Woods

Without the hills our history would be different. The hills of Washington Township prevented the development of cities while they produced income and industry. They are essential as the source of the springs and streams that sustained a community for nearly three centuries. But they are not so spectacular that they attracted a world tourist trade.

The hills of the township are a broken section of the "Reading Prong" of the South Mountain, that last highest ridge before the Kittatiny or Blue Mountain itself.

The hills consist of an extrusion of igneous rock generally parallel to the shale along the Montgomery County line. The valley floor in the northern two-thirds of the Township is predominantly limestone with a greater degree of sandstone and shale to the south.

The hills were covered with a mature hardwood forest difficult for us to imagine. The cover of ancient trees was so extensive that no one thought it important to describe it in detail.

Vast areas of the virgin forest would have had little underbrush. There are indications that travel beneath the limbs of the oak, beech, walnut and chestnut was relatively easy on horseback. Natural fires caused by lightning may have opened the occasional natural meadow. Buffalo (bison) and wolves were native throughout much of Pennsylvania. Deer were not as plentiful when the mature forest had little browse. Beaver, elk and bear, however, were common residents as were the huge flocks of passenger pigeons, now totally extinct.

Nuss

The abundance of arrowheads found in area fields attest to the good hunting the Lenape Indians enjoyed here.

Washington Township's hills reach an altitude of 1040 feet on the Crow Hill ridge above Bally, between Kulp Road and the northern boundary of the township. A hill between Heydt's School House and Forgedale is only slightly lower, at 1020 feet in elevation. The low point is 360 feet where the Swamp Creek leaves the Township along the southern boundary.

Excerpted from "CONTINUING THE VISION -- PRESERVING THE VALUES", the history of Washington Township prepared to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the Township's establishment. Copyright 1990, Washington Township Historical Committee.

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