Conowingo, Maryland | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 39°40′40″N76°09′33″W / 39.67778°N 76.15917°W | |
Country | United States |
State | Maryland |
County | Cecil |
Elevation | 289 ft (88 m) |
Time zone | UTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) |
• Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (EDT) |
ZIP code | 21918 |
Area code(s) | 410, 443, and 667 |
GNIS feature ID | 590012 [1] |
Conowingo is a community in northwestern Cecil County, Maryland, United States. The community replaced a previous one that was inundated by a reservoir.
Conowingo is a Susquehannock word for "at the rapids". [2]
Conowingo was originally located on the eastern bank of the Susquehanna River at the confluence of the Conowingo Creek with the river. Conowingo was at the rapids that were the first navigation obstacle on the Susquehanna upstream of the Chesapeake Bay, the location of an early stretch of canal. It was also the site of the Conowingo Bridge.
In the decade before a utility harnessed the power of the river, the thriving place had a population of 350 people, according to the Maryland State Gazetteer for 1902-02. Two doctors, Samuel T. Roman and D. M. Ragan, cared for the sick. Lodging was available from John T. Adams and E. P. Bostick, while Thos. Coonie baked bread and cakes for townspeople. Merchants included Chas A. Andrew, Geo. Brewinger, Wm. Gross, E. B. McDowell, and W. W. McGuigan. There were tradesmen such as John C. Smith, blacksmiths; Jas. Ritchey, shoemaker; and Robt. McCullough, Harnessmaker; W. R. Love was the postmaster. Mills included Allen & Wilson, flint mill; Jas. C. Bell, saw and flour mill; and the Susquehanna Paper Co. A daily stage provided transportation to Rowlandsville, Berkley, Darlington, Delta and other places. [3]
A 90-foot (27.4 m) fall of the river at the rapids dictated the location of the Conowingo Dam and thus the resulting inundation of the Old Conowingo site by the subsequent Conowingo Reservoir. At the completion of the dam in 1928, farmers and villagers uprooted by the construction of the large hydroelectric facility gathered on the hillside to watch as the village met its water doom and old Conowingo slowly vanished beneath the water. The date was Jan. 18, 1928. [4] The Conowingo Post Office was relocated to the hill above the dam.
Conowingo is not an incorporated municipality, nor a US Census Bureau census-designated place.
Octorara Farm was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. [5]
Other significant places include: Rumbleway Farm, [6] Hilltop Farm Inc.,, [7] and multiple Christmas Tree farms.
A new town, named Conowingo Village, was created in 1928, on the Harford County side of the dam. It was initially a company town to house the dam's plant managers and workers. From the 1980s to 2000, the power company leased the homes to non-workers. In October 2000, the village was shuttered. And in 2001 the power company donated the land to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the buildings to the local fire companies for training.
Port Deposit is a town in Cecil County, Maryland, United States. It is located on the east bank of the Susquehanna River near its discharge into the Chesapeake Bay. The population was 653 at the 2010 census.
Quarryville is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 2,852 at the 2020 census, an increase over the figure of 2,576 tabulated in 2010.
The Conestoga River, also referred to as Conestoga Creek, is a 61.6-mile-long (99.1 km) tributary of the Susquehanna River flowing through the center of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States.
Darlington is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in northeastern Harford County, Maryland, United States. The population was 409 at the 2010 census. The center of the community was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Darlington Historic District in 1987. Median household income is $66,563. The percentage of people in poverty is 5.3%.
The Conowingo Dam is a large hydroelectric dam in the lower Susquehanna River near the town of Conowingo, Maryland. The medium-height, masonry gravity dam is one of the largest non-federal hydroelectric dams in the U.S., and the largest dam in the state of Maryland.
Maryland Route 273 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. Known for most of its length as Telegraph Road, the highway runs 16.58 miles (26.68 km) from U.S. Route 1 near Harrisville east to the Delaware state line near Appleton, where the highway continues east as Delaware Route 273. MD 273 is the main east–west highway of northern Cecil County, connecting Conowingo, Port Deposit, and Rising Sun with Newark, Delaware, via the communities of Calvert and Fair Hill, where the highway intersects MD 272 and MD 213, respectively. The state highway also provides access to the Fair Hill Training Center and the Fair Hill Natural Resources Management Area.
