Pine Creek had flowed northeasterly until about 20,000 years ago, when the receding Laurentide Continental Glacier dammed it with rocks, soil, and other debris.

Glacial meltwater formed a lake near the present town of Ansonia, and when it overflowed the debris dam, the creek flooded to the south.

[7] Within the park, Pine Creek and the walls of the gorge "visible from the opposite shoreline"[8] are also protected by the state as a Pennsylvania Scenic River.

However, there was much local opposition to its inclusion, based at least partly on mistaken fears that protection would involve seizure of private property and restricted access.

Eventually this opposition was overcome, but Pennsylvania did not officially include it as one of its own state Scenic and Wild Rivers until November 25, 1992.

It protected the creek from dam-building and water withdrawals for power plants, and added public access points to reduce abuse of private property.

[11] The forests near the three original counties, Philadelphia, Bucks, and Chester, were the first to be harvested, as the early settlers used the readily available timber to build homes, barns, and ships, and cleared the land for agriculture.

The demand for wood products slowly increased and by the time of the American Revolution the lumber industry had reached the interior and mountainous regions of Pennsylvania.

[11] Trees were used to furnish fuel to heat homes, tannin for the many tanneries that were spread throughout the state, and wood for construction, furniture, and barrel making.

Rifle stocks and shingles were made from Pennsylvania timber, as were a wide variety of household utensils, and the first Conestoga wagons.

[13] In 1879 Henry Colton, who worked for the Williamsport Lumber Company, supervised the cutting of white pine on the land that became the park, which was then owned by Silas Billings.

Deadman Hollow Road in the park is named for a trapper whose decomposed body was found in his own bear trap there in the early 20th century.

Lumber on Fourmile Run that had been previously inaccessible was harvested and transported by train, initially to Leonard Harrison's mill at Tiadaghton.

The soil was depleted of nutrients, fires baked the ground hard, and jungles of blueberries, blackberries, and mountain laurel covered the clearcut land, which became known as the "Pennsylvania Desert".

White-tailed deer, beaver, turkeys, black bears, river otters, and bald eagles inhabit these woods.