RiverRoots: Felling Penn’s Woods

River Roots is Susquehanna NHA’s blog series featuring history from York and Lancaster Counties that showcases the Susquehanna River’s historic, cultural, and natural resource contributions to our nation’s heritage.

RiverRoots Heritage Blog

Long before canals or railroads, lumber rafts transported cut timber, coal, pig iron, and farm produce through Pennsylvania. The abundance of streams and rivers throughout the state brought the lumber industry to all regions of the Commonwealth. In the early 1800s, 2,500 to 3,000 arks and rafts traveled from upstate Pennsylvania from April through October. The Susquehanna River powered the lumber industry from the colonial era to the industrial revolution.

Felling Penn’s Woods

Trees covered more than 90% of Pennsylvania’s 28,692,480 acres when European settlers first laid eyes on Penn’s Woods. The white pines, oaks, and hemlocks were so tall and dense that Europeans thought that the forests were endless. The most sought-after timber was the Pennsylvania white pine. They were ideal for ships’ masts since those trees grew straight and resisted warping and wood rot. Nothing was more valuable than a blemish-free, 200-foot-tall white pine. They were so treasured that governments passed laws to protect them.

Pennsylvania provided the natural resources that fueled the country’s rapid expansion. In the 1680s, the sounds of axes and crosscut saws echoed across the forests of Pennsylvania as the colony’s first sawmills drove up the demand for lumber. Lumbermen felled trees along the Susquehanna River’s West and North Branches in the winter. The frozen ground provided a packed surface on which the logs could be more easily dragged by man or animal. Moving logs up and down mountains with primitive tools and methods was difficult and dangerous. It was not uncommon for heavy loads to skid out of control. Loggers made equipment like sleds and ox yokes onsite. The transport mode available to move the logs to market limited the amount of timber that lumbermen could harvest.

Once out of the woods, lumbermen hauled the logs to streams and rivers, where they stored the wood until the spring thaw. When the waterways flooded, the logs could float down to the sawmills. The same tributaries powered early sawmills by utilizing water wheels or elastic poles. When the water froze in winter, the sawmills couldn’t operate. Employment in the logging industry was as cyclical as the agricultural field. Winter was for felling trees, spring was for transporting logs, and summer and fall were for milling and finishing the lumber. This provided year-round employment for lumbermen.

White pine logs were very buoyant and, therefore, valued for rafts and boatmaking. They could float even while carrying a heavy load. Eastern hemlocks were also popular. Hemlock bark is rich in the tannic acid used in leather tanneries, and the wood was suitable lumber. Workers carefully bound white pine logs together with pliant hickory sticks, which left no marks or damage on the valuable wood. They squared off the timber with axes and fastened them together with oak or hickory pins into floating platforms. The log platforms ranged in length from 30-80 feet.

Most of the timber cut in Pennsylvania floated down waterways via rafts made of logs lashed together, with oars attached at either end. A crew used long oars, under the guidance of an experienced pilot, to maneuver down the winding tributaries that eventually flowed into the Susquehanna River.

Types of Rafts

Spar Raft: Made by lashing tall, straight tree trunks together. These rafts could be 80-100 feet long, and many still had bark attached.

Timber Raft: Made of squared or timbered logs that had been partially milled into square lumber, much the shape of a railroad tie.

Lumber Raft: This raft consisted of logs that had already been sawed into lumber at a sawmill and could be sold as ready-to-use lumber.

River Ark: These had flat bottoms and were constructed in such a manner as to allow the transport of cargo such as pig iron, coal, farm produce, and other commodities from northern Pennsylvania.

Running the River

The lumber industry depended on Pennsylvania’s three main river systems: the Delaware River in the east, the Susquehanna through the center, and the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers, which converge to form the Ohio River, in the west. The Susquehanna River became a highway for timber rafts. By 1796, rafts from both the north and west branch were heading downstream in droves. The west branch was often seen jammed with thousands of floating platforms in the spring. Wood arks transporting cargo downstream from New York were much more common on the north branch.

It was not uncommon for these rafts and their crews to float 300 or more miles downriver. Some rafts passed the river towns heading to Havre de Grace or Port Deposit, and from there on to southern markets. Locally, workers offloaded cargo and disassembled rafts, then sold the logs to one of the many sawmills. Marietta, Columbia, Wrightsville, and Washington Boro were popular places to off-load timber rafts, because the river was more treacherous below Turkey Hill. These river towns grew into industrial towns along the Susquehanna River.

One newspaper from the mid-1800s reported, “if a person were to stand on the banks of the Susquehanna at Washington Boro, look north to Columbia, then south to Turkey Hill, they would see a river clogged with arks and rafts anchored and ready to offload their cargo.”

The swift and dangerous waters below Turkey Hill kept many vessels from reaching the Chesapeake Bay. Local newspapers published a few accounts describing the beauty and the dangers of rafting down the Susquehanna. Daily Evening Express published, “On a Raft” on April 29, 1867. The Intelligencer Lancaster published a story called “Journey Down the Susquehanna.” on August 18, 1875. Lancaster New Era shared on April 21, 1887, “Down the River on a Raft.” Despite the dangerous last leg of the journey, some men rode logs downriver to sell them for shipbuilding in the Chesapeake Bay.

The men who journeyed downriver on the fresh freshets of spring knew they were in for a daring adventure. Pennsylvania raftsmen were cowboys of the river. The rafting was risky and, by nature, rivermen were reckless. Raftsmen needed an abundance of determination, brawn, and skill to deliver timber to market in the early 1800s.

It took thousands of men, braving the icy waters, to keep the millions of board feet moving downstream. The noise of raftsmen mixed with melodies from banjos, fiddles, and harmonicas and filled the air during their rough journey downriver. When they arrived in southern Pennsylvania towns, they engaged in rowdy behavior. Drinking, gambling, and fighting were commonplace, as lumber payouts meant the local taverns would be busy.

At the peak of the rafting days, several hotels opened in the river towns of Marietta, Columbia, and Washington Boro. Of course, there were “parlor houses,” “bed-houses,” and “disorderly hotels” where the ladies offered companionship. Raftsman spent a night or two, then returned home. Some raftsman brought their horse for the return trip, but most returned on foot, walking hundreds of miles back upriver.

The period of 1750-1850 was the most active time of travel on the Susquehanna River. In the early 1800s, from April through October, 2,500 to 3,000 arks and rafts traveled from upstate Pennsylvania. They brought coal, lumber, pig iron, and farm produce of all varieties. The rafting industry reached its peak by 1840. The ever-expanding railroad soon put the local canals out of business.

The advent of steam power in the early 1800s rapidly expanded Pennsylvania’s lumber industry. However, the Williamsport boom really powered the industry. In the fall of 1849, construction began on the massive Williamsport boom. The boom was a series of piers anchored into the riverbed that caught the floating timber. Its purpose was to bring the sawmills to the logs rather than the logs to the mills. Steam sawmills lined the riverbanks near the boom to process the hundreds of thousands of logs it held more efficiently. Williamsport became a boom town for lumber as men made their fortunes and workers flooded North and West to clear the hills.

