Conestoga River
Encyclopedia
The Conestoga River, also referred to as Conestoga Creek, is a 61.6 miles (99.1 km) tributary
of the Susquehanna River
flowing through the center of Lancaster County
, Pennsylvania
.
(a small area rises in Chester County
). The East Branch and West Branch of the Conestoga join to form the main river just north of Morgantown
, and the stream flows from northeast to southwest for more than 60 miles (96.6 km), passing close to the center of Lancaster
and ending at Safe Harbor
along the Susquehanna River, approximately 16 miles (25.7 km) north of the Pennsylvania-Maryland state line
.
The principal tributaries of the Conestoga River are Cocalico Creek
, Mill Creek
, and Little Conestoga Creek
; they drain into the Conestoga River watershed in the order listed. The Conestoga River and its principal tributaries comprise approximately 114 stream miles, and they drain a watershed
area of approximately 217 square miles (562 km²) if the main stream is alone considered, rising to 491 square miles (1,271.7 km²) when the Cocalico, Mill, and Little Conestoga Creek watersheds are also included.
-speaking Susquehannock
people, called the Susquehannocks by the English of Maryland and Virginia (an Algonquian
name, Sasquesahanough, meaning "people of the muddy river") and the Conestoga by the English of Pennsylvania (from Kanastoge, meaning "place of the immersed pole", the name of their village in Pennsylvania). The village of Conestoga was reported to have two thousand inhabitants in the 17th century, and up to seven thousand people or more may have then lived in the watershed of the Conestoga River. By the early 18th century most of the Conestoga-Susquehannock were compelled to move to the Ohio
area, where they gradually lost their distinctiveness as a nation. In 1763 the remaining Susquehannocks at Conestoga were attacked by the Paxton Boys
, a group of anti-Indian vigilantes, who killed six of them at their village of Conestoga, and, two weeks later, despite official protection, killed fourteen of the remaining sixteen at the Lancaster
workhouse. The two surviving Conestoga-Susquehannock worked as servants on a local farm until they died and were buried there.
The first steamboat
in America floated on the stream in 1763. In the 19th century the name of the stream gained wider recognition with the spread of the Conestoga wagon
, first built in and named after this valley. The wagon assisted the transportation of freight throughout the east, and later was adapted to help transport goods to the western frontier of the United States
. So many cigars were made in the watershed in the late 19th century that a local cigar named the Conestoga became known as the stogie throughout the US. Though the stream is hardly the size generally designated a river, local boosterism in the late 19th century insisted that any stream holding scheduled commercial transport should be so called; steamboat service to a local amusement park along its banks barely qualified, but the designation caught on. The name Conestoga has also been applied to the Conestoga Rocket, a rocket produced from Minuteman I
parts and launched from Matagorda Island, the ship Conestoga
, which is a popular diving wreck in the Thousand Islands
, the C-93 Conestoga cargo aircraft, and, in Star Trek
, the name of the starship used in the failed first attempt at deep space colonization.
. Many covered bridge
s span its banks. Northeast of Lancaster city are many Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite
farms; horse and carriage traffic frequents local roads. Many small dams impound its waters, most of them built long ago to power mills or generate electricity. Most dams are in disrepair and have been abandoned, though there is an active movement to remove as many as possible. Seven were removed between 1996 and 1999.
http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/bridge/CBHunsecker.html, Pinetown Bushong's Mill Covered Bridge http://www.coveredbridgesite.com/pa/pinetown.html, and Pool Forge Covered Bridge
http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/bridge/CBPool.html. Another bridge, Kurtz's Mill Covered Bridge
http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/bridge/CBKurtz.html, spanned the Conestoga River before it was removed to a new location. Zook's Mill Covered Bridge
http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/bridge/CBZook.html spans Cocalico Creek
just upstream from its confluence with the Conestoga. A notable concrete bridge over the Conestoga River is the Bridge in West Earl Township
.
Tributary
A tributary or affluent is a stream or river that flows into a main stem river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean...
of the Susquehanna River
Susquehanna River
The Susquehanna River is a river located in the northeastern United States. At long, it is the longest river on the American east coast that drains into the Atlantic Ocean, and with its watershed it is the 16th largest river in the United States, and the longest river in the continental United...
flowing through the center of Lancaster County
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Lancaster County, known as the Garden Spot of America or Pennsylvania Dutch Country, is a county located in the southeastern part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of 2010 the population was 519,445. Lancaster County forms the Lancaster Metropolitan Statistical Area, the...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
.
Geography
Its headwaters rise mostly in southern Berks CountyBerks County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 373,638 people, 141,570 households, and 98,532 families residing in the county. The population density was 435 people per square mile . There were 150,222 housing units at an average density of 175 per square mile...
(a small area rises in Chester County
Chester County, Pennsylvania
-State parks:*French Creek State Park*Marsh Creek State Park*White Clay Creek Preserve-Demographics:As of the 2010 census, the county was 85.5% White, 6.1% Black or African American, 0.2% Native American or Alaskan Native, 3.9% Asian, 0.0% Native Hawaiian, 1.8% were two or more races, and 2.4% were...
