Roundtop Mountain among highest peaks in York County
Roundtop Mountain, York County, Pa.
This 2005 view shows the lay of the land toward Cumberland County’s Mechanicsburg from atop Ski Roundtop and also captures Gold medal-winning Olympian Diane Roffe giving a ski lesson. York County, Pa.’s Ski Roundtop has a new name but offers the same view. Also of interest: Warrington Quakers begin meeting with hands folded and end with handshake and First Pinchot Road in Northern York County example of Great Depression-era stimulus project and Franklintown second cousin to neighboring Dillsburg.
Ski Roundtop, York County’s only ski resort, is now known as Roundtop Mountain Resort.
Its new name is in accord with its longtime name – Roundtop mountain.
Here how the “Catechism of York County,” described the terrain in Northern York County:
This graphic shows the Ski Roundtop layout in 2007. A caption with this York Daily Record/Sunday News image states: “A weather station at the top of the mountain at Ski Roundtop and a station half way down the mountain (two windows) relays information via a wireless connection to the computer operator at the base of the mountain. The computer sends wireless signals to the the individual snow guns. The weather stations measure temperature and humidity allowing the computer to regulate air pressure and water for optimal snow making right up the the moment temperature rises above the limit. This widens the snowmaking window, making more high quality snow with the available conditions.”
“A ridge of the South Mountains enters the northwestern part of the county and ends above Dillsburg. A spur of these mountains extended across Fairview Township and down along the Susquehanna. Round Top … and its quiet neighbor, Knell’s Hill, are isolated peaks in Warrington Township. The Conewago Hills, isolated ridge of Southern Mountain, terminate at York Haven… .”
That’s South Mountain in Pennsylvania, but the range is also the northern tip of the Blue Ridge Mountains, running up from North Carolina.
Here are some vital stats, from “Never to be Forgotten”:
Elevations in York County:
Low – 109 feet above sea level where Mason-Dixon Line crosses the Susquehanna River.
High – 1,384 feet at Stone Head, 3.5 miles southwest of Dillsburg. (See comment at: Red Lion’s towering Fairmount Park off the beaten track).
Round Top – 1,355 feet above sea level.
Highest boroughs: Red Lion, 911 feet above sea level.
Dallastown, 900 feet above sea level.
Courthouse steps (York County Administrative Center): 392.975 feet (above sea level).
Photos courtesy York Daily Record/Sunday News