Maryland Route 222 (MD 222) is a state highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway runs 11.36 miles (18.28 km) from MD 7 in Perryville north to U.S. Route 1 (US 1) near Conowingo. MD 222 connects Perryville, Port Deposit, and Conowingo along its route paralleling the Susquehanna River in western Cecil County. Due to limitations in the highway in Port Deposit, including a steep hill and a low-clearance railroad bridge, trucks are directed to use MD 275, MD 276, and US 1 through Woodlawn and Rising Sun to connect Interstate 95 (I-95) with US 222 in Conowingo.
Pequea Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River that runs for 49.2 miles (79.2 km) from the eastern border of Lancaster County and Chester County, Pennsylvania to the village of Pequea, about 5 miles (8 km) above the hydroelectric dam at Holtwood along the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County.
Several incarnations of the Conowingo Bridge crossed the Susquehanna River at the original location of Conowingo, Maryland, United States, about two miles upstream of the Conowingo Dam, which replaced it.
The Safe Harbor Dam is a concrete gravity dam, with an associated hydroelectric power station, on the lower Susquehanna River. It is the most northerly and last of three Great Depression-era public electrification projects' hydroelectric dams, and was constructed between April 1, 1930 and December 7, 1931. It created a long and relatively shallow lake, known as Lake Clarke, along the upper stretch of the Conejohela Valley. The creation of the lake shrank the upper Conejohela Flats in size.
Susquehanna State Park is a public recreation area located on the banks of the lower Susquehanna River north of the city of Havre de Grace, Maryland. The state park's main area is on the west bank of the river; the park also manages land on the river islands and east bank. The park offers fishing, boating, camping, and trails for hiking and equestrian use. It is managed as a complex with Rocks State Park and Palmer State Park by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
Muddy Run Pumped Storage Facility was built by the Philadelphia Electric Company and is a pumped-storage hydroelectric generation facility in Drumore Township, Pennsylvania, United States. When completed in 1968, Muddy Run was the largest pumped-storage facility in the world. Muddy Run has a capacity of 1,071 megawatts. The facility is operated by the Susquehanna Electric Company, a subsidiary of Constellation Energy. Ernest Spey was the superintendent of Conowingo Hydroelectric Dam and the new Muddy Run facility until 1989.
Octoraro Creek is a 22.1-mile-long (35.6 km) tributary of the Susquehanna River, joining it 9 miles (14 km) above the Susquehanna's mouth at Chesapeake Bay. The Octoraro rises as an East and West Branch in Pennsylvania. The East Branch and Octoraro Creek form the southern half of the border between Lancaster and Chester counties until the creek crosses the Mason-Dixon line. It winds through northwestern Cecil County, Maryland before joining the Susquehanna.
Conowingo Creek is a 20.2-mile-long (32.5 km) tributary of the Susquehanna River in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and Cecil County, Maryland.
Susquehannock State Park is a Pennsylvania state park on 224 acres (91 ha) in Drumore Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania in the United States. The park is on a scenic plateau overlooking the Susquehanna River and Conowingo Reservoir. The park is named for the Susquehannock people, who lived in the area. Susquehannock State Park is located on small roads a few miles south of Pennsylvania Route 372 and west of Pennsylvania Route 272. The nearest city is Quarryville, Pennsylvania, about 12 miles (19 km) East.
Deer Creek is a 52.9-mile-long (85.1 km) river in Maryland and Pennsylvania that flows through the scenic areas of Harford County and empties into the Susquehanna River, roughly halfway between the Interstate 95 bridge and Conowingo Dam. Its watershed area is 171 square miles (440 km2). Its watershed area in MD is 145 square miles (380 km2), with 3% impervious surface in 1994. It serves as a divider between the agricultural and urban/suburban areas of Harford County.
Muddy Creek is a tributary of the Susquehanna River in York County, Pennsylvania, in the United States.
The Conejohela Flats are a group of islands in the flooded Conejohela Valley, a large floodplain along the southernmost 30 miles (50 km) of the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania and Maryland in the United States. The valley was flooded primarily during the early 1900s by the construction of the Holtwood, Conowingo, and Safe Harbor dams from 1910 to 1931.