By the 1850s, the boom’s capacity increased to 300 million board feet to keep up with Pennsylvania’s burgeoning iron furnace production. Come springtime, there were so many logs packed into the boom that you could walk on them from one side of the Susquehanna to the other. Within a short time, Williamsport became known as the “lumber capital of the world” because of its thriving lumber industry. After the Civil War broke out in 1861, the nation needed more lumber than ever. According to the Bureau of the Census, lumber production in the United States grew from 3 hundred million board feet in 1799 to 8 billion board feet in 1859, and to more than 12 billion by 1869.

The boom kept the timber industry thriving on the Susquehanna for almost 70 years. By the late 1880s, geared steam engines revolutionized the Pennsylvania timber industry by giving logging companies access to vast stands of previously inaccessible old-growth forests. It was cheaper to bring logs to Williamsport by rail than by river. Timber barons built railroads into Pennsylvania’s northern woods and used portable sawmills to cut wood on-site and haul it directly to the market. With the railroad, loggers no longer had to wait until the spring thaw.

No longer dependent upon streams and rivers to float the logs to towns with mills, logging became a year-round operation. The more intensive logging accelerated the cutting of trees, leaving behind a scarred and barren landscape. Soon, little remained of the great forests of northern Pennsylvania. A flood in 1889 broke the Williamsport boom and washed masses of lumber down the river.

Rise of the Conservation Era

As Pennsylvania’s forests faded, so did the importance of the lumber industry in Williamsport. The collapse of the boom cemented its decline. When the boom broke, it set hundreds of millions of board feet of lumber loose on the Susquehanna. Temporary sawmills were set up along the riverbanks and most of the logs were recovered. In May 1908, the Susquehanna Boom Company disbanded. The following year, the boom was dismantled, ending the era of rafting on the Susquehanna River. The last commercial raft floated down the Susquehanna in 1917 and was sold to a mill in Marietta.

Each year between 1850 and 1890, about 2,500–3,000 rafts containing 150–200 million board feet of white pine traveled the West Branch of the Susquehanna. The Intelligencer published the following on June 14, 1833: “The industry quickly escalated over the next decades until the river became a super-highway of rafts. Between the 18th and 23rd of May in 1833, 2,688 arks and 3,480 rafts floated past Danville. That averages out to over 1000 rafts and arks per day or between 1 and 2 rafts every minute of the day. Their cargo was mostly grain and lumber.”

By the 1870s, Pennsylvania’s forests were disappearing. In 1885, Nebraska created Arbor Day as a day to plant trees to celebrate and safeguard forests. Other states followed, and the federal government recognized the need to protect and replenish the country’s wooded regions by the 1890s. It created the Division of Forestry, which established forest reserves around the country. The father of Pennsylvania forestry, Joseph T. Rothrock, became the state’s first forestry commissioner in 1895. Leaders in conservation like Governor Gifford Pinchot, Mira Dock, and J. Horace McFarland worked diligently to educate the public about forests.

By the 1920s, only twenty-five thousand acres of original forest remained. Since a majority of the old-growth forests in Pennsylvania were gone, the Commonwealth purchased thousands of acres of land from lumber companies and began to regulate and reforest the landscape. This gave birth to the modern conservation movement that continues to influence modern-day forestation practices. The Pennsylvania lumber industry continues to exist, but it utilizes new and improved technologies aim to balance the need for wood products with ecological needs.

Learn More
In commemoration of historic log rafting on the Susquehanna River, a group of individuals built a raft and floated down the River. On March 14, 1938, the “Last Raft” set off from Clearfield County for a historical re-enactment down the Susquehanna River. Throngs of people lined the riverbanks along the 200-mile route downriver. As the 112-foot raft passed under a railroad bridge in Muncy, it struck a pier and sank. Seven passengers drowned in the frigid water. Despite the tragedy, the raft journeyed on to Harrisburg, where it was sawed into timber and sold. Learn more about the story of the “Last Raft”.

Learn more about Pennsylvania’s Lumber Industry.

Sources

Brubaker, J. H. (2002). Down the Susquehanna to the Chesapeake. Pennsylvania State University Press.

Lauver, F. (2017, July 11). The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum preserves an industrial history. Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine.

Magee, D. F. (1920). Rafting on the Susquehanna. Lancaster County Historical Society.

Stranahan, S. Q. (1995). Susquehanna, River of Dreams. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.

River Roots: Enola Low Grade

River Roots is Susquehanna NHA’s blog series featuring history from York and Lancaster Counties that showcases the Susquehanna River’s historic, cultural, and natural resource contributions to our nation’s heritage.

RiverRoots Heritage Blog

Pennsylvania Railroad’s Enola Low Grade Line

As we celebrate the re-opening of the Martic Forge Trestle bridge, we look back at how the Enola Low Grade Rail Line came to exist and how it rocked the landscape. This engineering marvel was the dream of Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) President Alexander J. Cassatt. At the turn of the twentieth century, the PRR struggled to keep up with passenger and freight demands. He planned a new line to stretch from Trenton, New Jersey to Enola, Pennsylvania. Lancaster County sat at a crucial location along the route and the proposed line would avoid congested passenger service areas and carve across rural land in the county. The goal was a flat, straight corridor west to the Susquehanna and then north along its shore. The PRR deemed the new line as the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch but many referred to it as the A&S or the Enola Low Grade.

The goal was to keep the grade below one percent and no curve sharper than two degrees. The plan seemed simple until you consider the typography of the land. But the nearly 50-year-old railroad lines in Lancaster County had issues that could not have been easily fixed. For example, the railroad near Gap has significant speed-restricting curves. Steep grades outside of Mountville and Elizabethtown required helper engines. In Lancaster City, the bridge over the Conestoga River had only two tracks despite four lines running to it on both sites. The Atglen & Susquehanna Branch would stretch across southern Lancaster County and then north along the Susquehanna River to the Enola railroad yard. In the end, the line would be as long as the Panama Canal and cost nearly 20 million dollars and over 200 lives.

Noble Road Bridge

Rather than tell the story of constructing the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch, we will move through the line from Atglen to Enola discovering the most significant parts of the project. At Atglen, the new rail line came off the existing mainline at an existing curve. The first challenge was constructing a massive bridge over Noble Road and the East Branch of the Octorara Creek near Atglen. This 60-foot tall stone arch bridge stands at the line dividing Lancaster and Chester Counties. Millions of tons of earth were required to ascend to the bridge height on the easy, one-percent grade demanded by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The rail climbed for 5 miles westward from Atglen to the Low Grade’s highest point at Mars Hill Summit in Bart Township.

It is important to note that the PRR built this line for steam engines, which require water. So beyond a railroad track, the PRR built a water system alongside the A&S. In 1903, the Octorara Water Company formed from seven smaller, municipal water companies. Its only customer was the Pennsylvania Railroad. The railroad main line had four tracks that carried passenger and freight service. The A&S had two tracks for only freight traffic. Together, these tracks used more than 2 million gallons per day from the Octorara Water Company. Remanents from the adjacent water system can still be found today. 

