Hike #1182; Avon/Lebanon to Cold Spring/Cornwall

Hike #1182; Avon/Lebanon to Cold Spring/Cornwall

12/9/18 Avon/Lebanon to Cornwall/Cold Spring with Craig Craig, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Jennifer Tull, Peter Fleszar

This next hike would be the next in the 911 Memorial Trail series. I suppose it doesn’t sound like all that much, but it’s already the 32nd one, and we do twelve of them a year.

The route of the Union Canal at the Walmart

I was at a point where I was having trouble trying to figure out what to do next. The series is on the 911 Trail route, but we were now on a weird walking route compensating for a planning issue with the official route shown on their website.
The trail was laid out between New York City and Shanksville PA using as many existing trails as possible, and then some roads in between. In New Jersey, I was part of a planning committee, and so I got to help address issues where it would have to be hiking only, versus cycling (Allamuchy Mountain is the perfect example because the road isn’t safe to walk from Waterloo Village, but you can’t take a bike over on the Highlands Trail).

Union Canal on the south side of Walmart

When they laid it out in PA however, they did not take into account that pedestrians are not allowed to walk the highway through the Dauphin Narrows, which is their designated route. Fortunately, one of the planners, Robert Thomas, took a lot of time to talk to me about his alternate plans for this section, of which there are several.
The one that was best for our purposes was the Union Canal to Lebanon. Mr. Thomas recommended going there, and then taking the Swatara Rail Trail north through the gap and then head into Saint Anthony’s Wilderness. I loved that idea, so I started planning.

Fenced in canal by the Walmart

When I got to Lebanon, I was finding it difficult to move on. It’s really an interesting town. We could follow the Union Canal route through and just go north on the rail trail, but the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail to the south of town is the route designated officially on their website. That planned route goes to Harrisburg, and is actually a great route until reaching the Dauphin Narrows. I had already hiked the rail trail from near Cornwall all the way to the Susquehanna, and I’d hiked the Pennsylvania Canal between that point and Harrisburg, but I was missing the section between Lebanon and Cornwall.

A farm scene along the way

I decided for this hike that we would incorporate part of the “biking route” main trail instead of just going north. I could then do another hike in Harrisburg to his the other missing bit I haven’t done at a later time, as a sort of side trip to the main series.

The old canal

With a good plan set, I decided to meet the group at the Arden Place trailhead just out of Cornwall, which was just about the eastern point I’d followed the line. We then shuttled northward to the Avon area just east of Lebanon, at the Walmart where we’d left off the previous time.
The Union Canal passed right through the south side of the parking lot for the Walmart. This was part of a level section of the canal on the east of town, just west of the first five locks on the east side.

Union Canal nearing Lebanon

This hike would be much different than the previous ones, because we wouldn’t be skirting the canal so much around private farm lands. We would be able to follow pretty closely to where it used to be through town settings.
We got started by heading to the south of the lot and identifying about exactly where the canal would have gone. We then headed to a big ditch that is what is left. A chain link fence skirted the side of it, and some drainage water was flowing through the old prism.

Union Canal route looking toward Lebanon

We were able to follow this closely along the edge of the parking lot kind of heading west.

Union Canal coming into Lebanon

A retention pond blocked our way soon. I didn’t want to try to scale the fence, so we went around it to the north.

Likely former Union Canal

There was a pretty farmstead to the north of where. When we got around the other side of the retention pond, we skirted another fence, between two fenced areas on a somewhat worn path. The retention pond area was on our left, and Manna Foods was behind another fence to the right. We continued through and it took us out to what used to be the canal again. We turned right, and there were some remnants of what must have been towpath for a bit. We skirted a yard on it’s north side quickly, and then came out to 11th Avenue, across from Mifflin Street.

Possible former canal route

We walked to the west on that for a bit, but there was no sign of the canal. I assumed the canal must have turned to the north somewhat, because there is a “Canal Street” up there, so we walked that way through an apartment complex. I figured we would just wander on through and it’d be fine, but there was no way out. It came out to other roads, or it had fences that would be too much trouble to try to bother crossing.

Possible former canal?

