On the banks of Hartman Run

This is a picture of me next to the creek I grew up with. I lived next to it for the first 39 years of my life. Its name is Hartman Run, and it flows into the Pickering Creek, in Charlestown Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania.

From their confluence the Pickering flows northeasterly and joins the Schuylkill River just outside of Phoenixville - so I lived most of my life on the banks of a first order trib of the Schuylkill. It is a part of me that will never go away. The sound of it will always make me feel at home. Reflecting on these flowing waters leads me to guess that even if you were to limit yourself just to the exploration of the Pickering Creek and Hartman Run you would find a wealth of history and insights into why we are what we are.

Part of that early history would be the story of Charles Pickering, namesake of both the Creek and the Township. His story is typical of the American character, our culture and how they came to be what they are. The stream shaped me and the course of my life. In the same way Pickering and the other early settlers who shared his wildness and independence shaped their future (our present!). In doing so they passed on to us those same characteristics of wildness and independence. Our challenge is to figure out how to adapt our inherited culture to life in a world which has run out of frontiers - and is running out of resources.

As you can see, human contact has taken its toll upon the stream. It is not in pristine condition. Its story is part and parcel of the story of the Schuylkill, which has largely been one of first exploration and later exploitation.

Other spots on Hartman Run and the Pickering Creek

The confluence of Hartman's Run and the Pickering Creek

An old access bridge across the Pickering

A view downstream from that bridge
....looking toward the ocean....eventually....

A picture of the old Ice Dam, used until the 1950's, when it blew out during a big storm
One example of how people have benefitted from the watershed. Before the days of refrigeration people dammed rivers in order to create large lakes. The lakes were shallow so that they would freeze easily in the winter. People would then cut up the ice to use for cooling food. Ice from this location was shipped as far away as New York City.

Overflow at the Pickering Resevoir
This is just a short distance from where the Pickering meets the Schuylkill.
It is another example of people benefitting from the resources of the watershed. The resevoir supplies water for the Philadelphia Suburban Water Company. My grandfather worked for them from the time he finished high school until he retired. (43 years!)
This resevoir supplies drinking water for thousands of people in the western Philadelphia suburbs. Both the Pickering and the Schuylkill have been historically important as sources of drinking water. Phladelphia would not have grown into the largest of the colonial cities without the water from the Schuylkill. The importance of the river as a source of drinking water goes back to the early days of the continent, pre-dating the arrival of the Europeans. The town of Manayunk, on the Schuylkill, takes its name from the Lenape Indian phrase, "where we go to drink".

Back to: The Schuylkill River