Noble Road Arch bridge under construction Moore Memorial Library, Christiana, PA

A deep ribbon of fill created the low grade desired Moore Memorial Library, Christiana, PA

The Cuts

No section of the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch showed PRR’s commitment to modifying the landscape than the stretch from Quarryville west through Providence Township. In these seven miles, the McManus Construction Company moved 1.3 million cubic yards of rock and earth to create seven cuts, as deep as ninety feet. 1.3 million cubic yards is an unimaginable amount of earth. It is equivalent to over 81,000 full dump trucks. If they leveled it to 3 feet high and 3 feet wide the dirt and soil removed would stretch east to west across Pennsylvania, twice. The digging took nearly a year to complete. The section also required twelve new road bridges and crossings over a dozen streams.

Compressed air drills, sunk pilot holes for dynamite blasting, and steam shovels removed debris in layers. It was piled directly next to the railway creating massive berms. A crew of nearly 300 men followed moving the debris out of the way. It is difficult to find information on the workers that took on these dangerous jobs. We know some were local whites and Blacks, primarily from obituaries and accident reports in the newspapers. Many immigrants also took jobs for the railroad. Newspaper reports mention Italians, Syrians, Germans, and Turks. One local worker remembered that they were taken directly from incoming boats to the job sites. Italian masons did much of the stonework on the two dozen bridges over and under the rails.

Columbia Historic Preservation Society

Columbia Historic Preservation Society

Kline Collection, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

Steel Trestles: Martic Forge and Safe Harbor

Kline Collection, Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania

Columbia Historic Preservation Society

At the Martic Forge, the Pequea Creek sits in a deep ravine with impressive stone cliffs on either side. The PRR sought to span the 635 feet between the stone cliffs with a steel trestle bridge. The bridge had to straddle the creek as well as an existing trolley line (now River Road). In the end, the double-track bridge soared nearly 150 feet over the creek.

Just 3.5 miles passed the Marticville Trestle Bridge was another formidable gap at Safe Harbor. Safe Harbor is located at the confluence of the Conestoga and Susquehanna Rivers. The sheer cliffs along the river posed another arduous obstacle. Unlike the Marticville span, the PRR planned to span the gap below the ridgeline. Thousands of pounds of rock needed to be dynamited off the cliffs to create the wide and flat grade. The contractor H.S. Kerbaugh of Philadelphia was hired for the tremendous project. Kerbaugh had completed numerous projects for the Pennsylvania Railroad including the Rockville Bridge at Marysville in 1900. His job was to create two separate freight roads at a location where one barely fit. 

Nearly 3,000 men worked continuously with drills and explosives to the rock and loam in their way. They drilled hundreds of pilot holes, after which, they hand-passed dynamite up the cliffs. All the dynamite would be placed in the pilot holes and detonated at once. In just one month in 1905, they used 225 tons of explosives that removed over 240,000 cubic yards of material. This was, of course, dangerous work. The newspaper reported deaths regularly with headlines like “Awful Fate of Six Men,” “Four Men Torn to Shreds at Highville,” and “Two Men Burned to Death at Safe Harbor.” Columbian and avid railroad historian, Fred Abenschein, once explained “If you were a WASP, you got your name mentioned when you died. When others died, they were just numbers.” 

The Safe Harbor Trestle Bridge ended up being over 1,500 feet long and over 150 feet above the water. Over the river was a 300′ Pratt truss. Nine additional spans sat at the northern end with seventeen spans on the southern approach. Unexpectedly it also ended up being a dual bridge construction project. The Columbia Port Deposit Bridge over the Conestoga river at this location was washed away just as as trestle project began. Rather than rebuild it at the exact location, the PRR designed a unique two-line, two-level steel bridge. The Columbia & Port Deposit Line was carried over the river, while the Safe Harbor Trestle ran parallel nearly 100 feet higher.

Drilling pilot holes	Hand-passing dynamite up the cliffs
Images above courtesy of Columbia Historic Preservation Society

All that rock and loam debris had to fall somewhere and most ended up in the river. This affect wildlife as well as local residents. A court case from 1913 was found settling a dispute between some local residents and Kerbaugh Construction. The residents own some islands on the Susquehanna River near Safe Harbor totally 136 acres. About 80 acres of the islands were used for agriculture. The owners claimed all the blasting filled the river channel and made it impossible to get to their property. In the end, they owners were awarded about $8,000 for damages. There were no requirements made to clean up or clear the rock from the channel.

Kerbaugh’s Lake

Another massive landscape project happened north of Columbia near Chickies Rock. The rail line followed the shoreline of the river which hugged the massive cliffs. Although the land was flat, it had a curved profile along the cliffs. The PRR was uncompromising with its demands so tons of fill was brought in to build up a straight track through the river. In doing so, they cut off a 3/4 mile-long section of the river. The low-lying swamp that divided the PRR’s old railway with the new one was deemed Kerbaugh’s Lake. Kerbaugh was the primary contractor between Safe Harbor and York Haven. About thirty years later in 1936, the rail line at the lake was significantly damaged by flooding. After repairs, a plan to fill the lake began. By the end of World War II, the lake was gone. 

Juxtaposition of 1908 Topographic Map showing Kerbaugh’s Lake and 2022 Google Maps showing forested area.

Shock’s Mill Bridge

The Shock’s Mill Bridge was one of the first construction projects as part of the Atglen & Susquehanna Branch in December 1902. By May of 1903, the construction crews were building one pier per week. About eighteen months later it was complete with 27 piers, and 28 arches, with the railway sitting 60 feet above the water. The intensity with which the project moved did have a cost; there were numerous injuries from premature explosions and at least one drowning. On the York side, the Northern Central Railroad had recently expanded tracks from Wago Junction to Enola Yard so PRR work in that region was nearly complete. Things were different across the river. The approach to the bridge from the Lancaster side needed to be more than a mile long. Fill had to be shipped in to raise the railroad tracks over 36 feet in height. The Vesta iron furnace in Marietta supplied cinders. The Lancaster approach cost over $200,000 more than the bridge cost.

After three long years, the A&S was opened on July 27, 1906. A dedication ceremony in the “the Deep Cut” near Quarryville was the location where about a hundred people watched local businessman George Hensel hammer the final spike. The Pennsylvania Railroad had realized their dream. They create a freight super highway across central Pennsylvania. The contribution of the Low Grade line to the growth of the Pennsylvania Railroad is incalculable. In 1938 the PRR transitions the line from steam to electric using power from the Safe Harbor Hydroelectric Dam. In 1941, the route carried an average of 2,220 railcars in each direction every day. For nearly 80 years, the rail line served the fuel and food demands of the eastern seaboard. The the last train came through the line in 1989. 

In the last 30 years, an amazing regional effort has reimagined the Enola Low Grade Line as a rail trail. Today, October 27, 2022, with the opening of the Martic Forge Trestle Bridge, there will be nineteen completed miles of trails. As you walk or ride between the Turkey Hill Trailhead and the town of Quarryville, take the time to imagine the back-breaking labor and undaunting vision that it took to create the corridor.