Even going over historic maps of the area, it’s pretty tough to locate exactly where the canal was on the eastern portion of Lebanon. I think it probably went up Guilford Street, or at least close to it.
Here is this historic Library of Congress map that shows the route of the canal through Lebanon:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3823l.la000765/?r=0.085%2C0.138%2C1.018%2C0.464%2C0&fbclid=IwAR1bAhW5p66Mfq0wYk287e_K9zJXuhhXboYzYFvtQbuF6U_C1yghTc5EpP4

A good message

We had to head back out to Mifflin, go a couple of blocks, and then continue on to the north.

Some abandoned rails in a warehouse yard

We didn’t go as far as the Canal Street, but instead turned on Worden Street I think it was. I was thinking that looked like where the canal should have been. We went up to Canal briefly to the end of 7th Avenue, and then cut direct across a rather open grassy field. That took us to 6th Avenue where we continued across to get back on Canal on the other side.
We walked a little further parallel with a park land, but then had to make a left turn on 4th Avenue back to Worden Street where we turned to the right.

Where the canal passed through at Guilford Street turning right.

As we headed along this stretch, there was a drainage ditch to the right side. It’s possible that this might have been the canal, but it’s also possible that it might have remained further to the south. In the canal days, Canal Street would have been probably the only street in this area, and so we can assume that it was the closest to the canal back then, but several blocks today because those blocks did not yet exist. If we were to follow a direct line where we know the canal was from points east to west, it would line up more closely with Mifflin Street.

Union Canal looking from Guilford Street

We soon reached a large industrial lot with signs reading not to dump junk there. I was thinking we would have to go around this, but it looked easy enough to just wander through.

Union Canal looking north from Guilford.

We started walking directly across the lot, and were able to weave between tractor trailers that were parked out there. The canal had to have gone across this area somewhere, but after exploring ahead, I am inclined to believe it was a bit further south of where we had been walking.
Once we got out to Lincoln Avenue at the corner of Guilford Street, I could see where the canal had passed through. To the south side of Guilford, the prism and towpath were rather obviously pronounced.

Former Union Canal

To the north, the canal appeared to be a bit of a greenway passing closely between homes heading slightly north and then to the west.
We all started walking this grassy route behind some homes. It appears to have found a new lie as a utility right of way.
Just ahead, there was a “no trespassing” sign hanging across the thing, but there was an obvious path going around it. We wouldn’t have even been able to read the sign if we had walked from the direction the path was going.

Union Canal

This part was part I’d been looking forward to for a while. We figured we could just walk on through because obviously people do it all the time. We had no problems.

Union Canal

As we continued on, there were tons of other access points to this little urban greenway with no signage at all, so we figured it was fine. It skirted a parking lot and became Tyler Street.

Union Canal

We continued on Tyler to North 5th Street. If we go by the historic map, this road would have been a continuation of Church Street it seems at one time.

Former Union Canal

Another street with parking on the right side continued from here, out to 7th Street. It wasn’t a through street, but there was a business at the end where we could walk through the lot out to 7th.
There was a fenced in area ahead by a senior center. We skirted to the right, and stayed pretty close to where the canal went. We couldn’t remain on it much further because it became an overgrown ditch, but it wasn’t far off to head just to the north out to Maple Street anyway.

Union Canal route

We moved on ahead from here, and soon came to some very old buildings on the right. One was a painted yellow brick, the other a standard terra cotta brick color with a large porch. One of these, probably the latter, is shown on the historic maps as being the old Union Canal Hotel. I had said while we were out there that I’d thought they were canal vintage, but it seems they had direct canal relation.

Old Union Canal hotel

We stopped on the corner of Maple and 9th so I could study the maps a bit more. I found that we needed to go south a bit, and then went to the right on Water Street.

Historic Union Canal Hotel and another old one

It would appear that a school was built over the canal just to the north of that street, so we went around it to the west. We passed under an outlandish pedestrian bridge that looked out of place in the old town, and then continued left on 10th Street down to Guilford again. We followed that west to 11th Street and turned right just a little ways to about where the canal would have crossed. There was a cop sitting there in a car, but he paid no attention to us. Often police wonder what we’re up to, following these strange routes and walking back and forth.

Old Union Canal and Brandywine Creek

There was a huge ditch and water flowing where the Union Canal used to be. It had been dug deeper, but this was the actual route.

Union Canal and Brandywine Creek

We followed along the edge of the slope out to the corner of Guilford and 12th Street. The Brandywine Creek flowed in the old canal from here.

