Bogus Rocks

A pretty entertaining movie that got totally overlooked by the world was Transsiberian, a 2008 "neo-noir" Sundance thriller starring Woody Harrelson. As I set out in quest of "Bogus Rocks," I was reminded of the film: long expanses of abandoned railroad tracks stretch through miles of the level pinewoods. This is a dark, eerie quarter of the forest, silent and blanketed in snow. The terrain could definitely pass for Siberia, or Yakhutsk...or Irkhutsk.

Bogus Rocks don't get their name from being made of styrofoam. They're real rocks, and big ones at that. Once, long ago, this part of the forest was blessed with an industrial site called "Bogus-Something-0r-Other," and the name stuck long after the factory disappeared. Bogus was surely the name of the guy who owned the factory, although when I was young, and could still get away with using pop slang (back in the days of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure) "bogus" meant something roughly equivalent to today's "lame"...which Bogus Rocks are not.

The stream that runs through this part of the forest is called Bogus Run, too.

Bogus Rocks are a long stand of boulders overlooking a broad basin-shaped valley, or depression, in the forest floor. Several streams flow through the valley, and local legend has it that there was once an "Indian fort" here. Others say that the Indians used the valley to corral livestock...which seems pretty unlikely to me. Not because it wouldn't make a great natural corral, but because...what kind of livestock would they have corralled? Elk?

In any case, earlier inhabitants of Kane asserted that there were wooden pens, earthworks, and defensive ramparts in the slopes above the valley. Some say that you can still see ancient carving in the rocks themselves, but I find nothing.


In the 1920s, an archaeologist from the U. of Rochester documented a site somewhere around this area, and he called it a "hilltop stronghold" claiming that it was bulit by "proto-Erian" people 600 to 800 years ago. He collected pottery and other artifacts. That's pretty cool because so little is known about the Erie Tribe that originally inhabited this region. The Senecas in nearby New York State exterminated them in the early 1600s, but left their land largely unoccupied.

Nevertheless, I have my doubts about whether Bogus Rocks are indeed the site of the archaelogist's "Indian fort." The site of Bogus Rocks is in Howe Township, Forest County. The history books situate the old Indian fort in Highland Township, Elk County. True: Bogus Rocks are very close to the line between these two backwoods political entities, but---unless I'm very much mistaken---it's still on the wrong side. That gives me reasonable doubt that the locals are right in saying that Bogus Rocks is the same site as the old Indian fort.

Bogus Rocks make a great hiking destination. There's an overlook, seen in the second photo. In the third photo, you see an icy cliff edge dropping off to the forest floor thirty feet below. The fourth pic shows some sort of lair among the rocks. I couldn't identify the tracks, but whatever creature lives behind those icicles has itself a nice little pad up there. Is it a porcupine? It climbs high into the trees to eat off the bark.

Strangely, hiking guides of the ANF don't tell you how to get to Bogus Rocks, so take note! Go to Chaffee, the intersection where PA948 leaves PA66 and heads toward Warren. Continue on PA66 toward Marienville, but only go about one mile. Reach a Y in the road where the pavement (PA66) veers to the left, and a dirt road (Chaffee Road) continues due west. Take Chaffee Road into Forest County, and cross the railroad tracks two times. Park at the second railroad crossing, and follow the tracks to the right. After less than half a mile, there's a sign and a well-worn path off to the right.