Map Book!!!!!!

[Irish]

I got the most wonderful present in the mail today!!!!!!!! And I know that this is not Carving related but some of us will be looking for a Holiday present for a non-carver this season. This, The Illustrated Historical Atlas of Lancater County, PA" is a must on your shopping list.

As a genealogist when Alan G. of Fox Chapel Publisher mentioned he was working on an Atlas of antique maps for Lancaster Co., PA my ears perked up right away. Lancaster was a primary area for our earliest ancestors. Having made the trip across the Atlantic the first settlers would enter New York, New Jersey, Delaware and the Upper Bay of Maryland. Many first settled in the counties surrounding Philadelphia where they could establish a homestead, create an income and pay off their passage fees.

Maps are a primary source of documentation for any genealogist as they place our families in one specific location at one specific time with the associated government records. So, I asked Alan to please add my name to the list for when his atlas was released.

It came today. It stopped the entire studio dead in our tracks.

This is so much more than just another book of old maps, which would have been enough for me!. It’s a glorious family photo album of one extremely historical area of our country. Old farms, old barns, steam powered thrashing machines, women in the mills, men in the fields – I can’t tell you how many hundred photos from the Civil War period forward have been included in this work.

This is not a coffee table book. It’s a book that will be settled onto your lap and take ups hours of just looking and reading and learning. Page after page after page of our past.

Now, not only can I see where my great grandparents lived I can see how they lived, their neighbors, their labors and their beloved Lancaster County.

If you are looking for a Holiday present that will be cherished forever I highly recommend the Illustrated Historical Atlas of Lancaster County, Published by Historic Arts Press, A division of Fox Chapel Publishing, Alan Giagnocavo! It is a Limited Edition printing so I would suggest that you call Fox Chapel quickly.

Susan

[Canopener]

Susan,
Indeed; Lancaster Co. is an interesting and historical place in itself and also the western expansion of our country.
I grew up just a short distance from RT. 30 out of Philly, which we always refered to as Lancaster Pike. My wife grew up just a few houses away from RT. 30 in Crestline Ohio, which we have always found interesting, not to mention meeting other people that have lived near to it also.
RT 30 or Lancaster Pike starts close to Penn's Landing, in Philly, and ends up in Astoria OR. after passing through Portland. Originally the road was just a direct route to get farm goods into downtown Philly and this can still be seen in places like Reading Market; where you can purchase all kinds of good eats from Lancaster.
But it's more important role was to supply the people heading west.
This is where the Conestoga wagon came from, and the stogies the teamsters smoked. They prized their Pennsylvania/Kentucky long rifles. And of course; since Lancaster has some of the finest farmland on Earth, they packed on the food to move west. First to places like Pittsburgh, then across the midwest to the Oregon Trail and the Pacific.
Anyway, you sold me, I will add it to my Christmas list tonight.
Just for kicks; how many people on this board do live on or near RT.30?
Jim

[Irish]

Hey Jim, Mike and I don't live near Rt. 30 or even in Pa ... at least not in this century I'll get back to that in a moment. We are in central Frederick County, MD and about one mile north from what was called the "Old Wagon Road" that came out of PA at Littlestown, ran through Frederick County and on to Hagerstown, MD. At Hagerstown you either went down into Virginia into the South Branch Manor of what is today Hardy Co., WV or you headed west to Cumberland and then on to Ohio.

My family line never made it as far as Ohio having discovered the Green Glades of Preston Co., VA (now WV) or the South Branch (of the Potomac River) Manor of Lord Fairfax, also WV today. And just about everyone of the lines came out of the Philly/York/Lancaster/Bucks Co., PA area.

So, this book is perfect. In fact, it might start the third fight that Mike and I have had in our 30 years of marriage ... Either he cuddles up with me on the couch tonight and we go through the book together or WWIII will start if he tries to sneak off with it.

Now, back to past centuries. Before 1750 PA was claiming at least 50 miles into Maryland including the Baltimore port. Maryland was claiming 50 miles into PA to secure the mouth of the Delaware and Sesquahanna. So at one time our little piece of land was deeded in both PA and MD. It was the Mason-Dixon agreement that settled us finally into MD!

Oddly we are are about 5 miles south of the Freedom Road, Route 26 also called Liberty Road, where before 1865 if a slave made it past this point (north of this road) he was in freeman's territory! So we are sandwiched between two major pieces of history.

Susan

OK ... the first was that he was not interested in learning how to play bridge. The second was that he wouldn't let me adopt a stray pot belly pig that wondered in one snowy winters day.