Union Canal route in Lebanon

We had a choice: we either had to walk to the right through an apartment complex parallel with the old canal and try to get through that way, or go to the left of it and try to get by along another apartment complex.

Union Canal in Lebanon

I studied the map a bit, and determined that the left side was better. We began walking along the grassy edge, where there was a chain link fence blocking the creek and canal channel from the grassy yard. The fence followed the top of the edge that would have been the towpath. We walked along, but then came to a fence at the end of the apartment property that would be rather difficult to cross. I noted that there was a hole in the fence from the canal channel on the other side, and we had passed a hole a little further back.

Union Canal route

I figured we could just go through that one and come out the other, without too much bushwhacking. We continued back to the hole in the fence, and I decided to go down for a closer look. There was a small dam over a portion of it that was shallow enough for me to wade through. I wanted to have a look at the other side to see if it was any better. When I saw it wasn’t, I headed back. Pete started following me and got his feet wet as well, but he went over and opted to follow the opposite side.

Union Canal route in Lebanon, as well as former railroad

In crossing, he dropped his water bottle into the creek. The turbulating water below the very short dam kept the bottle bobbing around and very difficult to pull out. I finally got it though. Already in the creek, I told everyone to just continue back toward the other hole whatever way we could. On the far side, Pete would come out at Lehman Street without too much difficulty. Already wet, I decided to just walk down the old canal route for a ways, and climb up when we got to the hole in the fence.

Union Canal route, as well as former railroad.

I knew where to go up, and hurried through. Beyond, there were some storage buildings or something, which masked the fact that we were walking through, so there was no problem there. Craig came close behind me and I met up with Pete near the road crossing, but then Jenny and Carolyn were not showing up. We waited for a while, and then they finally peaked out. They had continued through the mess and hadn’t come up when they got to the hole! Once out, we turned right on Lehman Street heading west.

Union Canal route in Lebanon, as well as former railroad.

The canal must have been on or just along probably the south edge of Lehman for just a little while, so we followed that.When we got to the intersection with 16th Street, there was a disturbed area to the right where the canal would have turned away from the road. I thought I’d found the route when I saw a large pile of wood and what appeared to be a level grade along it. There was no good way through direct form the road, but just beyond we were able to go down from the road, then climb up the embankment.

The canal route and channel for Brandywine Crek

When we got there, it wasn’t the canal at all, but rather an old railroad. The tracks were still in place, but there was stuff piled over them in a lot of spots.

Union Canal and old railroad route

The piles of wood we had seen before appeared to be historic timbers taken from many old structures. Most were about the same size, and many were in poor condition. I suppose they were put there for potential salvage, but they won’t last long out in the elements. The canal, we figured, must have been just a little bit further to the north from the rail bed, but closely parallel at this point. The railroad must have been a spur of the Philadelphia and Reading, which was the main line through the town.

Union Canal route

There were little spurs everywhere along the way. I found out through looking at historic maps that by 1899, there was a spur of the Reading Railroad that passed through along the Union Canal through much of the downtown Lebanon sections. I’d be willing to bet that Gregory D. Pawelski has some historic photos of these locations.
Ahead, there were ruins along the right side of the track grade. The first bit was stone that I saw, but then there was a lot of concrete.

Union Canal route

A doorway and steps led up into it from two different locations. Once up inside, there were some windows, and one chimney. A lot of the building was busted up, and large chunks were strewn around. Craig had already gone down slope and up another side to look for more remnants. We all followed him looking for where the canal would have gone. I think we found it in a mowed clear area that was accessed out of a park to the north. When we got there, we turned left to follow it west.

Ruins

We came to a cleared area behind the Kelly Machine Works, and the railroad spur seemed to end on just to the south parallel with us.

Tracing the old canal

We skirted the fence for the industry, and then came to where there was a small stream flowing in where the canal should have been. We skirted the fence more closely, and had to hang onto it for a bit, and then came out to 22nd Street.From this point, Union Canal Drive is built directly on or at times partially on the old canal. We could see some of it’s grade out from under the road off to our left. We walked the road further ahead and soon came to the Union Canal Tunnel Park.

Historic image of Union Canal tunnel

The Union Canal Tunnel is the oldest existing transportation tunnel in the United States, and it was the second transportation tunnel constructed, after the Auburn Tunnel on the Schuykill Navigation which was later blasted away and turned into an open cut.

