The view of the northern end of Cammal in the 1890s shows the Baptist church, the railroad station, Thomas Bonnell’s Pine Creek House Hotel (just above the “pointer” at the top of the water tower by the tracks), and the Oregon and Texas Railway, a logging railway (named after two Lycoming County mountains east of Cammal), branching off to the left to go six miles up Mill Run

Five Miles north of Jersey Mills, the village of Cammal once bustled with lumbering activity rivaled only by the village of Slate Run six miles further north. With its Wood and Childs hemlock sawmill, wood pipe mill, and mine prop operations, Cammal prospered at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.

Although the postal village of Cammal was not established until 1884, with James Lomison as its first postmaster, the pioneer Campbells (whose contracted name became that of the village) arrived well before that. In the second decade of the 19th century, Michael Campbell settled about one mile north of Cammal, farming there his whole life. Abner and George Campbell, his brothers, built a mill on Mill Run.

….For more great information and photos about the Blackwell area please purchase “Pine Creek Villages” by: David Kagan

Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, Pine Creek Valley.com, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or www.arcadiapublishing.com.