Located just east of the City of York, Pennsylvania, Camp Security is the site of a Revolutionary War Prison camp that housed over 3000 British and Hessian prisoners of war between 1781 and 1783. The original site is believed to have covered at least 30 acres. One estimate says 100 acres. Facilities during the war included a prison stockade and a village area, where model prisoners and their families resided. A state marker on PA Route 462 commemorates the site of the camp.

Historic York, Inc. and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission excavated a small portion of the village area in 1979. Excavations recovered domestic artifacts, including redware pottery, glass bottle fragments, window glass, buttons, straight pins and buttons from British and Canadian military uniforms. Objects from the excavation are part of a display on military archaeology at the State Museum in Harrisburg. The precise location of the camp stockade has yet to be found. Camp Security, which has been determined to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, has the potential to provide significant documentation on the story of Continental prison camps and on York's role in the Revolutionary War.

In 1999, a residential subdivision of 73 houses was proposed for the site. Because the subdivision will impact a stream and wetlands, the US Army Corps of Engineers became involved, and that triggered Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act.

As part of the Section 106 review process, the Corps required archaeological investigations prior to issuance of a permit to the developer. The developer agreed to fund this initial investigation to document the nature and location of archaeological sites within the proposed development. Given the density of artifacts found during the 1979 excavations, further investigation may be required to satisfy Section 106. The developer has not agreed to fund any additional investigation, and although a local university has offered to excavate the site for free over a period of years, their timetable does not meet the developer's needs.

The Corps of Engineers is involved only because of the impact on wetlands. The developer has since amended his plan to avoid any impact to the stream and wetlands. The developer now plans to develop only the higher-elevation dry land and to leave the wetlands alone. This amended plan would no longer require involvement by the Corps of Engineers and, therefore, it also would not involve Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The new proposal would leave 5.3 acres of wetlands untouched but surrounded by new homes. The new homes presumably will obliterate the other 25 to 95 acres of the original Camp Security site.

Time is running out for Camp Security. There is a meeting of the Springettsbury Township Planning Commission on Thursday, March 22. If you have an opinion, you should contact the principals involved in making this decision. Blake Stough provided the following names and addresses:

Alison McCullum

Department of Environmental Protection

South Central Regional Office

909 Elmerton Ave.

Harrisburg, PA 17110-8200

(717) 705-4808

 

Springettsbury Township Planning Commission

Springettsbury Township Board of Supervisors

1501 Mt. Zion Rd.

York, PA 17402

(717) 757-3521

(They both have the same address)

 

Honorable Gibson E. Armstrong

Senate of Pennsylvania

120 S. Queen St.

Lancaster, PA 17603

(717) 299-7798

 

Honorable Stanley E. Saylor

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

Cape Horn Plaza (Rear)

2997 Cape Horn Rd.

Red Lion, PA 17356

(717) 224-9232

 

The Honorable Todd Platts

United States House of Representatives

1032 Longworth House Office Building

Washington, DC 20515

(202) 225-5836

In addition, I did a Web search and found the names and addresses of the members of the Springettsbury Township Planning Commission listed on the township’s Web page at: http://www.springettsbury.com. The township of Springettsbury seems to have a York, Pennsylvania mailing address:

You can find still more information at the Preservation Pennsylvania Web site at: http://www.preservationpa.org/Risk00.htm