). The East Branch and West Branch of the Conestoga join to form the main river just north of Morgantown
Morgantown, Pennsylvania
Morgantown is a populated place in Caernarvon Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with a zip code of 19543. It is at an elevation of 597 ft at 40° 9' 18"N and 75°53' 23"W.-General History:...
, and the stream flows from northeast to southwest for more than 60 miles (96.6 km), passing close to the center of Lancaster
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...
and ending at Safe Harbor
Safe Harbor, Pennsylvania
Safe Harbor, Pennsylvania is a small unincorporated community located within Conestoga Township in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, USA.The general location was an early staging area for native American tribes traversing the Susquehanna River from the settlements surrounding Conestoga and present...
along the Susquehanna River, approximately 16 miles (25.7 km) north of the Pennsylvania-Maryland state line
Mason-Dixon line
The Mason–Dixon Line was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon in the resolution of a border dispute between British colonies in Colonial America. It forms a demarcation line among four U.S. states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and...
.
The principal tributaries of the Conestoga River are Cocalico Creek
Cocalico Creek
Cocalico Creek is a tributary of the Conestoga River in Lebanon and Lancaster counties in Pennsylvania in the United States. The source is at an elevation of near Stricklerstown in Millcreek Township, Lebanon County...
, Mill Creek
Mill Creek (Conestoga River)
Mill Creek is a tributary of the Conestoga River in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the United States.Mill Creek joins the Conestoga River near the community of Lyndon.-References:...
, and Little Conestoga Creek
Little Conestoga Creek
The Little Conestoga Creek is a tributary of the Conestoga River in Pennsylvania. The Landis Mill Covered Bridge crosses the creek.The name of the creek comes from the Susquehannock Kanestoge, meaning "at the place of the immersed pole". This was the name of the principal Susquehannock...
; they drain into the Conestoga River watershed in the order listed. The Conestoga River and its principal tributaries comprise approximately 114 stream miles, and they drain a watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
area of approximately 217 square miles (562 km²) if the main stream is alone considered, rising to 491 square miles (1,271.7 km²) when the Cocalico, Mill, and Little Conestoga Creek watersheds are also included.
History
The stream was named after a small tribe of the indigenous IroquoianIroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
-speaking Susquehannock
Susquehannock
The Susquehannock people were Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries from the southern part of what is now New York, through Pennsylvania, to the mouth of the Susquehanna in Maryland at the north end of the Chesapeake Bay...
people, called the Susquehannocks by the English of Maryland and Virginia (an Algonquian
Algonquian languages
The Algonquian languages also Algonkian) are a subfamily of Native American languages which includes most of the languages in the Algic language family. The name of the Algonquian language family is distinguished from the orthographically similar Algonquin dialect of the Ojibwe language, which is a...
name, Sasquesahanough, meaning "people of the muddy river") and the Conestoga by the English of Pennsylvania (from Kanastoge, meaning "place of the immersed pole", the name of their village in Pennsylvania). The village of Conestoga was reported to have two thousand inhabitants in the 17th century, and up to seven thousand people or more may have then lived in the watershed of the Conestoga River. By the early 18th century most of the Conestoga-Susquehannock were compelled to move to the Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
area, where they gradually lost their distinctiveness as a nation. In 1763 the remaining Susquehannocks at Conestoga were attacked by the Paxton Boys
Paxton Boys
The Paxton Boys were a vigilante group who murdered 20 Susquehannock in events collectively called the Conestoga Massacre. Scots-Irish frontiersmen from central Pennsylvania along the Susquehanna River formed a vigilante group to retaliate against local American Indians in the aftermath of the...
, a group of anti-Indian vigilantes, who killed six of them at their village of Conestoga, and, two weeks later, despite official protection, killed fourteen of the remaining sixteen at the Lancaster
Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...
workhouse. The two surviving Conestoga-Susquehannock worked as servants on a local farm until they died and were buried there.
The first steamboat
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
in America floated on the stream in 1763. In the 19th century the name of the stream gained wider recognition with the spread of the Conestoga wagon
Conestoga wagon
The Conestoga wagon is a heavy, broad-wheeled covered wagon that was used extensively during the late 18th century and the 19th century in the United States and sometimes in Canada as well. It was large enough to transport loads up to 8 tons , and was drawn by horses, mules or oxen...