Union Canal Tunnel today

The Union Canal was completed in 1838, and the tunnel was the last component to be completed in 1827. It also had 93 locks on the main route, which was quite an undertaking.

1905 tunnel view

A feeder canal, also used for navigation (and also hiked by us on past trips) continued up to Pine Grove just west of the tunnel site in what was known as the water works.

Union Canal Tunnel

The feeder was necessary because the canal constantly leaked and never worked properly.
The tunnel was 729 feet long, and boats had to be poled through it by the boatmen. A towpath over the tunnel for the mules was constructed. The entire canal was enlarged in the 1850s, and three feet had to be taken off of the ceiling of the tunnel. This shortened the length of the tunnel to it’s current length of 621 feet. Originally, it was only 15 feet high and 18 feet wide.
This area was known back as far as 1900 as “Coheva”, but I’m unsure about the industry.
As we entered the park, the restored canal appeared immediately. It looked as nice as any authentic towpath canal in good repair has looked on our past hikes. We started walking the clear towpath along the canal heading to the west. The parking lot had some cut stone in it, which looked to me like it might have been salvaged from old locks that may have been dismantled. The property is owned by the Lebanon County Historical Society rather than any other government entity.

Union Canal

There was a large barn off to the left across the parking lot. The man we had met on the previous hike at one of the locks told us that he was behind this project.

Historic Union Canal depiction

I didn’t see anyone around working or I’d have gone to say hello.We made our way to a sharp bend in the canal, and then the tunnel came into view. It was a handsome stone lined structure in very good shape. Some of the stone work has obviously been replaced over the years, but it’s looking good. Some restoration work took place as a WPA project in 1934 to restore the walls that had been built up on the west side after the tunnel was shortened, but they fell down rather early.
It didn’t take long for people to figure out the historic significance of this site. It appears in historic postcards soon after 1900. It’s interesting that this little piece of the old canal was saved, and most people tend to know about it, but the entire remainder of the route, save for the section between the reservoir and Reading, are very unknown.

Union Canal east portal

People in the towns we’ve gone through seem to know almost nothing of it’s significance. Arguably, it has been abandoned much longer than most canals. By 1887 it was done for.

Union Canal west portal

The water in the tunnel looked shallow. I really want to go through it. The historical society offers boat tours through it seasonally, but it’s shallow enough that I could probably walk it easily, if I could get away with it. In retrospect, there was hardly anyone around and I definitely could have this time.

Union Canal west of the tunnel

We headed from a little viewing area on the east side on what would have been the towpath route up and over. There were signs and such regarding the history as we made our way up to Tunnel Hill Road which passes over the top.

Union Canal Lock #1 East

We couldn’t just continue on the old towpath route down. They had built house right on top of the old tunnel, amazingly. We had to turn left on the road and then right on the other side into an entrance road to regain the canal.

Union Canal Lock #2 east

There was a sign on the other side that denoted where the towpath had come down, and it led up and around the mouth of the tunnel to a viewing area on the other side as well.

Playground where the canal was

I went down the slope directly on the path that goes closest to the mouth of the tunnel. It appears that this must be also a towpath. They probably towed the boats with mules as far as they could and turned them back when necessary. There is and never was a towpath through the tunnel.
We hung out here a bit while everyone checked out the viewing area above. We then continued on the towpath away from the tunnel heading to the west.

Union Canal in Lebanon

The canal remained well restored for a distance here, but then came to a dam and a private driveway over the canal. This provided slack water for the canal to remain full at this point. The Cattail Run, or Clark’s Run, flowed into the canal just east of this point and maintains water level. In canal days, it was Lock #1 East, the first of 34 locks that brought canal boats 193 feet down to the level of the Susquehanna River via the valley of the Swatara Creek. The tunnel is the highest point on the canal.

Union Canal in Lebanon

We stood there, not sure of what to do next. I was thinking we’d follow the canal beyond, but the park land doesn’t continue there. We waited a bit, and then I figured we could just hurry through. Pete didn’t want to do that so he walked out and around, and the rest of us took off running.
Soon, we came to the remains of Lock #1, which was in great shape with water flowing through it.

Union Canal in Lebanon

The route got a little weedy and overgrown, but we went back and forth from the former towpath to the canal bed, which wasn’t full, just the stream flowing in it. We hurried onward into deeper woods where we could relax, and then came to the equally awesome Lock #2. It too was in great shape with the stream running through it. I went down to the edge of the water to try to get some better photos of it.
Unlike a lot of the other canals I regularly follow, this was not rough cut, dry laid stones in the locks.

