(continued from reverse side) NATIVE LANDS COUNTY PARK The earliest known grave in the cemetery dates to 1824, WAYSTOP 4 the last to 1879. Jacob Dritt is not buried in the cemetery, VISITOR INFORMATION but his wife and some descendants were laid to rest here. The remains of an 1800’s-era farmstead, located behind the Native Lands County Park—one of eleven York fence line to the southwest, is the most visible reminder of WAYSTOP 6 County Parks—is part of the Susquehanna Heritage this land’s rich agricultural heritage. A spring flows very The last known village of the Susquehannock Indians Park system of recreation areas and open space along nearby—a feature that has attracted people for centuries. once stood at this site from about 1676 to 1680. Listed in the river managed by a coalition of public and non- This land’s farming legacy likely dates back 500 or more the National Register of Historic Places as the Byrd profit partners. The Susquehanna Heritage Park years. Growing food was part of Susquehannock life, and Leibhart site, the National Park Service recognizes it as network also includes the Wilton Meadows Nature of the Shenks Ferry people before them. Patches of paw worthy of nomination for National Historic Landmark Preserve, Highpoint Scenic Vista, Klines Run Park, paws, a native tree cultivated for its fruit, still grow here. status—America’s highest heritage honor. and the Zimmerman Center for Heritage. These sites When first settled, war with other Native groups and are showcase attractions within the diseases brought here by Europeans had reduced Susquehanna Riverlands—the ribbon the Susquehannock to only of scenic landscapes, parks, preserves about 900 people—down and historic river towns located at the heart of the from 3,000 just 20 years Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area. earlier. A log stockade wall Chickies Rock County Park enclosed the four-acre

NW River village, protecting about 16

Trail In 1731, fifty years after the Susquehannock departed, ninety-foot longhouses, each housing 50 or so family

Commons Marylander Stephen Onion received a patent for 600 acres Park members. The site demonstrates how Native life had Columbia SUSQUEHANNA HERITAGE PARK River Park around this site, which he called "Canhodah", the Iroquois been dramatically altered after Europeans arrived just word for “town”. Over the next two centuries, the land was seventy years before. In this short time, the Indians of the Wrightsville Riverfront developed into a traditional farmstead. area would go from self-sufficiency to inextricable Park Water Trail NATIVE LANDS involvement with the land’s new inhabitants. Captain John Smith Chesapeake From the 1930s through the 1960s, the Leibhart family

Wilton Meadows farmed most of what is now the park, cultivating apples, It is believed that the Seneca Indians drove the last of the COUNTY PARK National Historic Trail Nature Preserve corn, cantaloupes, berries, asparagus and hay. Remnants of Susquehannock south into around 1680. They their extensive complex of farm buildings, orchards and returned to their homeland in Lancaster County several HERITAGE TRAIL GUIDE fields are still hidden in the landscape today. years later, becoming known as the Conestoga Indians.

Highpoint Scenic Vista & Recreation Area WAYSTOP 5 WAYSTOP 7

A trail leads from here to the Dritt You’ve reached the Zimmerman Center for Heritage, Mason Dixon Family Cemetery. The Tritt family home of the Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area, one of Trail came to America from Switzerland twelve Pennsylvania Heritage Areas. This 1740-era “Treat the earth well.

It was not given to you by Samuel S. Lewis in 1739, moving here from Lancaster home, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, is State Park County about 1750. Johann (Jacob) known as “Pleasant Garden” and the “Dritt Mansion”, your parents, it was loaned Native Lands Klines Run Tritt, born in 1746, later took the name ‘Dritt’ and married after its longest occupants. This land was first granted by to you by your children.” County Park Park Elizabeth Boyer. Jacob served as a captain in the local Lord Baltimore to in 1729, who operated Ancient Indian Proverb militia when the Revolutionary War began, spent two years a ferry here and claimed the area for Maryland. Cresap Zimmerman Center for as a British prisoner, and was later a Major General in was arrested in 1736 and driven away after skirmishes Heritage Pennsylvania’s militia. Jacob was a farmer, miller, sawyer, known as “Cresap’s War—a dispute finally resolved in SGHASGHA 66--1313 wine merchant and ferry operator. He also laid out the 1784 when the Mason- SGHA 5-14 original lots for the village of Washington Boro. Dixon line was established. Published by: This guide is published by the Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area. In 1783 Jacob bought the stone house and property known Today the home plays host Explore more of the Susquehanna River’s as “Pleasant Garden”, originally settled by Marylander to Heritage Area offices rich cultural and natural heritage at: Thomas Cresap. When Jacob drowned in the river in 1817, and programs and the www.SusquehannaHeritage.org his daughter Margaret (Dritt) Bonham bought the home. It Visions of the Susquehanna Visit us at The Zimmerman Center for Heritage 1706 Long Level Rd. Wrightsville, PA 717-252-0229 remained in the family until 1851. River Art Collection.

