The Flora of the Shades State Park, Indiana, and the Geographical Distribution of the Species

The great number of deeds issued in west-central Indiana within a few years of the completion of the original land survey of 1820 justifies the supposition that the fertile till-soils of the region were an alluring indemnification for the hardships necessarily borne by the first colonists. The fertility of the land, however, was concomitantly to result in the decimation of the forest-covered acres of that portion of the State within half a century. Record (40) in a resume of forest conditions in Montgomery County, Indiana, related that, Trees and saplings were cut and their trunks were made into corduroy roads. Regular logging bees were held and tree after tree was cut, rolled together, and burned. The best (trees) were cut into rails or hewn into sills, or used for firewood