Conestoga River

The Conestoga River meanders for about sixty miles through the fertile farmlands of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania until it empties into the Susquehanna River. The Conestoga gets its name from a village of Susquehannock people that were living in the area in the 17th century. The name of their village was “Kanastoge” which means “place of the immersed pole”. The stream, and the valley through which it flows, were called “Conestogo” by the English. The name eventually changed to the current spelling, “Conestoga”.

The name “Conestoga” was made famous in many other ways, most notably by the Conestoga wagons that served as the primary haulers of freight before the invention of the steamship. Also, in the 19th century, a cigar made from the tobacco of the valley, and favored by the teamsters, was called the Conestoga, usually shortened to “stogie”.

For most of its history, the Conestoga was known as a creek. But it has been designated a river in 1973. More recently, in 2026, the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) along with the Pennsylvania Organization for Watersheds and Rivers, awarded the Conestoga as Pennsylvania’s River of the Year.

For more about the Conestoga, pick up a copy of my book.

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Or a coffee table photo book of the river.

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Not Turner's noted crook of Lune,
Nor Byron's wide and winding Rhine,
Nor Burn's banks of Bonny Doon,
Nor boasted Tweed, nor lauded Tyne,
Nor Spey, nor Tay, nor Don, nor Dee,
Nor Shakespeare's Avon, still more fine.
E're seemed so beautiful to me --
As tranquil Conestoga!

- James D. Law