Union Canal in Brandywine Creek, Lebanon

These were hand hewn blocks made by skilled masons, which is probably why it holds together so much more.

Old Cornwall Railroad

The gate recesses where the lock doors would have fit in were all very easily recognizable, and only a few places was it deteriorating after 131 years of abandonment.

Lock #2 East

We moved on from here, and a path became a bit more pronounced. Just ahead, the creek and former canal passed beneath the former Lebanon and Tremont Branch of the Reading Railroad.

Possible former canal berm

This line was built basically parallel to the old Union Canal branch to the west end of the Schuykill County coal fields to the north. Service began on the line in 1870 as the Pine Grove and Lebanon Railroad and took almost all business away from the Pine Grove feeder to the Union Canal. It was reorganized as the Lebanon and Tremont Railroad in 1871 after merging with other rail lines, and then became part of the Philadelphia and Reading.

Former Cornwall Railroad

Most of the branch we were reaching was abandoned by 1981. The northern sections around the coal fields were all abandoned in the mid 1960s around the time Interstate 81 was constructed.
In the years to follow, some of this line has been turned into Swatara Rail Trail, from Lickdale through Swatara Gap and to the north. I’d already followed all of it north from the Appalachian Trail to Pine Grove, but never the section between Swatara Gap and this point.

Stacked wood on the old Cornwall RR

There is a plan to turn the entire thing into a trail, but private land owners, despite it being state land, have overtaken a lot of it. The section we were just getting on had been a big issue because the local farmers were using it to move equipment around. The proposal for trail would have bisected their farm and caused problems. Fortunately, they came to a solution and are allowing continued use of some sections for their farming, and paid out some sort of damages.

Salvage wood?

The county has taken on some fire from this because it was felt they were paying again for land already publicly owned.
I didn’t know what to expect of the right of way, because these aforementioned details are pretty recent, but it was interesting to see that the trail construction was already underway. There was a good view from the high fill of Lock #2, and we could see off in the other direction toward the area of Lock #3, though the lock was not in sight through trees.

The old Cornwall Railroad

There was a side trail on the other side of the crossing down to a better viewing point of Lock #2. My plan here is to arrange for a better exploration of these locks with permission and partnership of the local historical society as discussed on the previous hike.
Pete showed up at from the south on the rail trail to check out the lock site, and then we moved on to the south together.
This is the point where on the next hike in this continued series, we will follow the rail trail north through Swatara Gap, then in another trip head through Saint Anthony’s Wilderness.

New rail trail construction

I’m extremely excited about the prospect of exploring these places that have been on my “to do” list anyway.

Ruins on the rail bed

In another series, we will continue to follow the Union Canal westbound from this point, and I hope to gain access to more of it with the help of the historical society. There are a lot of interesting things coming up.
We soon came to a deep cut and then passed beneath Tunnel Hill Road via an underpass that had only recently been completed. Everything looked pretty freshly dug out. They must have filled in over the railroad grade completely at some point here.

Ruins

Beyond, the regular grade resumed and even had some surfacing.
It was assuring to see that some of this is done, because my hope is that when I return to this part of the series in a couple of months, more of it will be cleared and we won’t have other land owner issues and bridge crossing problems. There’s a major one that’s undecked across the Swatara Creek to the north that I know some of the group won’t want to cross.

Ruins

I’m planning to skip ahead toward Duncannon on the January hike, and do one of the side things in Harrisburg for February, which will bring us through to more of the main route in March.
The railroad bed paralleled Hanford Drive and passed an old quarry siding to the left. There was also some kind of new connecting trail that broke off to the left, which connects to the Union Canal Tunnel Park. I also hope to do some more of the side trails in that park as part of the next one in the series. There were so few of us on this hike, I really feel like we should go back with more people available to see this historic landmark.
The rail bed was destroyed where we came out to the intersection of Hanford and 25th Street. All of the railroad fill had been plowed away, and it was obvious there was once a bridge that crossed 25th Street. We crossed and it looked like there was a path going up to the railroad bed, so we followed it. There was nothing continuing at the top except nearly impenetrable brush.