NATIVE LANDS COUNTY PARK NATIVE LANDS WAYSTOP & Adjacent Parks, Trails & Heritage Sites 2 HERITAGE TRAIL As you leave the forest here, the trail York County Department of Parks & Recreation becomes a grass path through rolling www.yorkcountyparks.org WAYSTOP GUIDE meadows. A peaceful scene today, Mason Dixon Trail this land has seen much controversy. to North Welcome to Native Lands Heritage Trail—a scenic journey Battles for possession between the (Blue Blazes) through Susquehanna history. This is a special landscape Seneca and Susquehannock, long where diverse cultural stories come together—a place that border conflicts between the Penns 1 P River Susquehanna many people have called their Native Land. and the Calverts, and more recent The one-mile-long packed earth and grass Heritage Trail public debates about development versus preservation P provides public access and interpretation for Native Lands have all been part of its history. Today this scenic and County Park. The route follows part of the Mason-Dixon historic landscape offers a place for sharing a common Trail (Blue Blazes) and the Pleasant Garden Trail (Yellow heritage. The land’s healing nature was demonstrated by volunteers from the Mason-Dixon Trail System, York Old Barn 2 Blazes), to connect trailheads at Klines Run Park and the Native Lands Heritage Trail Zimmerman Center for Heritage. The trail’s seven num- Hiking Club, Lancaster-York Native Heritage Advisory & Mason Dixon Trail bered waystops are linked to the information below and Council and the Dritt family, who worked with York (Blue Blazes)

provide places for viewing and learning about this historic County parks staff to prepare the site for public use. SR 624 / Long Level Road Level Long / 624 SR 3 area. Other trails lead to the Dritt Family Cemetery and WAYSTOP 3 around the Susquehannock Indian village historic site. Visible to the north are the Lauxmont Farms dairy com- Map Key WAYSTOP 1 plex and Highpoint Scenic Vista, both of which were The trail begins at Klines originally part of S. Forry Laucks’s 1920’s-era country P Parking/Trail Access Run Park, which was farm estate, as was most of Native Lands park. The 40th 4 created in the 1930s as parallel, which Maryland originally claimed as its Heritage Trail Artists’ part of the Safe Harbor northern border, runs just below Highpoint. 1 Heritage Trail Waystop Knoll Dam project, located a Although Native people likely made seasonal visits to few miles to the south. At this land up to 8,000 years ago, it is most associated Hiking Trail Historic Farm that time, this site was farmland. The dam also created with the Susquehannock Indian Nation, the last Native

Ruins 5

Water Trail Conejohela Flats, the islands and mudflats across the river. group to live here before Europeans arrived. The Pleasant Garden Trail Over 17,000 migratory shorebirds – up to 38 species—stop Historic Structure Dritt (Yellow Blazes) Susquehannock settled in the area about 1575, building Family at the flats each year on their way to breeding grounds in the first of several successive stockaded communities on Park Boundary Cemetery 7 the Arctic and wintering grounds in South America. the Lancaster County side of the river. The three largest Archaeology has documented human settlement along the towns were near present-day Washington Boro. In 1608,

P river dating back over 12,000 years. More than 50,000 when Captain John Smith first met the Susquehannock Susquehannock 6 Indian Village American Indians lived their lives here before the first to the south, along the river in Maryland, nearly 2,000 Historic Site Europeans ever arrived. Native people still live here today, people lived in their Washington Boro community. evidenced by local powwows and festivals held each year. Perhaps due to The historic sites of two of the last Susquehannock Indian pressure from other settlements are now preserved. A site to the north dates to Native groups and 1665 and is owned and managed by the Archaeological encroachment from Conservancy. The site to the south dates to 1676 and is traders and settlers, now part of Native Lands County Park. Although most of the Susquehannock Funding for development of this this history is invisible to us, the images that Native people moved to the western side of the river about 1665, trail guide was provided in part by: Mason Dixon Trail carved on river rocks to the south of here, known as petro- establishing a village at the Upper Leibhart site. Their to South glyphs, still exist—the only place on the Susquehanna last village was 800 yards down this trail, at Waystop 6, (Blue Blazes) Special thanks to Paul Nevin, Jan Klinedinst, Dana Shirey and where such extensive rock art sites have been found. at what is known as the Byrd-Leibhart site. Bob Leibhart for their generous contributions of historical (continued on reverse side) information and images for this guide.