Wright's Ferry

The complex was important in settling the lands west of the cranky Susquehanna, for without resorting to water craft, the ferry was the first (and for many years, the only) means of crossing the wide watercourse of the relatively shallow Susquehanna River for settlers with a cargo in the southern part of Pennsylvania—which is very wide from Middletown, Dauphin County southerly past Wright's Ferry and grows steadily wider as it nears its mouth at the Chesapeake Bay, and whose banks are steep enough to prevent easy cargo handling from small boats.

Lord Baltimore used a thug named Thomas Cresap in the area to try to prevent settlers from Pennsylvania from creating homesteads.

This long border dispute was finally settled in 1767 when both colonies accepted the Mason–Dixon line as a revised boundary when ordered by the King.

The ferry infrastructure was built in 1730 to transport goods, animals, and people across the Susquehanna River in south central Pennsylvania, between present-day Lancaster and York counties.

The ferry was particularly valuable to those new settlers seeking to homestead the west bank of the Susquehanna, which activities drew the interest of Lord Baltimore's agents.

The ferry was sited just north of the mid-river islands of the Conejohela Flats region, since flooded by a lake created by a dam on the river.

He moved his family to a plot 100 yards from the left bank in 1726, establishing a small settlement along with Robert Barber and Samuel Blunston.

The two-story log tavern, operated by John Wright, Jr. until 1834, consisted of a large room on either end connected by a passageway.

County residents, Native Americans and colonists alike, regularly traveled to Wright’s home to file papers and claims, seek government assistance and redress of issues, and register land deeds.

The early ferry consisted of two dugout canoes, made in the style of Native Americans, fastened together and carrying a carriage and wagon wheels.