Chimney

I decided that we’d walk a parallel utility clearing just to the south rather than impose this bullshit onto the group.

Ruins

The old Lebanon Valley Branch of the Reading Railroad was still active, with trains using them regularly just to the south. The bridge that carried it over 25th Street was interesting in that it was an old narrow stone culvert, that had been widened with an oblong concrete one.
We continued to the left, parallel with these active tracks to the south, and the abandonment to the north of us on the utility clearing.

It was well mowed and easy walking. It wasn’t long before the abandonment entered the clearing and we were walking it as well to the junction site.

Scull Street was parallel with us, and when we got to the exact junction site, we climbed down into a ditch to the left, then up to the street level. We skirted a building and the active line heading to the next crossing at 16th Street. There, tracks used to continue at an angle across to the right, the former route of the Cornwall Railroad. There were tracks still in for the first part. This was known as Cornwall Junction.

Map showing the different lines

The history started making more sense to me at this point. To the left of us, the same railroad line we had walked earlier, parallel with the Union Canal, was the old Cornwall Railroad.

The "Penryn", one of three passenger engines on Cornwall RR

This railroad was built in 1855 as the North Lebanon Railroad, which connected the iron mining industries to the south in Cornwall PA with loading areas on the Union Canal.

Old advert

We had hiked through Cornwall and crossed some of these rights of ways before on the Horse-Shoe Trail.

Cornwall and Lebanon #10 passenger engine

The area of Cornwall was important ever since Peter Grubb found iron ore there in 1730 and built the first furnace. The original roads through what are still today known as the Furnace Hills were tough on wagons to get through. Continued transportation improvements to these areas were always important. When the Union Canal was completed, a route was needed to get the ore to it for transport. Thus, a plank road was created in 1848 to haul between the mines and furnace and the town of Lebanon.

Lebanon Station

The railroad was the next obvious improvement, built by George Dawson Coleman and William Coleman.

Frog on the old Cornwall RR

For the first seven months of business, teams of mules hauled ore cars from Cornwall six miles to the Union Canal. Then, the first locomotive was purchased.

Ruins at the end of Cornwall RR

In 1870, the name of the railroad was changed to the Cornwall Railroad.
The Cornwall Railroad continued with no competition until 1883. Then, the Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad opened in direct competition, and immediately parallel with the Cornwall Railroad. Interestingly, the line was incorporated by Robert Haversham Coleman, the son of Cornwall Railroad cofounder William Coleman, and cousin to the current Cornwall Railroad President, William Freeman.

Ruins at the end of Cornwall RR

The younger Coleman owned part of the mining interests and wanted to extend into railroads as well.

Ruins at the end of Cornwall RR

A bitter rivalry was there from the start. There were several lawsuits and underhanded things done on both sides to undermine the other railroad.

Ruins at the end of Cornwall RR

Tracks were ripped up in some cases, and both lines even had their own parks to entice passenger day trips. The Cornwall Railroad had Penryn Park, while the Cornwall and Lebanon had it’s Mt. Gretna (which we explored on an earlier hike).
Where the tracks were immediately side by side, on a long level section, races would ensue between rivaling company locomotives.
It was said that Robert H. Coleman on occasion would take over engineer duties personally to engage in such races. Historian James Kersher describes some of this in his book “Cornwalls Railroad”:

Former Union Canal at the end of Cornwall RR

“Often the passenger trains of the Cornwall Railroad and the Cornwall & Lebanon Railroad would race each other from Cornwall to Lebanon. One train would sometimes delay its schedule to wait for the other – and then the race was on! This must have been a great thrill for the more hardy passengers. I have been told that Mr. Robert Coleman himself took over the engineer’s job on a few occasions in order to race.

At the end of the Cornwall RR

From their Cornwall Stations to the 12th & Walnut Street crossing the tracks paralleled each other on a level grade for almost five miles and made an excellent race track. Some of the oldtimers tell me that often the “Corny” (Cornwall Railroad) would not be able to stop at the Donaghmore station. It would skid to a screeching stop several hundred feet away and then back up to the station.”
The Cornwall and Lebanon was taken over by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1918 after Robert H. Coleman lost it to his debtors after failing in a railroad plan in Florida.

Union Canal would have had it's interchange with Cornwall RR here somewhere

The line survived the merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad with the New York Central, but after damage in Hurricane Agnes in 1972, it was not deemed worthwhile to repair.

