Very interesting chapter of local history. Thank-you for sharing it. So that's where Slackwater Road gets it's name. -----------------------
The strange history of Lancaster's forgotten port dates to 1825, with the formation of the Conestoga Navigation Co.
It used slackwater navigation — and a series of nine locks — to transport goods and passengers from Lancaster city, using a terminus in what is now Lancaster County Park, to Conestoga Township, where the mouth of the Conestoga River meets the Susquehanna River.
From there, according to Ken Hoak, president and curator of the Conestoga Historical Society, mules were used to pull boats out across the width of the Susquehanna River on an edifice known as a "crib dam," a long, manmade structure extending west to York County and made from sturdy wooden boxes filled with rocks and other ballast.
The crib dam, Hoak said, made it possible for people and animals to walk shoreline to shoreline across the Susquehanna River in the mid-19th century.
salty
Actually, the route that I live on, Route 41, was a major Conestoga wagon shipping route from Newport, DE to all parts of PA. According to DELDOT's history of this area, there were many historical taverns and inns as well along this route but very few survive today. Although Route 41 is considered a secondary road, it is still used as a major shipping route by truck convoys to and from the Port of Wilmington. Anyone who lives on or near can vouch for the heavy traffic and prolific convoys transporting everything from bananas to live chickens.
Perhaps Lancaster's forgotten port could be opened to the public to serve as a look back in time before railroads and automobiles and the inevitable progress that drastically changed the lives and landscapes of those who once used mules to aid in navigation in the mid-19th century. I, for one, would be anxious to learn more about this crude form of traversing the waterways.