Learn More

Explore the Enola Low Grade Trail and the NW River Trail! Use the SNHA trail guide digitally or grab a paper version at Columbia Crossing River Trails Center. You can see all our Maps & Guides online. While you are on the trail, look for heritage panels along the way.

Visit the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Lancaster County. They have a collection of over 100 locomotives on display plus the history of railroad development in the state.

Sources

Abendschein, Frederic. “The Atglen & Susquehanna: Lancaster County’s Low Grade.” Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society 95 , no. 1 (1993): 2-19.

Brubaker, Jack. “Workin’ on the Railroad/ A century ago, a monumental task began along the Susquehanna River.” LancasterOnline. October 20, 2004.

“Enola Low Grade Trail – Safe Harbor Bridge,” BridgeHunter.com. Accessed October 22, 2022.

“Hershey v. H. S. Kerbaugh, Inc.” Case Law V|Lex. October 27, 2022.

LancasterOnline Archives 

“The Atglen & Susquehanna Low Grade,” Atglen Borough. Accessed October 27, 2022. (Amtrak 2011 Heritage Panels for the trail)

River Roots: 1863 Bridge Burning

River Roots is Susquehanna NHA’s blog series featuring history from York and Lancaster Counties that showcases the Susquehanna River’s historic, cultural, and natural resource contributions to our nation’s heritage.

RiverRoots Heritage Blog

In the Susquehanna River, between Columbia and Wrightsville, a row of piers stands vacant. For over a century, these piers held bridges that connected Lancaster and York Counties. The most famous of those bridges was the wooden covered bridge that was burned during the Civil War. The fire that consumed that bridge changed the course of history.

The Columbia Bank and Bridge Company financed its first bridge across the Susquehanna River in 1814, but ice lifted it from its piers and destroyed it in 1834. The Company knew that a replacement bridge needed to complement the new commercial growth. They chose a new location: just north of the present-day Route 462 bridge. The bridge design included double railroad tracks inside a covered structure. Two towpaths for moving canal boats across the Susquehanna. Thirty years after its completion, this bridge became a choke point in the Civil War.

In the late spring of 1863, the Confederate Army pushed north through the Shenandoah Valley to invade the Northern states. They reached Pennsylvania with orders to raid for much-needed supplies and then to beat the Army of the Potomac on their turf. General Robert E. Lee wrote:

[The Yankees will be] broken down with hunger and hard marching, strung out on a long line, and much demoralized when they come into Pennsylvania. I shall throw an overwhelming force on their advance, crush it, follow up the success, drive one corps back on another, and by successive repulses and surprises, before they can concentrate, create a panic and virtually destroy the army.[1]

Four Confederate Corps totaling over 70,000 men invaded Pennsylvania and spanned out across Franklin, Cumberland, Adams, and York Counties. Although Pennsylvania had raised an emergency militia, it was far smaller and poorly trained.

In late June, Major General Jubal Early’s Confederate division of nearly 12,000 men captured York city and demanded a ransom of supplies and money to outfit his troops. Early sent a brigade of men east under the leadership of Brigadier General John B. Gordon. After the war, Gordon wrote that his goal was to cross the Susquehanna River into Columbia, seize as many horses as possible, and move toward Harrisburg or Philadelphia. However, a contingent of Pennsylvania militiamen and local volunteers stopped Gordon in his tracks.

The Bottleneck

The bridge at Columbia had long been a bottleneck. It shared all the traffic across the river: rail, canal, wagon, pedestrian, carriage, horse, and livestock. The 40-foot wide and 5,620-foot-long bridge was essential to the commerce and prosperity of York and Lancaster Counties. There were only three bridges crossing the lower Susquehanna during the Civil War: The Camelback Bridge (Market Street) in Harrisburg, the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, and the Conowingo Bridge in Maryland. The Susquehanna River also had a significant current and flow in the lower section. With this knowledge, Union General Couch knew that the Susquehanna River would make a formidable defensive line.

Couch sent the 807-man 27^th Pennsylvania Volunteer Militia, led by Colonel Jacob Frick, to defend the Columbia bridge. served as a lieutenant colonel at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. He had been mustered out of the army in May of 1863, but he went to Harrisburg to serve when Confederate Army threatened Pennsylvania. Many of the men that he led were from Frick’s native Schuylkill County in and nearby Northampton, Huntingdon, and Berks counties. They arrived by train to Columbia on June 24^th, 1863, with orders to defend the fords and bridges across the Susquehanna River.

Citizens of York, Adams, Cumberland, and Franklin Counties rushed to move important property across the river to the safety of Lancaster. The turnpike up to the bridge in Wrightsville was lined with wagons, livestock, and horses. After a meeting between with Army and bridge company leaders, the company removed the tolls to allow for quicker movement of materials.[2] Mules and horses had always pulled freight through the bridge. Volunteers worked through the night to get all the wagons, livestock, and horses over to Lancaster County.

All that was left in Wrightsville were canal boats and locomotives. Canal boats in the Susquehanna & Tidewater Canal were pulled across the river and anchored on Columbia’s shore. Moving the locomotives was harder. Their funnel-shaped smokestacks wouldn’t fit through the bridge. Plus, there was always a fear that a spark from the engine would light the wooden bridge on fire. Railroad workers dismantled the locomotives and a team of ten mules slowly hauled the engines through. These were the first engines to ever cross the bridge. It took the better part of the day to move all the locomotives across the river to safety. In Columbia, they were coupled to waiting trains and pulled to Philadelphia.

Many people had also fled through the bridge to Columbia. In the western counties of Franklin, Adams, Cumberland, and York, many African Americans fled from the Confederate army through Columbia. They ran because the Confederates could claim they were fugitive slaves, regardless of whether or not they had ever been enslaved. Just three months earlier in March, the Confederate government issued orders that “fugitive slaves” should be rounded up and shipped south to special depots. The Confederates captured and enslaved hundreds of Black Pennsylvanians during this campaign.

In Columbia, Annie Welsh wrote, “…it was distressing to witness old and young, [B]lack and white, with all that they were able to move, and a great many with nothing but what they have on, come crowding through and into our town.”[3] Some individuals returned after the Gettysburg Campaign, but many others did not. The Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania made an indelible mark on the makeup of South-Central Pennsylvania. Annie simply wrote, “People were leaving in all directions.”

Setting the Explosives

Union General Couch knew that his untested troops might be outnumbered and overpowered, so he developed an alternative defense. From Harrisburg, he directed troops to place combustible materials on the Camelback Bridge and the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge. Early on Sunday morning Robert Crane, the superintendent for the Reading and Columbia Railroad, received orders to supervise the placement of explosives on the bridge at the first sight of Rebels. The goal was to drop the fourth span from Wrightsville. If the 200-foot tall span fell into the river, it would stop the Confederates cold. They would be forced to retreat to York. Frick and the railroad superintendent felt that the bridge span could have been easily rebuilt after the Confederates retreated.