[Canopener]

Susan,
Yes; there is a bunch of history and it's little quirks in the highways and byways of that part of our country. I always enjoy looking at the maps and touring when I am back there and get the chance. So thanks again for the tip on the book.
My brother and I want to do a little road trip down into Maryland, next time; but I think he is searching for crabcakes.
BTW,IMHO; bridge is a good game, although I do not play. But he was probably right on the pig. My neighbor had one, a sweet little fellow named "Half Pint"; Yeah, sweet until you had to do something like get his toes trimmed; that little porker would squeal bloody murder until the cops came.
Jim

[mdallensr]

Susan, Rt. 30 cuts through northern Ohio, about 30 miles south of our home. We were on Rt. 30 last Saturday, driving west to Lima, then down I-75 to Dayton for the carving show. Mike

[AlArchie]

History keeps popping up in our roads and highways, even here in the UP of Michigan, out of the way as it may be.

US-45, running north across the western end crosses the East Branch of the Ontonagon River and climbs the north bank, known as The Military Hill. Not a whole lot is understood where the name came from, and I'm afraid it may be lost to history, but the whole of US-45 was designated "The Military Highway" during the Civil War when President Lincoln commisioned it built to expedite troops to the Keweenaw Penninsula to to protect the Union's iron and copper interests.

When I was a kid, "The Military Hill" held a lot more significance than it does today. The river was spanned by a very narrow bridge and the approaches from either side were treacherously steep. To make matters worse, the roadbed itself was comprised of the super slick Ontonagon Clay. When I got assigned here as a trooper with the Michigan State Police, it had been paved over, but the grades were such that the county stationed bulldozers and other equipment there during the winter storms to drag motororist up the grades. It's not uncommon to get 40" of snow in a single day up that way and it was quite important to keep those supply roads (civil now rather than military) open for obvious reasons. The grades were also ironed out a bit after I worked here a few years but it's still a nasty climb in the winter.

Sorry to ramble but your posting jogged my memory and I tend to ramble when I get going.

Al

[Irish]

Al, I believe that this is what Off Topics is about, sharing memories, daily experiences, that sort of thing.

There is a road in Garrett Co., Maryland that goes five miles straight up Savage Mountain, I believe that's the name of the mountain. At the bottom is a river and a paper pulp town named Luke.

Now the road going up Savage Mountain is three lanes. One for coming down, one for going up and one for barely can make the car move going up.

It's the down side of Savage, which is on the outside of the mountain, that is fasinating. Every half mile there will be a dirt road that goes into the mountain, goes back upwards and ends in a huge pile of dirt. My Dad use to call them Suicide paths. It's where the logging trucks coming down the mountain into Luke can drive if they lose their brakes.

Apparently it was preferable to drive across the road, up the suicide path and into the dirt then to go over the mountain edge which was straight down into the river.

This road ends at the bottom of the mountain in a T. Right where the road ends a new mountain goes straight up and right there was a big, thick concrete wall. Each summer when we headed to Oakland we would pass that wall on our way up Savage. And each year there seemed to be a new cross painted on that wall.

Roads do have memories ....

Susan

[Hi_Ho_Sliver]

Interesting posts! Your "suicide paths" are called "Runaway ramps" out here....they are a loooong bed of soft sand or gravel, about 2 or 3 feet deep with a large burm at the end and for the same reason, a trucker loses his brakes, he can hit the runaway ramp and stop....seems like a sudden jolt to me when you hit that soft sand, never talked to anyone that did it, but have seen the tracks, looks like a squiggly worm went thru...lol

[Irish]

Dave, that may be the actual name for these dirt roads. There is no burm that I remember but the way they ran up into the side of the mountain I don't know if there would have been room.

On Savage Mountain the other alternative was way worse as the road was literally on the mountain's edge and there was nothing until you ended up at the bottom in the river.

At least with the suicide paths/runaway ramps the trucker has a small chance of living.

Susan

[whitecree]

Yup, they can be lifesavers. I worked as a swamper for a moving company one summer. We went down the #3 highway in south central BC through Manning Park. Locals call it the whipsaw. It jigs and jogs back and forth while never having a level spot. If you're not going up, you're going down.

Driver 'lost it' on this one curve, and I thought for sure our next stop was the pearly gates. Driver managed to turn off on one of those narrow little runaway lanes. It climbed the side of a hill at about 40 degrees, loose gravel over solid bedrock. We stopped. So did my heart, I think.

But getting back to historical roads ancestors travelled, my earliest Canadian ancestor never had a road, he travelled by canoe.