Uncharted Lancaster
Uncharted Lancaster reveals the county’s most fascinating stories—local history with odd twists, forgotten places, and the occasional brush with the supernatural. Each episode explores the hidden histories and long-buried secrets of Lancaster County, where legend, landscape, and local lore collide.
Episodes
32 episodes
The Great Susquehanna Ice Flood of 1904
In the spring of 1904, the Susquehanna River turned into a force of near unimaginable destruction. In this episode, we dive into the catastrophic ice jam flood that followed an exceptionally harsh winter, when a sudden thaw sent massive sheets ...
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Season 1
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Episode 32
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45:48
The Sorceress of Lititz and Pennsylvania Dutch Powwowing
This episode explores the strange and captivating story of Hannah Hetherley, the so-called “Sorceress of Lititz.” In late March of 1879, newspaper accounts thrust Hetherley into the spotlight as a practitioner of Braucherei, the Pennsylvania Du...
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Season 1
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Episode 31
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42:47
The Lancaster County Ironmaster Who Inspired Charles Darwin
This episode explores the remarkable life of Samuel Stehman Haldeman, a 19th-century polymath whose intellectual curiosity knew few boundaries. Born in Pennsylvania and educated at Dickinson College, Haldeman first made his mark as a natural sc...
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Season 1
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Episode 30
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33:18
Roslyn Mansion: Laura Watt's Gilded Age Birthday Present
When my wife turned 38, I bought flowers and took her out for a fancy dinner. When one of the county’s most successful merchants, Peter T. Watt, celebrated his wife Laura’s thirty-eighth birthday, he commissioned the construction of a massive 9...
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Season 1
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Episode 29
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41:12
1777: War Comes to Lancaster County
This episode explores how Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, became a critical sanctuary and supply hub during the darkest moments of the American Revolution. In 1777—after George Washington’s victories at Trenton and Princeton—the region absorbed...
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Season 1
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Episode 28
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37:20
George Ross: Lancaster's Revolutionary Patriot and Signer
This episode explores the life and transformation of George Ross, one of Lancaster’s most important Revolutionary figures and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Trained as a lawyer, Ross began his career as a loyalist and Crown prosec...
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Season 1
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Episode 27
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29:31
When the U.S. Army Went to War with the Susquehanna River
This episode explores one of the most dramatic—and unusual—responses to a natural disaster in Susquehanna Valley history: the March 1920 bombing of an ice gorge on the Susquehanna River. After an extraordinary eighty-three-day deep freeze, mass...
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Season 1
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Episode 26
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28:20
Susanna Wright: The Silk Queen of the Pennsylvania Frontier
This episode explores the extraordinary life of Susanna Wright, an 18th-century polymath who emerged as one of the most remarkable—and overlooked—figures in colonial Pennsylvania. A Quaker intellectual of immense range, Wright was a scientist, ...
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Season 1
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Episode 25
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37:30
Mount Bethel Cemetery: Three Centuries of Columbia History
Founded in 1730, Mount Bethel Cemetery is the oldest continuously operating burial ground in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania—and one of its richest repositories of local history. This episode explores how Mount Bethel evolved from scattered deno...
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Season 1
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Episode 24
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32:45
John Sutter's Brutal Empire of Lies
This episode revisits the controversial life and long shadow of John Sutter, the Swiss immigrant whose settlement would become Sacramento and whose sawmill sparked the California Gold Rush. Long portrayed as a pioneer success story, Sutter’s li...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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32:27
The Hard Coal Navy: Dredging the Susquehanna for Black Gold
For nearly a century, the Susquehanna River functioned as an unlikely fuel source, collecting vast amounts of anthracite coal waste washed downstream from Pennsylvania’s mining regions. This episode explores the little-known river coal industry...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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30:07
Subterranean Bootlegging and the Lancaster Sewer Beer Hose
In 1932, authorities in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, uncovered an ingenious clandestine pipeline used to transport illegal alcohol during Prohibition. This operation involved a three-inch rubber hose stretching 3,000 feet through the city's sewer s...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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27:52
Derailments, Champagne, and the River Below
This episode explores three strange and memorable railway incidents that unfolded along the rugged banks of the Susquehanna River during the late 20th century—moments when heavy industry collided with unpredictable terrain and left lasting mark...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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33:26
Did Ancient Phoenicians Sail Up the Susquehanna?
Did ancient sailors cross the Atlantic long before Columbus? This episode explores one of the most controversial questions in American archaeology—the claim that Phoenicians reached North America in antiquity. At the center of the debate are th...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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42:04
Greenwood Cemetery Mausoleum
Rising above the surrounding grounds at the highest point of Greenwood Cemetery, Lancaster’s Egyptian Revival mausoleum stands as one of the city’s most striking—and unexpected—architectural landmarks. Completed in 1915 by acclaimed architect C...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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30:03
River Highway: The Era of Susquehanna Log Rafts
From the late 18th through the early 20th century, the Susquehanna River functioned as one of America’s most important commercial highways. This episode explores the dangerous world of the river raftmen—skilled laborers who guided enormous, han...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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38:30
Roslyn Mansion: A Husband's Gilded Age Birthday Gift
This episode explores Roslyn Mansion, one of Lancaster’s most striking Gilded Age homes and a masterpiece of late Victorian design. Built in 1896 and designed by renowned architect C. Emlen Urban, Roslyn was commissioned by Peter T. Watt, co-fo...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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41:12
The Buzzard Gang: The Jesse James Gang of the East
This episode dives into the violent, fascinating true story of the Buzzard Gang—one of the most infamous outlaw families to ever roam the rugged hills of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Rising from post–Civil War poverty, brothers Abe Buzzard a...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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32:41
General Edward Hand: Patriot, Physician, and Master of Rock Ford
This episode explores the remarkable—and complicated—life of Edward Hand, an Irish-born physician who rose to prominence during the American Revolution. Serving as a major general and adjutant general under George Washington, Hand played a crit...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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43:50
The Bausman House Eavesdropper
This episode explores one of Lancaster’s most curious architectural details—the stone face known as the Eavesdropper carved into the exterior of the historic Bausman House. Built in 1762, this rare sandstone residence stands apart not ...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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34:02
The Gentleman Bum of House Rock
Who was Colonel John Mead—the so-called “gentleman bum” of the Susquehanna River hills? In this episode of the Uncharted Lancaster Podcast, we explore the remarkable life of a well-spoken, well-read hermit who spent decades living in c...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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31:20
The Susquehanna Ice Railroad of 1852
In the winter of 1852, an unrelenting cold turned the Susquehanna River into an icy barrier, threatening to halt commerce and mail along one of the nation’s most important rail corridors. This episode tells the extraordinary story of how the Ph...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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36:03
The Face in the Window on Carter's Hill
In this episode, we unravel the strange history and enduring folklore behind a ghostly face staring out from the attic window of an 18th-century brick farmhouse in Peach Bottom, Pennsylvania. For generations, locals have whispered chilling expl...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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30:09
The Enola Low Grade: Iron, Blood, and Engineering Glory
This episode traces the dramatic rise—and lasting legacy—of the Enola Low Grade, one of the most ambitious railroad engineering projects ever undertaken in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Constructed between 1903 and 1906 by the Pennsylvania Ra...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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39:08
The Albatwitch: Pennsylvania's Little Bigfoot
In the area around Chickies Rock, near the ancient Susquehanna River, stories of a 4-foot-tall hairy ape-man have circulated since Native Americans dominated the region. As recently as 2024, people have seen the hairy beast. Legend says this sm...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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30:28
