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Ode to the Conestoga

James D. Law was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in 1865. After his marriage to Agnus Duff in 1886, he emigrated to the United States and lived in Camden, New Jersey. Law was a business man, involved in various industries. He, together with his son, began making motion pictures...

Adam Reigart

Adam Reigart, Jr. (1765-1844) was a prominent Lancaster citizen who seems to have been involved in many organizations around the borough/city. He apparently was well respected by his peers because he seems to have been elected president of every new enterprise in the town. His father, Adam Reigart Sr. (1739-1813), was...

Allegheny Portage Railroad

When the Erie Canal opened in 1825, linking New York to the Great Lakes, Pennsylvanians became concerned that their markets would be left behind. So Pennsylvania began building its own canal called the "Main Line of Public Works". The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad connected to port...

A Hike to the First Lock

Lancaster Township Engineer Benton Webber and I have been researching information about the Conestoga Navigation Company that operated a slackwater navigation system on the Conestoga River between Lancaster and the Susquehanna River. The company operated from 1829 until about 1857. The first lock in the system was...

Conestoga Fun Facts

In this post I will look at some general information about the Conestoga River. Hopefully you will find this interesting.  The more time I spend photographing the river the more I come to realize that we have a tremendously beautiful natural resource right in our back yards....

Bridges

This week I will highlight some of the non-covered bridges on the Conestoga River. I featured the covered bridges in an earlier post. I'm not going to attempt to document all of the bridges that cross the river but just a few that show a variety of...

Rocky Springs

No treatise of the Conestoga River would be complete without mentioning Rocky Springs Park. Rocky Springs played a major part in the social fabric of Lancaster City and County for nearly a century.

Conestoga Navigation Company

From 1829 through approximately 1857, the Conestoga Navigation Company operated a slackwater canal between Lancaster and Safe Harbor. Passengers and freight could board a barge at Reigart's Landing on South Prince Street and travel down the Conestoga to the Susquehanna. From there, the traffic crossed the Susquehanna...

Lancaster County Park

Today I am going to cover the stretch of the river that borders the Lancaster County Park. This is the stretch that starts at the South
Duke street bridge, runs along the road through Williamson Park and loops up close to Chesapeake Street at the main entrance of...