The Susquehanna River in the Columbia-Wrightsville area, as seen from Highpoint. That's Lancaster County to the right and York County to the left. From the time it withdrew from Lancaster County in 1749, the mother county has owned the river. Background posts: York County still home to unvarnished beauty and Pennsylvania and water: The river runs through it and Petroglyphs, American Indian carvings, almost forgotten treasure.
Lou Carpenter of York is onto a good project.
He's looking into the boundary of Lancaster and York counties and the reason for it.
It's commonly known that since 1749 - when York was created from Lancaster County - that the new county's boundary started on the west bank of the Susquehanna River.
There are some reports that the boundary is either three-feet from the west bank or where the water reaches three feet deep... .
Common sense might dictate that Lancaster would have wanted to retain ownership of the valuable water and transportation resource. And how could you easily survey the boundary if it were located in the middle of the river?
But the whole quest is clouded because the bank keeps changing on both sides of the river.
The hydroelectric dams built in the early 1900s flooded the old banks, for example.
I've heard part of the recently remodeled Dritt Mansion's front yard in York County's Long Level is under the Susquehanna's ripples.
If anyone has information on Lou's question, e-mail him at loulcar@att.net or comment below.
Additional background posts: York County: It's shaped like a horse's .... and Chickies Rock braced for rush of Susquehanna's waters.
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