In Wrightsville, Frick set a defense line on either side of the turnpike just west of town and used a horseshoe troop formation to defend the town and bridge. Four companies from Columbia, three white and one Black, joined his troops and brought the total to 175 men. A force of convalescent Union soldiers also joined Frick.  Columbia’s white companies left by Sunday, leaving only the 53 African American men with Frick’s militiamen. Frick was particularly concerned about the southern flank which had only 238 to cover a 1,200-yard line over the tough territory around Kreutz Creek. Frick believed that they could hold the bridge if the Rebels only sent a small raiding party.

Mid-afternoon, Confederate Brigadier General Gordon marched his mile-long column of men through Hallam. At the general store and post office in town, they seized 200 dozen eggs, 20 pairs of boots, 20 pairs of shoes, 25 yards of calico cloth, and 10 barrels of pickled mackerel. Most of Wrightsville’s horses had been moved across the Susquehanna, but the Confederates still found and grabbed as many as they could find.

Gordon headed up a high ridge to observe the Union position. He was relieved to see that there was no artillery supporting the defenses. Gordon decided to divide the brigade and attack both Union flanks in a classic military tactic called the pincer movement. As Gordon prepared for an attack, a local music instructor left Wrightsville for York after giving a lesson in town. He spotted the long column of Rebels in the distance, reversed course, and sped back to Wrightsville. He was escorted to Colonel Frick and asked to describe the nature and size of the approaching troops.

Frick quickly sent word of the advance to two men: General Couch in Harrisburg and Railroad Superintendent Robert Crane in Columbia. Crane had already rounded up a group of carpenters to help him prepare the bridge for demolition. Between 15 and 20 Columbians headed to the fourth span from Wrightsville, nearly 800 feet from land. Once there, Crane and his workers removed planking so that artillery, wagons, and cavalry couldn’t cross the bridge. The men bored holes into the timbers and filled them with gunpowder. They sawed the heavy timbers and removed the roof and sidewalls to weaken the span.

Battle to Burning

Calvary men traveling up the railroad line fired the first shots on the southern flank of Wrightsville. Just as firing intensified throughout the line, Colonel Frick was informed that a scout had reported that the Confederate troops advancing towards them included three brigades of infantry and one regiment of cavalry. Although that message was not true, it meant Frick anticipated his 900 men would be up against nearly 5,000. Fighting continued for nearly an hour and fifteen minutes. It was becoming clear that he could not hold off the Rebels’ consistent thrusts on both flanks. If he waited much longer, they would sweep behind him, gain the bridge, and cut off the retreat. Frick gave the signal for a retreat across the bridge to prevent a senseless slaughter.

On the fourth bridge span from Wrightsville, four men sat ready to light the fuses. Robert Crane signaled to John Denney, Jacob Rich, John Lockard, and an old Black man named Jacob Miller to light the fuses and run across the destructing bridge and back to Columbia. Denney had worked in the Henry Clay Furnace nearby and had considerable experience in blasting. They felt confident the charges would drop the span. However, Denney reported that it “scarcely shook the bridge.”[4] Although the explosion failed to drop the span, it did scare the Confederate company that had just reached the bridge entrance.

Frick again turned to Robert Crane and asked him to set fire to the span. Quickly, men dragged fuel, boards, and wood shavings to the span. They soaked the kindling and bridge floor with coal oil and kerosene. John Denney and his three companions threw torches and ran. By the time they exited the eastern edge of the bridge, a column of flame could be seen in the sky.

Confederate troops tried to extinguish the fire, but the wind from the east intensified the fire and it spread across the whole western end of the bridge. Gordon rode into Wrightsville and demanded buckets and pails from the residents of the town, but none could be found. He was left to sit on his horse at the riverbank and watch the span collapse. Major General Jubal Early arrived to find Gordon on the riverbank. After hearing the account of the day, Early, frustrated that his chance to cross into Lancaster County was thwarted, left the bridge to its fate and returned to York.

The fire raged through the night and sparks landed on Wrightsville homes, spreading the blaze. Gordon’s men stayed in Wrightsville and helped put out the fires. Miraculously, buckets, pails, and tubs came from their hiding places to fight the flames. The bucket brigade worked for hours. Although dozens of buildings suffered damage, most of them were salvageable.

Columbians tried to save the remaining half of the bridge. Men went into the bridge and removed floor planks and pulled support beams, but the effort was in vain. It was only when the span closest to Columbia caught fire that the local fire company was able to stop the flames. Annie Welsh wrote to her husband that it was, “a Magnificent but awful sight.” Each span burned for nearly half an hour before it fell into the river. The flames and smoke were clearly visible from Marietta. General Couch stated that, in Harrisburg, they watched the glowing night sky to the southeast. Some Gettysburg residents thought the red glow in the west was from the Confederates burning York City.

Double Back West

By 11:00 am the next day, nearly all of the Confederates had left Wrightsville. They had contemplated other options to cross the mighty Susquehanna River, but they had all been too dangerous with Union artillery sitting in Columbia. In York, Jubal Early’s plans to invade Harrisburg were officially ended when orders came from Robert E. Lee to join the rest of the army near South Mountain. Gordon’s brigade was exhausted from long marching, battle, and firefighting. They wearily arrived in Adams County on Tuesday night, June 30th. The next day, the Battle of Gettysburg began. Many of the men that sacked Wrightsville did not leave Pennsylvania, as over 500 men from Gordon’s brigade died in the battle.

Years later, Jubal Early complained that, had Gordon been able to take the bridge, his division could have cut off the Pennsylvania Railroad, marched on Lancaster, and then attacked Harrisburg. Early’s plan had been “entirely thwarted by the destruction of the bridge.” Columbians had mixed feelings. Some were proud the Union militia and volunteers had stopped the Confederate. Others were frustrated, saying that they would have rather seen Rebels in the town than the bridge burned. No matter your opinion, the flames over the Susquehanna that night changed the outcome of the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania.

Learn More

Come to Riverfest! The last weekend in June each year, the river towns commemorate the burning of the bridge in a weekend-long heritage and recreation festival.

Visit Historic Wrightsville at the Burning Bridge Diorama.

Reach the book Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Confederate Expedition to the Susquehanna River, June 1863 by Scott L. Mingus Sr., which is the most comprehensive account of the event.

Footnotes

[1] https://www.historynet.com/conquer-peace-lees-goals-gettysburg-campaign/

[2] https://collections.lancasterhistory.org/media/library/docs/edit_vol84no3pp135_154.pdf

[3] Flames Beyond Gettysburg, 223.

[4] Mingus, 261.

Sources

Guttman, John, and Scott L. Mingus Sr. “Stopped Cold by Fire.” America’s Civil War. May 2022.

McPherson, James M. “To Conquer A Peace: Lee’s Goals in the Gettysburg Campaign.” HistoryNet, September 3, 2018

McSherry, Patrick M. “Defense of Columbia, June 1863,” Journal of the Lancaster County Historical Society. Vol.84, no. 3 (1980), 135-154.

