Towns Named for Pine Trees

The United States has named many of our towns, cities, and villages after trees; pines are among them. The Pines, Pine Furnace, Pine Waters, Pine Hill... and countless others, all in Pennsylvania.

Why all these towns named after pines? Well, for one thing, these trees were once more common than they are now (though they are still widely seen) in the woods. Secondly, pine wood, a softwood, is easy to cut, so next to the hardwoods, the settlers would have used them more often for basic structures and shelters. Third, pines are a contrast to the wintry landscape, standing out and providing for a quick name. Fourth, pines provided the valuable resource of pitch, widely harvested not too long ago. Fifth, after the soils of the south were drained of nutrients, the southerner's --poorer by the year-- began to see their second opportunity after cotton was made less practical after the Civil War, by the pine tree's (growing where few other plants will) wood being valued more than it is today.

There are surely other reasons and explanations as well. The point is, pines are evidently worthy of being named in hundreds, or thousands, of towns, along with countless ridges, hills, hollows, creeks, rivers, runs, etc.