Bringing Back the Blue and State Game Lands 168 By Joe Kosack The Blue Mountain was looking more lunar than any place in the state. Life mostly had been driven from it. T HE MOUNTAIN was dead. Smothered for decades by emissions of zinc, lead and cadmium from a zinc-smelting operation along Aquashicola Creek, the Blue Mountain south of Palmerton had an eerie resemblance to a moonscape. The Blue Mountain has definitive historical significance, once serving as a barrier between colonial Pennsylvania and the wilderness. It is the first ridge of the Appalachians for much of southeastern Pennsylvania, and it remains an important destination for 10 many deer hunters. It also has been home to the Appalachian Trail since the 1930s and serves as the southernmost safe zone for the state's ever-expanding blackbear population. North of the Blue in Carbon County, Palmerton was incorporated in 1912 and grew with the New Jersey Zinc Co.'s zinc-smelting business. The town was named after one of the company's executives, Stephen S. Palmer. The plant, which began operations WWW.PENNGAMENEWS.COMhttp://WWW.PENNGAMENEWS.COM