Nicholas, Rachael. “African Americans during the Gettysburg Campaign.” National Parks Service. U.S. Department of the Interior, June 1, 2020.

Mingus, Scott L. Flames Beyond Gettysburg: The Confederate Expedition to the Susquehanna River, June 1863. El Dorado Hills: Savas Beatie, 2013.

All Weekend:

🔥Riverfest Antique Trail
Explore Riverfest Antique Trail and take a piece of history home! Find glassware, pottery, signs, silver, porcelain, military items, books, art, historical papers, furnishings from the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries and so much more, as you enjoy antique hunting through 300 years of history!
June 24-26 at Participating Stores

Friday:

🔥 Riverstown Fourth Friday!
Across Marietta, Columbia, and Wrightsville, our restaurants and businesses will be open late celebrating kick off to Riverfest weekend. Find flaming hot deals and firey dinner options!

Saturday:

Sunday:

River Roots: Mayflies – The Hatch

River Roots is Susquehanna NHA’s blog series featuring history from York and Lancaster Counties that showcases the Susquehanna River’s historic, cultural, and natural resource contributions to our nation’s heritage.

RiverRoots Heritage Blog

The hatch is not a budget horror film, but rather what we call the emergence of thousands, even millions, of mayflies. Actually, several species of mayflies hatch all along the river at different times. But, when conditions are just right, swarms of mayflies appear without warning, overnight. They disrupt our peaceful summer evenings and leave us with a big mess in the morning. This unexpected event can be the bane of outdoor weddings and events. The swarms can even cause traffic problems. But mayfly hatches are important events, and their growing size is a sign of the river’s improving health. It can be both thrilling and frustrating to witness a large mayfly hatch over the Susquehanna.

Mayflies are aquatic insects that belong to the order Ephemeroptera, which means “short-lived”. They are also known as shadflies, fishflies, or up-winged flies. They are ancient insects that have lived on this planet for over 350 million years. They even lived while dinosaurs were here. There are more than 600 species of mayfly in the United States and over 3,000 worldwide. In Pennsylvania, there are at least 175 different species. Mayflies can vary in size, but they typically grow anywhere from 0.25 to 1.1 inches. The largest species of mayfly in the world is the Tisza Mayfly, found in Eastern Europe. It measures 4.7 inches from head to tail. The Tisza Mayfly hatch has become a tourist attraction known as the “Blooming of the Tisza.”

Mayflies emerge at different times, depending on the species, weather, and water conditions. They could “hatch” from their nymph form in May… but it also happens in June, July, and even August. That’s because different mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, and duns hatch from April through September. Some species hatch several times a year if the conditions are right.

One hatch here along this part of the Susquehanna River made international news in 2015. A swarm took to the lights on the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge on June 13, 2015, and created blizzard-like conditions. Several inches of dead mayflies piled up on the bridge, causing slick driving conditions and three motorcycle crashes. The bridge closed, and snowplows were even used in the cleanup. The bridge closed again briefly the next night due to another swarm.

Learn More

June 8, 2022: Follow the Hatch—Aquatic Insects in Lancaster County’s Streams and Rivers  6:00 PM – 7:30 PM at Columbia Crossing. Join Dr. John Jackson of Stroud Water Research Center and Keith Williams of Lancaster Conservancy for a deep dive into the world of mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies and the many other tiny creatures that call our streams home.

Stroud Water Research https://stroudcenter.org/news/mayfly-eggs-under-one-minute/

Lower Susquehanna Riverkeeper https://lowersusquehannariverkeeper.org/

Sources

“Mayfly swarms temporarily close Veterans Memorial Bridge again”. LNP Lancaster Online

Category: Burrowing Mayflies (Ephemeridae). Life in the Lower Susquehanna River Watershed. SusquehannaWildlife.net

Hadden, Jerry. “Upper Delaware River Insects.” delawareriverguide.net

Kaszas, Fanni. “Tisza Mayfly and ‘Tisza Blooming’ Becoming Hungaricums as National Values.” HUNGARY today.

Leonard, Justin W.. “mayfly”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Mar. 2020.

Miller, Adam. “Massive Swarms of Bugs-A Sign of a River on the Mend.” Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay.

http://www.delawareriverguide.net/insects/insects.html

River Roots: History of the Shifter

River Roots is Susquehanna NHA’s blog series featuring history from York and Lancaster Counties that showcases the Susquehanna River’s historic, cultural, and natural resource contributions to our nation’s heritage.

RiverRoots Heritage Blog

What is a shifter, exactly? In the Susquehanna National Heritage Area, it’s a railroad locomotive and a sandwich! But, it’s not just any sandwich. It’s a sandwich with local roots, almost exclusively served along the Susquehanna River in Columbia and Marietta.

Local accounts trace the origins of this sandwich back to the 1910s in Columbia. In that era, the railroad yard by the river was bustling with activity. An army of skilled and unskilled workers labored in the switching yard near the roundhouse. A roundhouse is large circular or semicircular building around turntabled used for servicing locomotives. Mechanics maintained locomotives, workers rushed to clean up after derailments, and conductors used “shifters” to move railroad cars from drop-off to pick-up points.

A “shifter” (also known as a “switcher”) is a small railroad locomotive used for maneuvering railroad cars inside a rail yard. Shifters are not intended for moving trains over long distances. They are for assembling train cars for another locomotive to take over. The typical shifter is low-powered but has a high starting tractive force for getting heavy cars rolling quickly. Switchers produce high torque but move slowly and have small diameter driving wheels. Shifters are to trains are what tugboats are to boats.

Switching was hard work. Shifter engines wore out quickly from constant collisions with cars and frequent starts and stops. Switcher locomotives needed water and coal or wood to operate. Some had a tank for water and others had a car called a “tender” that carried their fuel.

The hustle and bustle of downtown Columbia centered around the river and railroad industry. The low vibrations of trains riding the rails, the loud train whistles, and the smell of heat filled the air. Working in the rail yard was hard work, and the men worked up a mean appetite. Columbia’s restaurants, bars, and hotels all created hearty meals that workers could dig into as soon as they clocked out. One of those meals was the monster of a ham and cheese sandwich that we now call the Shifter.

There are a few stories in Columbia about who started serving the Shifter sandwich first. One story is that it was first started by the Lutz family at their hotel on Front Street in the 1930s. The Olena family also claims that they served Shifters in Columbia Cafe in the 1910s. Later, the Rising Sun Hotel claimed it, since they included the sandwich with an overnight stay. The Rising Sun may have been the first one to put the ingredients in the order we still use today. Although we can’t sort out all the gossip about its origin, we are going to share here the story from descendants of the Columbia Café family.