, first built in and named after this valley. The wagon assisted the transportation of freight throughout the east, and later was adapted to help transport goods to the western frontier of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. So many cigars were made in the watershed in the late 19th century that a local cigar named the Conestoga became known as the stogie throughout the US. Though the stream is hardly the size generally designated a river, local boosterism in the late 19th century insisted that any stream holding scheduled commercial transport should be so called; steamboat service to a local amusement park along its banks barely qualified, but the designation caught on. The name Conestoga has also been applied to the Conestoga Rocket, a rocket produced from Minuteman I
LGM-30 Minuteman
The LGM-30 Minuteman is a U.S. nuclear missile, a land-based intercontinental ballistic missile . As of 2010, the version LGM-30G Minuteman-III is the only land-based ICBM in service in the United States...
parts and launched from Matagorda Island, the ship Conestoga
Conestoga (ship)
The Conestoga was an iron-clad wooden steam freighter, 252 ft by 36 ft with a 16 ft hold, constructed in Cleveland by Quale & Son for the Anchor Line, of Erie, PA,and launched July 6th, 1878....
, which is a popular diving wreck in the Thousand Islands
Thousand Islands
The Thousand Islands is the name of an archipelago of islands that straddle the Canada-U.S. border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for about downstream from Kingston, Ontario. The Canadian islands are in the province of Ontario, the...
, the C-93 Conestoga cargo aircraft, and, in Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
, the name of the starship used in the failed first attempt at deep space colonization.
Watershed
Land use along the stream has been traditionally agricultural, though spreading urbanization has affected the stream with erosion problems. Though extremely scenic, the Conestoga River is drastically impaired from nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, mostly runoff from animal waste and excessive commercial fertilizer. Other pollution sources are sediments from intense cropping, development, and urban runoff. The stream flows through a pastoral landscape farmed extensively by Pennsylvania German farmers and along the eastern and southern outskirts of the city of LancasterLancaster, Pennsylvania
Lancaster is a city in the south-central part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat of Lancaster County and one of the older inland cities in the United States, . With a population of 59,322, it ranks eighth in population among Pennsylvania's cities...
. Many covered bridge
Covered bridge
A covered bridge is a bridge with enclosed sides and a roof, often accommodating only a single lane of traffic. Most covered bridges are wooden; some newer ones are concrete or metal with glass sides...
s span its banks. Northeast of Lancaster city are many Old Order Amish and Old Order Mennonite
Old Order Mennonite
Old Order Mennonites is a branch of the Mennonite church. Although the term strictly refers to one particular group, it is often used to refer to those groups of Mennonites who practice a lifestyle without some elements of modern technology.-Overview:...
farms; horse and carriage traffic frequents local roads. Many small dams impound its waters, most of them built long ago to power mills or generate electricity. Most dams are in disrepair and have been abandoned, though there is an active movement to remove as many as possible. Seven were removed between 1996 and 1999.
Crossings
Covered bridges along the Conestoga include Hunsecker's Mill Covered BridgeHunsecker's Mill Covered Bridge
Hunsecker's Mill Covered Bridge is a covered bridge located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The bridge has a single span, wooden, double Burr arch trusses design. The bridge, which spans the Conestoga River, is 180 feet long, making it the longest single span covered bridge in...
http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/bridge/CBHunsecker.html, Pinetown Bushong's Mill Covered Bridge http://www.coveredbridgesite.com/pa/pinetown.html, and Pool Forge Covered Bridge
Pool Forge Covered Bridge
Pool Forge Covered Bridge is a covered bridge that spans the Conestoga River in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The bridge is now on private property where it was once used as a storage barn before the owner added a road to receive vehicle traffic.The bridge has a single span,...
http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/bridge/CBPool.html. Another bridge, Kurtz's Mill Covered Bridge
Kurtz's Mill Covered Bridge
Kurtz's Mill Covered Bridge is a covered bridge that spans Mill Creek in the Lancaster County Park in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States...
http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/bridge/CBKurtz.html, spanned the Conestoga River before it was removed to a new location. Zook's Mill Covered Bridge
Zook's Mill Covered Bridge
Zook's Mill Covered Bridge is a covered bridge that spans Cocalico Creek in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. A county-owned and maintained bridge, its official designation is the Cocalico #7 Bridge. The bridge is also known as Wenger Covered Bridge or Rose Hill Covered Bridge...
http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/bridge/CBZook.html spans Cocalico Creek
Cocalico Creek
Cocalico Creek is a tributary of the Conestoga River in Lebanon and Lancaster counties in Pennsylvania in the United States. The source is at an elevation of near Stricklerstown in Millcreek Township, Lebanon County...
just upstream from its confluence with the Conestoga. A notable concrete bridge over the Conestoga River is the Bridge in West Earl Township
Bridge in West Earl Township
The Bridge in West Earl Township, as it is designated on the National Register of Historic Places, is also known by its historic name, Big Conestoga Creek Bridge No. 12. It carries Farmersville Road across the Conestoga River at Brownstown, West Earl Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in...
.
External links
- U.S. Geological Survey: PA stream gaging stations
- Map of old Conestoga River
- Aerial image of Conestoga River flowing east and south of Lancaster, PA
- Conestoga River near Slackwater, PA
- Little Conestoga Watershed Alliance
- Conestoga Trail map - northern section (Links to other sections of the trail are found on the right at this link.)
- summary description of Conestoga Trail
- another Conestoga Trail map
