It was said that at one time, Sweet Root Creek was so full of fish that you could catch enough in two hours to feed your family for a week.  After the drought of 1911-1913, everything changed.  Today in some of the deepest holes, you may find a few native brown trout if you're lucky. 

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There are 69 acres of virgin Hemlock still standing at the foot of Tussey Mountain, but because it is so deep inside the Sweet Root Gap, it is impossible to harvest.

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The Civilian Conservation Corp camp at Sweet Root (site #S-142) was originally erected to provide housing and work detail for WWI Veterans and itinerants.  It was established in 1935.  Another camp in the Buchanan State Forest was on Martin Hill; it housed all the black C.C.C. enrollees near Blankley Park (S-154).  Today, if you take a walk in to Sweet Root Gap, you will see stone foundations of the C.C.C. garage.  Going further in to the Gap, you can make out where some of the barracks and the mess hall stood, and the paths that ran between them.

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In the 1940's, there was a plan to build a 35-40 acre artificial lake in this area.  Instead, on July 15, 1957, the Sweet Root Park was officially opened.  The park covers about two acres of the 256-acre tract that Albert Adams sold to the state in the mid-thirties at the cost of approximately $1000.  The park was equipped with 16 picnic tables, concrete and metal fireplaces, a hand pump for water, and rest room facilities.  The C.C.C. enrollees who lived in the park in the mid 1930's had cleared most of the area.

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In 1970, the State Forest Commission designated 1400 acres of the "Sweet Root Natural Area" to be "preserved for scientific, scenic, and educational values".  No motorized activities are allowed.  Then in 1979, the natural area was also designated for amphibian and reptile protection (no killing or taking of).  Sweet Root Natural Area is one of the ten designated natural areas of western Pennsylvania.  Bedford County boasts of having two of these areas in Southampton Township.  The other one is Pine Ridge, on top of the mountain above Chaneysville.

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