The “Shifter Club” was made up of a group of engineers and conductors who worked the switching yard. The Shifter Club met daily at the Columbia Café on Locust Street for lunch. Every time a new member joined the team, they had to buy lunch for the rest of the crew. As the economy worsened in the early 1900s, the tradition began to get too expensive to uphold. The owner of Columbia Café, Tuffield Olena, and his friend Benny Potts decided to come up with an affordable meal to keep the Shifter Club coming to the café. Between 1915 and 1920, the Columbia Café’s kitchen created a simple ham and cheese sandwich. They informally called it the “Shifter” after the group of guys for which they created it. However, the Columbia Café didn’t list the Shifter on the café menu because they only made it for the Shifter Club. The Columbia Café didn’t add the now-iconic sandwich to their menu until they moved to 4th & Locust Street in 1920.

Feeding railroad workers was big business in Columbia. Railroad bosses often ordered a gallon of coffee, a gallon of soup, and a pile of sandwiches at three separate hotels. Columbia hotels were the top choice for lodging by railroad workers because the owners often included meals in the price. By the 1930s, many local eateries recreated and offered the Shifter to Columbia’s railroad workers. The Rising Sun Hotel and the Lutz/Lower Hotel both served up Shifter-style sandwiches to their guests. Both hotels wrapped the sandwiches to keep the food clean when workers ate them with one hand as they worked.

The basic Shifter wasn’t exactly nutritious, so restaurants added lettuce, tomatoes, and pickles. Local hotels often served Shifters at company-provided lunches for shift workers, so the name stuck around even after the railroads left Columbia.

The modern Shifter has a very specific construction. It starts with a slice of white bread, then a layer of mayonnaise, lettuce, and tomato slices. Next come two slices of Swiss cheese, two ounces of ham and dill pickles, and then another slice of white bread. If your sandwich isn’t constructed in that order, it is not a Shifter. Some people accept a few variations, like turkey instead of ham or sweet pickles instead of dill. Still, the Shifter remains mostly unchanged over the 100 years since it became a local favorite!

Learn More

Columbia Railroad Day is Saturday, May 7, 2022, from 11 am – 4 pm at the Columbia River Park! This year, it’s all about the Pennsylvania Railroad’s history in Columbia. Enjoy “HO” and “O” gauge model trains at the Columbia Historic Preservation Society. Ride a “speeder” or small gas-powered unit on the spur line that runs through Columbia. Take a historic tour on a vintage trolley or attend lectures at Columbia Crossing. Enjoy the Shifter Showdown, a variety of vendors, and food in the River Park.

Want to try Columbia, Pa’s most famous fare? Stop for lunch during your next visit and order an authentic shifter from Rose’s Deli & More or Hinkle’s Restaurant!

Sources

Bruce, A. Herr. “Olena Family History involving the Shifter.” Courtesy of the Columbia Historic Preservation Society.

The Shifter: Don’t Ask for one in Lancaster City. (1977, January 12). Susquehanna Times.

Fulton, A. “The Shifter”… plus a showdown and a slice of history.

Ries, J. (2019, December 11). A shifter by any other name… The Marietta Traveler.

River Roots: Power of the River

River Roots is Susquehanna NHA’s blog series featuring history from York and Lancaster Counties that showcases the Susquehanna River’s historic, cultural, and natural resource contributions to our nation’s heritage.

RiverRoots Heritage Blog

The Susquehanna River has never succeeded as a commercial waterway because of its many rocks and waterfalls. Many people tried throughout history, but the Lower Susquehanna remained largely untamed until the early 20th century. The power-producing rapids and the 1,180 feet of elevation change between Cooperstown and the Chesapeake Bay made the Susquehanna ideal for hydroelectricity. Dams harnessed the power of the river. Today, there are four dams in the 55 miles of river between Harrisburg and the Chesapeake Bay.

Hydropower is one of the oldest and most available sources of renewable energy. People all over the world have used rivers to power mills since Ancient Rome. Today, the natural flow of moving water power hydroelectric power plants, which produce electricity. The most common type of hydroelectric power plant is an impoundment facility. An impoundment facility uses a dam to store river water in a reservoir. When the water is released from the reservoir flows through a turbine, spinning it, the turbine activates a generator to produce electricity.

Reservoirs are also used as recreation areas for activities like boating, fishing, and other water sports. During droughts or extended periods when water levels are very low, more water is released from the reservoir so farmers can water their crops and homes and businesses can function normally. They are also used for flood control.

Power of the River: Dams on the Lower Susquehanna River

The Lower Susquehanna River is unique because it has a higher fall rate, or elevation change, than the rest of the river. Most rivers have the greatest flow and fall near their source, but the Susquehanna is so old and meanders so far that its fall is greatest in the last 55 miles. Those miles of the river hug York and Lancaster Counties of Pennsylvania and Hartford and Cecil Counties in Maryland. Here, we’ll take a deeper dive into the Pennsylvania hydroelectric plants.

York Haven Hydro Station

Built in 1904
Built/Owned by York Haven Power Company
Current Owners Eagle Creek Renewable Energy
Produces 135,485 megawatts, with 13 horizontal Francis turbines, 4 vertical Kaplan turbines, and 3 vertical propeller units
Reservoir Lake Frederick

York Haven Dam is a low head, run-of-the river dam. It was the first hydroelectric plant on the lower Susquehanna River. Located about 12 miles south of Harrisburg where the river drops 19 feet in 1⁄4 mile, the dam follows an existing rock ledge causing it to cross the river at an angle. When the station was built by the York Haven Power Company in 1904, it was one of the largest in the world and is recognized as one of the oldest hydroelectric projects in America. The facility produces 135,485 megawatts with 13 horizontal Francis turbines, 4 vertical Kaplan turbines, and 3 vertical propeller units. The plant is listed as a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark for using one of the first Kaplan turbines installed in the United States.

Lake Frederick
Formed by damming the Susquehanna River at York Haven, the 2-1/2-mile Lake Fredrick stretches in the shadow of TMI’s cooling towers providing a unique recreation space. Lake Frederick holds Islands ranging in size from 200ft to 3 miles in length providing spectacular aquatic habitat for native species to thrive and attracts many anglers. Public angling access is located on a walkway along the face of the powerhouse at the York Haven Power Plant Recreation Area below the dam.

Falmouth Potholes & Sculptured Rock
Rivers are a major agent of erosion, shaping landscapes over time with their power. It’s not surprising to find changes in rocks in the riverbed wherever you have a waterfall or otherwise rapid movement in the water. Discovered during extremely low water, this otherworldly landscape is one of the most expansive pothole fields uncovered in the United States. The rocks at the foot of Conewago Falls range in size and display various smooth, curvaceous shapes that captivate visitors.

Safe Harbor Hydroelectric Station

Built in 1931
Built/Owned by Pennsylvania Power & Light Company and Baltimore Gas & Electric Company
Current Owners Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners
Produces 417 megawatts with a 12-unit hydro generator powerhouse
Reservoir Clarke Lake (Lake Clarke)

Safe Harbor Dam was the last of three hydroelectric dams built on the Susquehanna, located just above the confluence of the Conestoga River with the Susquehanna, about 7 miles south of Washington Boro.
The station was built by the Pennsylvania Power & Light Company and Baltimore Gas & Electric Company in 1931 and received a capacity increase in the 1980’s. The concrete gravity dam that is 4,869ft long and 75ft high with a total length of 5,000 ft stretching shore to shore. It outputs 10 million kilowatts of energy with the 12-unit hydro generator powerhouse that generates 265,000 horsepower.

