7.2: Historical Perspective

York became home for America’s forefathers during the American Revolution for the period of English occupancy in Philadelphia after the start of the Revolutionary War. The Articles of Confederation were crafted and adopted in York during the period that America’s leaders had fled Philadelphia and had taken refuge in the wilderness. York, PA was west of the Susquehanna River which was commonly thought to be wilderness at this juncture in American history. The document itself was not successful but did play a significant role as a forbearer of the United States Constitution and America’s individual liberties. York is in a beautiful geographical area, west of the Susquehanna River, close to major cities of the Eastern Seaboard, near the Chesapeake Bay, but also not far from the majestic Appalachian Mountains. The city is intersected by Interstate 83 (Harrisburg, PA to Baltimore, MD) north to south and U.S. Route 30 equidistant between Lancaster, PA on the east and Gettysburg, PA on the west. Once a flourishing industrial mecca, York is now saddled with rusting hulls of iron once manufacturing monasteries situated on environmentally unsound earth and economic uncertainty due to decreasing resources.