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Western By Nancy and Richard Woodworth Much of the Lancaster County of Pennsylvania Dutch fame is a land of strange names and quaint places – a sea of smorgasbords, outlets, motels and commercial enterprises taking advantage of the Amish-Mennonite connection and, alas, undercutting the very notion of "The Plain People." That applies to eastern Lancaster County, where tourists arrive by the busload, three million a year strong. Western Lancaster County is, for the most part, a place apart. Here, the picturesque rolling farmlands of the east flatten as they approach the broad ridge cresting along the Susquehanna River. The Amish and Mennonites are far less conspicuous. So are the trappings of tourism. The western section wears an historic face, but one unfettered by the commercialism of its eastern counterpart. Mount Joy, Marietta and Columbia. These are the sleepy rural villages and river towns that dwell in the western county, surrounded by the ubiquitous farmlands that manage to survive in the face of creeping Lancaster suburbia. Mount Joy, the biggest town, marks something of a dividing line between the frenzied quaintness of Pennsylvania Dutch country and the serenity beyond. Marietta is a long and narrow strip of a river town, as authentic as they come; nearly half the town is on the National Register. Columbia was a gateway to the west when it was Wright’s Ferry, crossing point to the Susquehanna frontier. It was an important enough river site in the 1790s that it was one of the potential locations for the new nation's capital. Congress ultimately chose a capital along the Potomac River, not the Susquehanna. The development of the area, which blossomed during the heady river and railroad days of the 19th century, was stunted in the 20th. Buildings now considered historic were bypassed by the building boom. They stand as mute testimony to an earlier era. Betty Groff, the guru of Pennsylvania Dutch cookery, and her Groff’s Farm restaurant put Mount Joy on the national culinary map. The sophisticates who came to this side of the county were charmed by its lack of clutter and tourism. The Groffs opened a country inn nearby, more inns and B&Bs followed and lately, western Lancaster County is becoming a destination in search of an identity. No one – not tourism directors, innkeepers nor restaurateurs – has come up with a name for the area other than western Lancaster County. But they all see it as different from the rest of Lancaster County, a place apart. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places / Mid-Atlantic, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2003. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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