Mount Wolf resident answers call for photos of Elm Beach, old York County swimming hole
This old postcard shows the approximate location of Elm Beach, the swimming hole on Conewago Creek across from Cold Springs Park near Manchester. The trolley bridge helps locate the beach today. The pier stands, sans tracks, in the middle of the creek. Andy Blessing of Mount Wolf provided this view and another one below. And this aerial view shows the lonely pier. Also of interest: Part of Conewago Creek’s Elm Beach still visible and Big Conewago serves as physical, symbolic divider of York County culture and Growing off-peak trolley ridership in York County: Build a park.
Andy Blessing answered the call on this blog and in my York Sunday News column for photos of Elm Beach.
Michael A. Damon had asked about the location of the beach and any photos of the old York County swimming hole.
Andy said he received the postcards and photos from Victor Cocklin, whose parents owned Elm Beach until the Depression and the flood of 1933.
Here are some of Andy’s comments:
Trolley cars brought many people from the reaches of York County to excursions at Elm Beach and Cold Springs Park, the electric park on the south side of the stream. The trolley ceased running in the early 1930s, several years before that form of transportation ended entirely in York County in 1939.
Many of Victor’s ancestors hailed from the Mechanicsburg area as the cemetary near Williams Grove Speedway bears that name.There was an article in the Dispatch … a few years ago about Elm Beach. Victor’s name was mentioned in the article and I contacted him. My hobby is locating lost items with a metal detector and I was looking for places to hunt.There was a story about me in the Dispatch from December of 1994 about three gold class rings I had found in a lake and returned to their owners after 27 ,22 and 18 years. Victor was a very nice and personable guy and even gave me a comb souvenir from an Elm Beach vendor.
Additional Elm Beach photos are coming Monday on this blog.
Also of interest:
– Conewago crossing near Manchester hot spot for years – Part I
– Conewago crossing – Part II
– Conewago crossing – Part III
– Conewago crossing near Manchester a hot spot, literally, for years – Part IIII
Archives:
– All York Town Square posts from the start. (Key word search by using “find” on browser.)
– Of course, you can always search for York Town Square post on Google. For example, google yorktownsquare Elm Beach
