The "Milestone: The Road Side Survivor" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just got back in the car after walking back and forth along Rt. 30E searching for a stone marker, aka milestone, telling me the distance I am from Philadelphia as well as the distance I am from my hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

 A few years ago I added a small note to one of my stories telling about milestones and I recently learned of the location of a few more and began a search for them.  I posted a note to a local Facebook page asking for help finding local milestones and when I got a few responses I began my search.  

A beautiful Lancaster County scene along busy US Rt. 30E in Lancaster
County. This is known as the Willows Bridge which is a combination of
two bridges.  The Miller's Farm Bridge linking Providence and Strasburg
Townships built in 1871 and the Goods Ford Bridge that crossed the
Pequea Creek and was built in 1855.  Both bridges were slated for demo
in 1962, but Mr. Adolph Neuber, who owned the Amish Farm and House
was given the Miller's bridge to preserve and he purchased the Goods
bridge to use to repair the Miller's bridge.  Both bridges were used to
restore the Willows Bridge.  Mr. Neuber's restaurant, which stood closeby,
was called The Willows and stood from 1931-1996.  I can remember eating
there on many occasions while growing up.  Today there are less than 30
covered bridges remaining in Lancaster County.

Today I was trying to find one that was said to be near the Amish Farm and House, the Target store and the Ameri- can Music Theatre along Rt. 30E.  I parked the car nearby and told my wife I'd be back in a minute or two as I walked toward the busy highway.  Walked through  the old covered bridge that at one time carried all the traffic that now flows on six lane highway near me.  I looked along both sides of Rt. 30 as well as near the covered bridge, but with no success.  

The milestone in front of the Amish Farm
House.  It reads 51 M to P - 5 to L.

After getting back in the car I told Carol of my failure and she told me to drive past the entrance to the nearby Amish Farm and House, since the poster on Facebook  suggested that to be the location.  The Lancaster County tourist attraction is close to 100 yards from the busy highway, but I gave it a try anyway.  As we approached the bus lane in front of the attraction, Carol pointed to her right and said, "There it is in front of the place."  I guess it only made sense since the current highway was moved to the south years ago when it changed from the two-lane road to the 6-lane road that it is today.  The stone appeared to show etched lines that read 51 M to P, 5 to L which would be 51 miles to Philadelphia, 5 miles to Lancaster.  

Another Lancaster Turnpike milestone
is in front of Lancaster's prison.  It says
62 M to P by the Turnpike.

After some searching online I found that there were originally 13 stones that were placed on the north side of the Philadelphia to Lancaster Highway in 1795 by Joseph Price.  These milestones marked the distance from the Market Street Bridge (30th Street) in Philadelphia to Lancaster.  I found that GoogleEarth was used to check the distances and the longer distance measured 53 miles, but the 5 miles to Lancaster was accurate.  Reading more I found that there were 10 historic turnpikes that ran from Lancaster to cities or towns such as Lititz, New Holland, Oregon, Marietta, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Manheim, Columbia, Millersville and Strasburg.  These locations were connected with a "pike" or a "turnpike", thus Oregon Pike, New Holland Pike, etc.  

This stone stands in front of the Country Patches Bed &
Breakfast at 3157 Lincoln Highway East.  It reads 53 M(iles)
to P(hiladelphia) 9 M to L(ancaster).

In Lancaster's newspaper is a column each week called "The Scribbler."  Jack Brubaker is known as such and he writes a weekly column on newsworthy or historical topics.  He recently wrote of a fellow named David LeRoy who has written a book called "Roadside Survivors: Historic Milestones on the Old Turnpikes and Post Roads of the Northeast."  

This Historical marker tells the story of the Philadelphia & Lancaster Turnpike Road.

In the book he says that Lancaster County is "A hub for markers."  Mr. LeRoy discovered his first milestone about 40 years ago and he hasn't been the same ever since.  

This book is interesting and can be found
on Amazon.com.  Author is David LeRoy.

The book is interesting and tells many stories of his discoveries as well as the size of milestones.  Most are 5 feet, 6 inches tall with approximately half buried underground.  Most are stone with a few being concrete, wood or iron.  Lancaster's turnpike from Philadelphia to Lancaster actually ran to our neighboring town to the west, Columbia which borders the Susquehanna River.  The milestones were used to determine postal charges as well as distances.  Mr. LeRoy has discovered more than 400 milestones which makes the dozen or so that I have found a very minor feat.  That's OK with me since I still had fun driving around the county with my wife discovering places we hadn't seen for years.  One very familiar place though, St. James Episcopal Church in downtown Lancaster, brought a smile when, as passing by it, I reminded her that's where we were married.  "I don't remember that!" she said with a questioning look on her face.  "I must have forgotten that when I had my amnesia a few weeks ago."  Then we both had a good laugh.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.

This milestone is on the Lititz Pike near the town of Lititz.  You can see the distances to both places on the stone.  The Lititz Pike runs north-south.

This milestone is on the Marietta Pike to the west of Lancaster.  3 L - 22 M.

Another milestone on the Harrisburg Pike.  The cable company was using it to hold the excess cable from the above line in place.  It reads 1 L - 24 M to H.