Historic Lebanon postcard

Similarly, the Cornwall Railroad had it’s share of problems from Hurrican Agnes.

Historic Lebanon postcard

When the storm stalled over Pennsylvania, it flooded the iron ore mines, and much of it was not worth draining off for what little was left.

Union Canal bed where the railroad ended

Some strip mining continued, and some ore was shipped for several more years, but that pretty much ended in the late 1970s. A few more customers just north of Cornwall kept some of the old line operating until Conrail finally abandoned the spur in 1996. Today, only that short stub we were looking at in Lebanon was still serviceable.
We crossed and started following that former Cornwall Railroad spur to the south.

Frog on former Cornwall RR

It didn’t look like anything had been moving on it for quite some time. Just a little further down, we saw a frog (this is a fitting that allows for tracks to cross one another at grade).

Former Cornwall RR

There was a track loop off of the Reading line that was in existence well into the 1900s, and it would have crossed in this area, so that’s probably what this was.

Former Cornwall RR

We crossed Willow Street, and then the Brandywine Creek we’d been along earlier, and then reached the end of the tracks at Route 422, Benjamin Franklin Highway.

Lebanon Co Historical Society in the 1773 dwelling

Here, we had to make the decision if we wanted to just continue south on the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail section, or take a left turn to get lunch somewhere in town.

Bell at the historical society building

Everyone wanted food, so we headed to the left.
It was cool to walk through the town of Lebanon. It’s been an historic site since long before the days of the canal or the railroads.
The town was originally named Steitztown, for it’s founder George Steitz in 1740. The settlement grew, was incorporated as a town in the 1820s, and a city in the 1880s.
There were several old historic buildings as we walked through, one of them being the home of the Lebanon County Historical Society.

Bethlehem Steel in Lebanon

The limestone building it occupied was built in 1773 by Rev. Dr. Wilhelm Heinrich Stoy. James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States, served as Assistant Prosecutor with his office here beginning in 1813.

It then served as the first Lebanon County Court House. There was an old bell displayed in the front of it. Unfortunately, it was not open on this visit, but we’ll certainly have to make a return visit.
Our chosen lunch spot was the Snitz Creek Brewery. I had a delicious burger there, and tried two of their beers made on site (the stronger ones of course). One of them had an interesting bacon aftertaste unlike anything I’d had before, and the other was even better, but I can’t remember what it was called.
After our lunch, we made our way out of the brewery and north to the greenway along the Quittapahilla Creek, which flows through town. There are trails often along both sides of it. It was a kind of need walk, as the creek flows through a concrete trough similar to the LA River in California.
I checked out an old industrial building along the way. Lebanon was quite the center for commerce at one point, with a satellite operation of Bethlehem Steel, and of course the original source for Lebanon Bologna, the popular smoked variety created by the Pennsylvania Dutch that everyone has come to love.
We continued back to Rt 422 and turned right, which took us back to the north end of the rail trail. This took us almost immediately over the Quittapahilla Creek followed by another tributary. We soon reached the crossing of Chestnut Street.

Not sure what it was...

There was a building on the corner of Chestnut Street, which looked like an old railroad station and was even oriented in the right way to be one, but from everything I can find, it doesn’t seem as though it was one. I’m not sure what the thing was, but it was a handsome stone structure of considerable age that certainly looked the part.

The Hiker

We headed further south to cross Walnut Street followed by 12th street consecutively. We continued heading generally southeast parallel with the stream and soon crossed over 10th Street. There, the Fisher Veterans Memorial Park was to the right. Pete ushered us over to it because he wanted us to see an aptly named statue in the middle of it.
The statue, named “The Hiker” was that of a man with a hat and a rifle commemorating The Spanish-American War, The Boxer Rebellion, and the Phillipine-American War. The first version of the statue was created for the University of Minnesota in 1906 by Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson. At least fifty copies of it were made and distributed throughout the United States after that.
“The Hiker” depicts a man stripped of uniform in a struggle reacting to the changes of the battlefield. This particular location did not post the name “The Hiker” anywhere on it, but Pete assured us that was what it was called.

