Is the Conestoga a creek or a river? People who grew up along its banks and fished or swam in its waters often prefer to call it the Conestoga Creek. Or, as it is pronounced in the vernacular, “crick”. The signs along the major highways that cross...
Welcome to Mill Monday! It’s time to feature another one of Lancaster County Pennsylvania’s water-powered grist mills. Today we feature the Brownstown (aka Wolf’s) mill on the Conestoga River in West Earl Township.
The first mill on this site was a log mill built...
On Saturday, April 10, I had the opportunity to participate in a kayaking trip on a portion of the Conestoga at the invitation of Todd Roy, president of the Conestoga River Club. One of the goals of this trip was to scout out some locations for an...
During the 17th century, the North American fur trade was big business. Fur-lined coats with fur collars were highly prized in the European markets. Beaver fur was especially desired because the underside of the coat was waterproof. This lining of tightly packed hairs was used to make...
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....
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...
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.
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...
In this post I will write about the covered bridges that span the Conestoga River.
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...
