The history of the Loyalsock state forest goes back to 1929, when following the great lumber era the Pennsylvania Department of Forests and Waters, a precursor to the modern Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, began purchasing land from the Central Pennsylvania Lumber Company. Much of it had been devastated by logging and wild fires, but it would go on to create the Wyoming State Forest. Throughout the forest ran a network of narrow gauge railroad tracks on which steam powered locomotives had pulled flatcars loaded with logs to sawmill towns that grown up overnight and disappeared just as quickly. During the 1930s and early 1940s the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), developed camps which replaced these, now ghost, sawmill towns and logging camps. CCC Camps 80, 95, 96, 126, 128, and 145 were all located within the Loyalsock State Forest. The Hillsgrove Ranger Station is actually located on the site of old Camp 96.
