum, or visiting the Lumber Museum
Web site.