Ahead, we crossed over 9th Street, and then reached the parking lot for the Lebanon Valley Rail Trail where Pete was parked. He left us there, and the rest of us continued to the south over 8th Street.
The route became almost immediately more rural. The area high school was on the right with access. To the left, a grade came in and had a bridge over toward the high school parallel with Broad Street. It could have been a former road bridge, or maybe another rail spur. It was at this point I started to notice the right of way of the later Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad appear to the left. We approached the overpass of Wilhelm Avenue, and I could see the abutments of the latter’s bridge next to the one we were crossing. It was in this stretch that the races between the two company’s trains would ensue, but I didn’t yet know it. I seemed to recall that there were parallel rival lines, but I never had a common frame of reference for it to remember in detail.
Below Wilhelm, there were some other trails that joined form both left and right. We continued through a bit more of a developed area with residences on one side, and some businesses on the other. There was one on the right that had stuff about “High five, you’re risk of stroke” and other benefits of doing whatever exercise on the trail. It then went on to advertise their business in the building within sight of the trail, and finally there was a foreboding sign warning against trespassing on the property!

The rail trail

We passed a filled in former underpass I think at what must have been Evergreen Road, and then approached the underpass for Rocherty Road. In this area, the trail switched from following the old Cornwall Railroad to following the Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad. As such, the abandoned parallel right of way appeared on the right from the rest of the time.
We passed a site with abutments where a road used to cross over. I think that might have been Zinn’s Mill Road. We crossed Whitman Road after that, followed by Culvert Street, which were below us.

Historic COrnwall image

We passed through a rock cut, and I could see that the old Cornwall Railroad too was in a rock cut parallel with us to the right. There was a bit of a path on it, not too terribly overgrown. I think I’ll have to do this hike again in the future where we’ll follow more closely the other right of way. It’s quite interesting.

Cornwall and Lebanon Station in Cornwall, burned in the 30s.

We soon came parallel with Schaeffer Road. There was a section where a scout project identified trees along the route with little signs.

Cornwall Station site

When we got to about where the station would have stood, there was a giant root beer barrel under a pavilion thing. This reportedly serves as some sort of a gift shop seasonally. Rather interesting.
Just past this, there was another handsome stone structure which, like the one in Lebanon, looks like it should be a station, but is apparently not because I can’t find anything on it.

Cornwall and Lebanon bridge over Cornwall RR

Just after the crossing with Cornwall Road, the original crossing between the Cornwall Railroad and the Cornwall and Lebanon Railroad existed.

Cornwall and Lebanon Bridge over Cornwall RR

A grade crossing, especially between two rival lines, was not a good thing. It would certain end up with collisions, especially when the two were racing each other. As a result, the Cornwall and Lebanon had to bridge over the Cornwall Railroad by way of a very nice through style truss that still stands today. We continued ahead and crossed this bridge. To the right, at the end of Gate House Lane, another trail extended following on or close to the old Cornwall Railroad. I wonder if the building we saw was the gate house it referred to, not a station?
Ahead, we passed under Burd Coleman Road, and then under Creek Drive. This section ahead was mostly wooded, but there are a lot more developments that have gone in closely parallel to the trail, particularly to the north as the trail starts to orient itself to the west. We crossed then over Overlook Drive at grade instead of on an overpass, and reached the home stretch back to the Alden Place trailhead where we’d met.

This area was the site of the former Cold Spring Station somewhere. Just ahead of this point is the underpass for Route 322, parallel with Ironmaster Road. I couldn’t just stop here. I had barely not reached where this would connect to the other hikes I’d done, so I went the short distance ahead, under 322, and then out to it’s predecessor, Mine Road, which passes beneath the railroad bed. The station was probably somewhere in this area. Once I’d reached the bridge, I was satisfied and I turned back to the parking lot to finish out the day.
This hike was great because the City of Lebanon was sort of a pinnacle area. It’s not that well known, but it was such a major hub in it’s day. From that point, there is so much more worthwhile stuff we can explore. I feel pulled in so many directions wanting to embrace more of these historic and natural lands. There are hikes coming up in this series that are going to be outstanding, and it’s great that reaching beyond the Susquehanna River is so closely within sight. In January, I hope to knock out a big section between Duncannon and areas west. Maybe I’ll go even further than that toward stuff I’ve done out near Alfarata. I’ll figure that out. It’s going to get to the point where overnight trips are going to be the only way of doing sections farthest out toward the Flight 93 memorial.
I’ll worry about all of that when the time gets closer. We have a lot more great stuff to look forward to even before then.

HAM