Pennsylvania Colony's Natural Resources: Forests, Minerals, Water & Land That Built an Economy

Pennsylvania's colonial prosperity wasn't accidental—it was built on a resource portfolio that would make any 17th-century investor salivate. Here's what the colony had and how it used it.

1. Forests: The Original Wealth

• Coverage: ~90% of colony forested (white pine, oak, chestnut, hemlock, maple)
• Products: Ship masts (white pine — Crown reserved), barrel staves, shingles, planks, charcoal
• Export: To Caribbean (sugar mill fuel), England (naval stores), other colonies
• Iron industry fuel: Charcoal from colliers' pits fed furnaces — 1 acre forest = ~30 tons charcoal = ~1 ton iron

2. Minerals: The Industrial Seed

• Iron ore: Magnetite/hematite in Cornwall, Morgantown, Hopewell — 1716 first furnace (Colebrookdale)
• Coal: Anthracite (NE) — not mined commercially until 1800s; bituminous (SW) — later
• Copper: Small deposits, limited colonial extraction
• Lead: Minor, mostly imported
• Legacy: Pennsylvania became #1 U.S. iron producer by 1776

3. Water: Power & Transport

• Rivers: Delaware (east), Susquehanna (central), Ohio/Allegheny/Monongahela (west)
• Water power: Gristmills, sawmills, fulling mills, forge hammers — every fall line site utilized
• Transport: Flatboats, arks, Durham boats moved grain, iron, lumber downstream
• Canals (late colonial): Schuylkill Canal chartered 1792 (post-colonial but planned earlier)

4. Land: The Agricultural Engine

• Soils: Limestone valleys (Lancaster, Lebanon, York) = world-class wheat
• Crops: Wheat (cash), corn (feed), rye, barley, flax, hemp, apples
• Export: "Breadbasket of the Revolution" — fed Continental Army, Caribbean islands
• Tenure: Penn's "quitrent" system (annual fee) vs. fee simple — encouraged settlement

5. Wildlife: Subsistence & Trade

• Deer, elk, bear, turkey, passenger pigeon (extinct 1914), beaver, otter, muskrat
• Furs → European hat market (beaver = currency equivalent)
• Meat supplemented diets; hides → leather

6. Oil & Gas: The Sleeping Giant

• Oil seeps known (Seneca Oil Spring, 1750s)
• Drake Well (1859, Titusville) = world's first commercial oil well — on colonial-era land grants
• Natural gas, coalbed methane — 19th/20th C. development

Synthesis

Resources + Quaker governance (religious tolerance, fair Native relations initially) + Philadelphia's port + Penn's planned city → diverse economy: agriculture + iron + milling + trade. By 1776, Pennsylvania was the colonies' economic center of gravity. The resources didn't just enrich—they defined the colony's revolutionary role.