Lake Clarke
Behind the dam is 7,360-acre Lake Clark, a popular boating and recreation area on the Susquehanna River. The Lake Clarke portion of river marks the beginning of the Susquehanna Gorge formation, a deep canyon-like gorge carved into the ancient rocks where the river is squeezed through the quarter mile gorge while dropping sharply, roughly 6 feet per mile.

Within Lake Clarke you will find the Conejohela Flats, an Audubon important bird area. The Conejohela Flats are part of a network of key stopover sites, locations that offer respite for migratory birds, along the Atlantic Flyway that draw large volumes and varieties migrating birds through the Susquehanna River corridor biannually. Because the creation of Lake Clarke shrank the flats, the water levels are controlled and regulated preserve the habitat from April through October. Safe Harbor also manages more than 2,300 acres of land in the area for soil, water, and wildlife habitat preservation.

Holtwood Hydroelectric Plant (McCalls Ferry Dam)

Built in between 1905 and 1910
Built/Owned by Pennsylvania Water & Power Company
Current Owner Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners
Produces 252 megawatts with 14 turbine driven generators
Reservoir Lake Aldred

Holtwood Dam is the second oldest of three dams built across the lower Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania. Located about 5 miles south of Pequea, it’s the southernmost dam on the river before it crosses the Mason-Dixon Line into Maryland.  Spanning the river 2,932 ft, Holtwood was the second longest dam in the U.S. and the third longest in the world when it was built. Originally constructed as the McCalls Ferry Dam in 1905 by the McCall’s Ferry Power Company until it was reorganized as the Pennsylvania Water and Power Company and the plant was renamed Holtwood in honor of two company executives and opened in 1910. The dam consists of a main concrete dam, which is mostly one continuous spillway, with a powerhouse at the eastern end. The water level is raised by wooden flash boards and inflatable dam sections. It produces 252 megawatts of power using 14 turbine driven generators.

Lake Aldred
The 2,400-acre Lake Aldred is popular recreation area for boating but hosts a maze of rocky islands rising abruptly from the water. Weise Island, in the middle of the Susquehanna River just north of Pequea Creek, is the home of the Lake Aldred Wakeboard & Ski Club. The Lake Aldred portion of the river runs through the lower section of the Susquehanna Gorge formation, high wooded hills and rocky outcroppings rising over 200 ft provide habitat for native wildlife.

An area below the dam called, the Holtwood Whitewater Park, utilizes scheduled whitewater releases from the dam when conditions permit. The large, extremely fast wave and subsequent smaller waves are popular with thrill seeking whitewater kayakers of appropriate skill.

Working together to restore the Susquehanna River

Dredging and Pollution

Since their construction, the reservoirs behind these three dams along the lower Susquehanna River have historically trapped a portion of pollution from the Susquehanna River, and the nutrients that are often attached, reducing the amount the Chesapeake Bay. Although, a recent assessment indicates that the reservoirs are reaching their limit to effectively trap the sediment.

The impounded waters of Lake Aldred and Lake Clarke were originally dredged for anthracite coal silt that washed downstream from Pennsylvania’s Coal Region. Mining upstream reduced the availability of coal silt, and environmental laws made the dredging impractical by 1972, so coal was brought in using trains.

Fish Ladder/Lift

A fish lift or fish ladder is a waterway constructed on or around a natural or artificial obstruction to provide a passageway for fish and other aquatic species. The construction allows a seamless migration despite obstructions like dams, culverts, and waterfalls, which otherwise would have affected their migration and survival. Since 2017 York Haven has used a vertical slot fish ladder, which enables fish to pass over the fourth dam by swimming and leaping up a series of short steps and over the dam, along with a channel system at Three Mile Island, while the other dams use fish lifts.

Operation of the Safe Harbor Fish Lift began in 2016. The fish lift has three entrances where fish are captured in the lift are transferred into the trough that allows them to pass into Lake Clarke. The western end of the Holtwood dam has the original and ineffective fish ladder. It was replaced by a fish lift that was damaged by heavy rain and rapid snowmelt in 1996. The new fish lift was completed and has continued lifting American shad and other migratory fish species since 1997. Despite these efforts, the ladders and lifts show only limited success since fish still must find their way through passages and then pass-through multiple dams.

Conclusion

Today, dams block natural movement of aquatic wildlife, hold sediment at each of the four hydroelectric dams on the lower Susquehanna River. They also provide recreational spaces that visitors flock to annually.

Dams are a controversial environmental topic. They store water, provide renewable energy, and prevent floods. Unfortunately, they also cause a wide range of environmental issues. Dams can disrupt sediment flow, causing sediment to accumulate within the reservoir (impairing reservoir operation and decreasing storage) and depriving downstream of sediment essential to maintain channel and support the riparian ecosystem. Upriver from dam you may find a beautiful reservoir. Downstream of a dam, you are likely to find a river starved of its structural materials and cannot provide habitat. Mitigating environmental impacts caused by hydroelectric dams is both a local and worldwide challenge.

Learn More

In 2001, Safe Harbor Water and Power Corporation won the Governor’s Award for Environmental Excellence, recognized for removing over 11,000 tons of debris from the river and being able to recycle almost all of it. The Holtwood Dam has received the AGC Build America Award, honoring AGC members who build the nation’s most impressive construction projects.

Visit the hydroelectric dams on the Lower Susquehanna River!

Explore the Lower Susquehanna River Water Trail! Don’t forget to purchase your Lower Susquehanna Water Trail map. It will provide you with all the information needed to experience this scenic and historic landscape to its fullest. For updated portage information visit Susquehanna Riverlands. For your safety, please take advantage of all sources of information before venturing out on the river.

Sources

Bose, K. D. (2021). YHVN 2020 FOP annual report P-1888 – srbc.net. York Haven Hydroelectric Project 2020 Fish Passage Operating Report .

Chesapeake Bay TMDL. (2010). Safe Harbor Dam (lake clarke) and Holtwood Dam (lake … Sediments behind the Susquehanna Dams Technical Documentation .

Lower Susquehanna river. Pennsylvania Game Commission. (n.d.).

Maryland Department of Natural Resources & Exelon Generation Company, LLC. (2017). Lower Susquehanna River Reservoir System Model … The Peculiarities of Perviousness: STAC Workshop.

Matthews, J. (2017). Researchers expect new fish passage will help restore migratory fish populations. Penn State University.

McClure, J. (2014, November 26). Where exactly is the Susquehanna River’s Holtwood Dam? York Town Square.

Normandeau Associates Inc. (2016). Www.srbc.net. Summery of Operations at the Holtwood Fish Passage Facility.

Stahlman, J. (2019, July 5). Holtwood Dam. Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine.

Susquehanna Shad. Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. (n.d.).

York Haven. York Haven | Eagle Creek Renewable Energy. (n.d.).