"Pennsylvania accounts for over 60 percent of the wood distillation industry. Prior to the rise of the petrochemical industry in the 1920s, all of our industrially important organic chemicals, notably acetone and methanol, were distilled from wood. Heavy resin-free species like sugar maple and beech made the best chemical wood. An established railroad network, an abundance of hardwoods, and a copious supply of fuel in the form of coal and natural gas makes northern Pennsylvania the center of the chemical wood distillation industry."

from Coastal Wilderness to Fruited Plain, p.188.