Northern Cambria is not only the upper region ofCambria County, it is also the new name of twocentury-old villages, Barnesboro and Spangler, that havemerged to become a millennium entity.Located high in the Allegheny Mountains of westernPennsylvania, the region was once covered by virginforests. In time, the dense acreage led to the developmentof numerous sawmills, from which logs were floated all theway downriver to what was then the lumbering capital ofthe world, Williamsport. Miles of scenic farmland werecleared and cultivated.Then, in the mid-1800s, rich coal veins were foundbeneath the Cambrian hills. As word of this discoveryspread, mines opened throughout the region. Within ashort time, immigrants from far and near streamed intothe region to work in the mines. Soon, rail lines wereconstructed to serve the coal fields. High school graduatesbecame miners and dubbed the mines "Dust College."Coal had become king.
Sr. Anne Frances Pulling has written four other Arcadia books: Around Cresson and the Alleghenies, Around Central Islip, Babylon by the Sea, and Windmills and Water Mills of Long Island. For Northern Cambria, she has gathered a stirring collection of images and has woven them together with wonderful details and stories that go deep into this high mountain region.