York Heritage Trail, near Glatfelter Station, York County. January 2021
Following the ancestor
The sections of the York Heritage Rail Trail both north and south of Glatfelter Station fast became two of my favorites on pandemic walks. This station is apparently named after a relative of the ancestor who at one time was owner of a nearby flax mill. Walking north from here, one finds the "Howard Tunnel", the oldest tunnel in the USA for transportation that is still in use. To the south there is Seven Valleys, a corner of York County I might have gone to a handful of times in high school to attend basketball games. In either case, the trail goes through lovely forest and field and hill and dale. For me, this is York County at its best. In fact, although my brother and I walked the Northwest Lancaster County River Trail more, we both agree we prefer York's Heritage Trail for local scenery. Many parts of it pass through untouched parts of York County and bring me back to my childhood.
The Northern Central Railway still steams north from New Freedom as a local tourist attraction. We saw the train a few times on our walks. Once we even met the actors of a faux-shoot out. It seems they are investing in improving the rails, so maybe one day the train will go all the way to York City again. As it is, the farthest north one can travel by train is Brillhart Station (another favorite trail starting point). Some historical markers along the trail point to a few interesting firsts in the area, e.g., the first commercially manufactured ice cream in the USA was made in Seven Valleys because the rail line enabled the company to get their product quickly to a hungry customer base in Baltimore. I just love finding out things like that.
The Heritage Trail became enormously popular during the virus lockdowns. It is sad that it took such a terrible event to force people onto the trail, but I hope that even after normalcy people will still use it and support it. If any public money is used to support the trail, I fully support it. I hope with a larger fan base, they will improve it and maybe even extend it to link up with other defunct rail trails in York County. These abandoned railway right of ways seem like an underused asset just waiting to be tapped into. Will the pandemic spawn new trails and new interest, or after normalcy will they again become somewhat forgotten and solely used by joggers and bikers?