Camp Security: ‘The camp consisted of log huts and a large stockade’
This replacement sign now stands near the former site of Camp Security, an American Revolution prisoner of war camp, in Springettsbury Township. Background posts: POW Camp Security site: ‘There’s a lot of history waiting to be discovered’ and Signs point to York, Pa., ‘Prize of the Confederacy,’ and other York/Adams Civil War wonders and Windows into York blog offers Springettsbury’s Schultz House datestone update.
Vandals meant the theft of a sign in 2007 marking the site of a former British POW camp for bad.
But Friends of Camp Security reacted for the public good… .
The group paid $1,600 for a new sign containing more information.
The historical marker program of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission coordinated the project.
“We felt what better way to commemorate the site than to replace that marker,” Friends’ president Carol Tanzola said.
Indeed.
For the record, here’s the old wording on the still-missing 1947 marker, according to the York Daily Record/Sunday News (1/23/09):
“Stockade, built in 1781 by Col. Jas. Wood on land of Daniel Brubaker. British troops of Burgoyne’s army imprisoned here, guarded by York County militia. The camp was about a mile to the south.”
And the new:
“A prison camp built in 1781 to detain British troops surrendered by Gen. Burgoyne at Saratoga, N.Y. and their families. Prisoners captured at Yorktown, Va. arrived later. It was guarded by York County militia and Continental troops until operations ceased at the end of the American Revolution in 1783. The camp consisted of log huts and a large stockade. Archaeological evidence confirmed its location less than a mile to the south.”
