Chiques Creek, Lancaster Junction Rail Trail, Lancaster County. December 2020
The name Chiques (also Chickies), as pointed out by my cousin KGM, is derived from the Lenape "chiquesalunga" (place of the crayfish). For a simple water course, this creek has figured prominently throughout my life. The creek rises near Mt Gretna in Lebanon County, but soon after enters Lancaster for its journey to the Susquehanna. Five historic covered bridges cross it. Its watershed includes places like Manheim, Salunga, Silver Spring, and Marietta. This creek rises and rages through the surrounding farmland in flood, yet people insist on continuing to live nearby because most of its twisting path winds through prime Lancaster County farmland in a most bucolic American pastoral setting.
Near little German-squared Manheim is Roots Country Market & Auction. Roots was a favorite destination when I was a kid because it felt like going to a county fair minus the midway. There were animals, fruits, vegetables and all kinds of delicious food. Many of the vendors were Amish and Mennonite. For a kid who was growing up going to the A&P supermarket once a week, Roots was a huge adventure. Founded in 1925, Roots is still family-owned, going strong, and shows no sign of succumbing to box-store or online shopping.
The photo is from the Lancaster Junction Rail Trail which covers just a small piece of the Reading-Columbia line - at one time allowing trains direct access to the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay. This small section of the trail crosses the humorously-named "Spooky Nook Road" whose origin seems lost in urban legend. Was it the small train stop in the countryside that frightened disembarking train passengers with the sounds of the wind and the strange play of shadows in the moonlight? Or was it a genuine "Spuk Haus" along that road that people hurried past? For me, Spooky Nook only meant we were getting close to Roots and, of course, it was a very funny name that we commented on every time. These days Spooky Nook hosts a modern sports venue where the US Women's Volleyball team sometimes trains and completes.
Further along, not far away from Salunga, lies Silver Spring on an even smaller creek that feeds into the Chiques. The cemetery of my maternal ancestors is located there among the fields. As a child, I would visit with my Mom when she paid respects at her own mother's grave. That grandmother passed long before I was born. My mother felt a great sadness all her life of the early passing of her own mother. Maybe that's why she had the will to live until I was at least 60.
Before Marietta, the run that flows behind my mother's childhood home joins Chiques Creek. This small stream provided diversion and enjoyment for my mother and her siblings as well as my many cousins who came after. Hours were passed "playing down in the run". In the days before even TV, kids entertained themselves in ways alien to most developed-world children today. By the time I was old enough to play there, the world had moved on and I was more likely to be found not at the run but nearby at my Aunt P's swimming pool. Nonetheless, "the run", which still holds many tales of family lore, also makes its contribution to Chiques Creek.
Finally, Chiques Creek nears the Susquehanna beneath a huge stone outcrop, facing the river and frequented by climbers, Chiques Rock {see: Chickies Rock]. Through this massive stone, Rte 441 was blasted northward from Columbia to Marietta so that the factories north of Marietta had more direct access to the highway and bridge in Columbia, replacing an earlier winding and treacherous road. As a child, Chiques Cut was "new" and just a barren stone gash through the hill. Rocks often tumbled onto the roadway. 50 years on, the gash has mostly greened up with scrub vegetation. It almost looks natural. Just before the river, the creek finally passes under a popular section of the Northwest Lancaster Trail that links Marietta and Columbia. During the worst of the COVID pandemic lockdowns, it was the "go to" section of trail for my brother and I for our daily walks. I must have walked that section over 100 times by now - it is so familiar.
"Chicques" - it is all in a name. When I hear it, I am blasted back to my youth, my home, and my own family history.