Smoketown a popular York County name a century ago
The area around the former Highland Park in West Manchester Township also has been called Smoketown, one of several such locales in York County. Highland Park was an electric park, designed to attract trolley riders on weekends. Background posts:
Carrie Nation in York: ‘If you keep smoking those things …’, Growing off-peak trolley ridership in York County: Build a park and Pinchgut vs. The Gut.
How many Smoketowns are there in York County?
That question came to mind in putting together the recent post: This Smoketown now rests on York County lake floor.
I didn’t know about that Smoketown.
I was aware that the South Central Pennsylvania Genealogical Society’s “Gazetteer of York and Adams Counties” lists two: … .
A Jeep and train collided in late June 2007 on a gravel road near Smoketown Road near Lake Marburg, one of several Smoketowns located around York County. There were no injuries.
– West Manchester Township’s Highland Park area has been called Dogtown, Highlandtown and Smoketown.
– The York County Commissioners established use of the Smoketown Road in Newberry or Fairview Township in 1806. George Prowell refers to a Smoketown School in Newberry Township.
The ADC mapbook lists the following road so named: A route running along the west branch of the Codorus Creek near Lake Marburg in Manheim and Heidelberg Townships. That is the only extant Smoketown, as far as I can tell.
So, the name Smoketown cropped up all over the county. But why?
One can conjecture that active lime kilns could have thrown off a lot of smoke. In creek bottom land where some of the roads ran, perhaps fog or haze stuck around longer each day.
Those are guesses.
What is known is that Smoketown was a popular York County name.
Trolley photo courtesy of West Manchester Township Historical Society
