History of Duck Harbor Pond: Lookout, the Joel Hill Saw Mill, and 12,000 Years on a Wayne County Lake. Duck Harbor Pond is a roughly 230 acre glacial lake in Damascus Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania, formed at the end of the Wisconsinan ice age about 20,000 years ago. The Lenni Lenape used the area for seasonal hunting along the upper Delaware. In 1865 the Joel Hill Saw Mill was built along the pond’s outlet, and the village of Lookout grew up around it. The Lookout Post Office ran from 1889 to 1969. The 1903 Pumpkin Flood destroyed the original water wheel; it was rebuilt with an iron globe turbine by 1905. The mill ceased commercial operation in 1974 and is the only water-powered mill of its kind remaining in northeastern Pennsylvania, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Joseph and Nancy Harcum founded The Woods at Duck Harbor between 1988 and 1991 as a private 960 acre community designed around five acre minimum lots, buried utilities, and 150 foot riparian buffers along the lake.
Duck Harbor Pond formed at the end of the last glaciation when retreating Wisconsinan ice and morainal debris dammed the existing drainage in what is now northern Wayne County, Pennsylvania. It sits at approximately 1,391 feet of elevation and drains east through Equinunk Creek into the Delaware River. Long before any name on a map, the pond and surrounding hemlock and white pine forest were used by the Lenni Lenape (Delaware), specifically the Minsi branch, for seasonal hunting and fishing. Paleo-Indian occupation of the broader region dates back roughly 12,000 years.
The tract that includes the pond was surveyed in 1773 for the William Penn family proprietors and designated Equinunk Manor, 2,222 acres of hemlock and pine. Connecticut settlers moved in through the late 1700s and early 1800s, clearing small upland farms.
In 1865, lumbermen William Holbert and John D. Branning built a water-powered sawmill along the outlet of Duck Harbor Pond. The Joel Hill Saw Mill used a 51 inch saw blade running at 850 RPM and processed roughly 5,000 board feet of hemlock lumber per day with only three men. Through the late 19th century, nearly 90 percent of Wayne County logs were hemlock, sent down the Delaware River on rafts to Easton, Trenton, and Philadelphia. The village of Lookout grew up around the mill; its post office was established in 1889. In 1898, former state senator Joel Hill Sr. bought the mill and roughly 1,500 acres of timberland from the Holberts, including the 205 acre Duck Harbor Pond as it was deeded at the time. The 1903 Pumpkin Flood destroyed the original water wheel; by 1905 it was rebuilt with a modern iron globe turbine. As primary hemlock ran out, the Duck Harbor Lumber and Chemical Company took over much of the surrounding land in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, running chemical kilns that converted smaller hardwoods into charcoal, wood alcohol (methanol), and acetate of lime. The Lookout Post Office closed in 1969, and the mill ceased commercial operation in 1974 after 109 continuous years.
Joseph and Nancy Harcum acquired roughly 1,650 acres of the former Duck Harbor Lumber and Chemical Company holdings between 1985 and 1988. They founded The Woods at Duck Harbor between 1988 and 1991 as a private land community designed around five acre minimum lots, all utilities buried, stone aggregate roads doubling as walking trails, 150 foot deed-restricted riparian buffers along the lake, and active wetland habitat protection in the Drake, Long, and Hickory tributary areas. Joe Harcum donated the Joel Hill Saw Mill to the Equinunk Historical Society, securing its long-term preservation. By adjoining roughly 10,000 acres of Pennsylvania State Game Lands 159, the community now serves as an ecological bridge for contiguous Atlantic Flyway forest habitat.
Duck Harbor Pond is a glacial lake formed roughly 20,000 years ago at the end of the Wisconsinan glaciation, when retreating ice and glacial debris blocked the existing drainage in what is now northern Wayne County, Pennsylvania.
Early surveyors recorded the water as part of the "Little Equinunk pond" system, but it was renamed Duck Harbor because of the large flocks of waterfowl that gathered there during seasonal migrations along the Atlantic Flyway.
Lookout was the late 19th and early 20th century village that grew up around Duck Harbor Pond and the Joel Hill Saw Mill in Damascus Township, Wayne County. The Lookout Post Office was established in 1889 and closed in 1969, after which the area’s postal identity shifted to Equinunk.
The Joel Hill Saw Mill was a water-powered hemlock sawmill built in 1865 along the outlet of Duck Harbor Pond. It used a 51 inch saw blade at 850 RPM and processed roughly 5,000 board feet of lumber per day. It was rebuilt with an iron globe turbine after the 1903 Pumpkin Flood and operated until 1974. It is the only water-powered mill of its kind remaining in northeastern Pennsylvania and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Joseph and Nancy Harcum acquired roughly 1,650 acres of the former Duck Harbor Lumber and Chemical Company between 1985 and 1988, and founded The Woods at Duck Harbor between 1988 and 1991 as a private land community designed around five acre minimum lots, buried utilities, stone aggregate roads, and 150 foot riparian buffers along Duck Harbor Pond.