Without natural resources, life itself is impossible. That is a quote attributed to the Keystone State's own Gifford Pinchot, the 28th governor of Pennsylvania and the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service under President Theodore Roosevelt.
As a young man with family who had settled in the Delaware Valley, Pinchot was determined to establish forestry as a legitimate occupation. The trouble was, according to historical records, no American university at the time offered that degree.
He traveled to France to study instead, then came back to work here in PA, earning him the nickname father of the conservation movement.
It was under his guidance that the National Park Service was created and his home in Milford, Pike County, is known as Gray Towers, a national historic landmark donated to the Forest Service to serve as a museum and training center for future foresters.
