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 just for its age, but for the watchful figure set beneath its eaves, silently observing the street below.

We trace the meaning behind the eavesdropper, a symbolic warning against gossip in an era when open windows, close quarters, and public conversation blurred the line between private and public life. The episode follows the term’s evolution—from Old English references to roof runoff, to carved figures used in Tudor England, including those reportedly employed by Henry VIII to enforce silence at court—before arriving in colonial Lancaster as stone and symbolism.

The story also introduces William Bausman, the Patriot, public official, and entrepreneur who built the house with his wife, Elizabeth, anchoring the building firmly in Revolutionary-era Lancaster. Finally, we examine the home’s modern chapter: a careful, multi-million-dollar restoration that preserved its colonial character while adapting it for contemporary use.

Blending folklore, language, architecture, and history, this episode reveals how a single carved face connects Lancaster’s past conversations—spoken and unspoken—to the city’s evolving streetscape. To read more, visit UnchartedLancaster.com.

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A faithful replica of the carved face that watches East King Street from the historic Bausman House is NOW available as a wall-mounted piece or magnetic Fridge Guardian. Inspired by Lancaster’s architectural folklore—where small details carry big stories. Available now in the Uncharted Lancaster shop.

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 caves and rock shelters along the riverbanks of southern Lancaster County. Known for his courtesy, intellect, and mysterious past, Mead welcomed railroad workers, vacationers, and curious travelers into his rocky home at House Rock, becoming an unlikely local celebrity at the turn of the 20th century.

From whispered theories about his origins and the unexplained “Colonel” title to the fire that destroyed his shelter and the rediscovery of his long-lost rock home more than a century later, this episode traces the strange, dignified, and quietly human story of a man who chose life beyond society’s rules—and left behind one of Lancaster County’s most enduring legends.

To learn more, visit UnchartedLancaster.com.

Learn about other unique people and places like this when you step off the beaten path with Uncharted Lancaster: Field Guide to the Strange, Storied, and Hidden Places of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Adam Zurn. This one-of-a-kind 239-page guidebook uncovers 56 fascinating sites, from the county’s very own fountain of youth to the oldest continuously operating short-line railroad in the western hemisphere. Order your copy here.

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 Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad responded—by building a temporary railroad directly on the frozen river between Havre de Grace and Perryville.

Rather than risk a locomotive on the ice, engineers used stationary steam engines, ropes, and pulleys to carefully slide loaded freight cars across the frozen expanse. For more than forty days, thousands of tons of goods crossed the Susquehanna without a single recorded accident. The episode also explores how this remarkable feat was later immortalized in a commemorative lithograph distributed by the Adams Express Company, preserving one of the most inventive—and unlikely—chapters in American transportation history.

To learn more, visit UnchartedLancaster.com.

Here’s your chance to purchase a beautiful reproduction of the 1852 lithograph showing the Adams Express Company railroad tracks crossing the frozen Susquehanna at Havre de Grace, Maryland, in 1852. Order your copy here.

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 explanations—some claim it’s the haunted visage of a Civil War widow, others insist it’s a death mask placed there in vengeance.

The truth, however, is no less fascinating. The face is a plaster teaching model once owned by 19th-century phrenologist Henry Carter. His daughter reportedly positioned it in the window as a prank to startle passersby, never imagining it would remain there for more than a century. Over time, the eerie sight became a roadside curiosity, even earning a mention in National Geographic.

Today’s homeowners continue the tradition—partly out of respect for local history, and partly due to a lingering superstition that removing the head brings bad luck, a belief reinforced by a structural collapse that occurred during a previous attempt to take it down. Known as the “Face on Carter’s Hill,” the object now stands as a shared cultural icon, where documented history and supernatural legend blur into one enduring mystery.

To learn more, visit UnchartedLancaster.com.

Learn about other unique people and places like this when you step off the beaten path with Uncharted Lancaster: Field Guide to the Strange, Storied, and Hidden Places of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Adam Zurn. This one-of-a-kind 239-page guidebook uncovers 56 fascinating sites, from the county’s very own fountain of youth to the oldest continuously operating short-line railroad in the western hemisphere. Order your copy here.

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 Railroad, the Low Grade was designed as a nearly level freight bypass, allowing massive trains to move efficiently along the Susquehanna corridor without the punishing climbs common to earlier rail lines.

Achieving that vision came at an enormous cost. Millions of cubic yards of earth were moved, and the project’s price tag—equivalent to roughly half a billion dollars today—was matched by a devastating human toll. More than 200 laborers, many of them recent immigrants, lost their lives amid hazardous working conditions, frequent dynamite blasts, and relentless industrial pressure. Their stories are an often-overlooked chapter in the triumphalist narrative of American engineering.

For decades, the Enola Low Grade served as a vital electric freight corridor, drawing power from the nearby Safe Harbor Dam and helping fuel the industrial economy of the region. By the late 1980s, however, changes in rail operations rendered the line obsolete, and it was ultimately abandoned.

Today, the route lives on as a 29-mile rail trail, inviting hikers and cyclists to move through a landscape once shaped by iron, blood, and ambition. This episode explores how the Enola Low Grade evolved from an industrial-age marvel into a modern public space—while asking what it means to remember both the engineering glory and the human sacrifice that made it possible.

To read more, visit UnchartedLancaster.com.

Learn about other unique people and places like this when you step off the beaten path with Uncharted Lancaster: Field Guide to the Strange, Storied, and Hidden Places of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Adam Zurn. This one-of-a-kind 239-page guidebook uncovers 56 fascinating sites, from the county’s very own fountain of youth to the oldest continuously operating short-line railroad in the western hemisphere. Order your copy here.

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 small, hairy creature would terrorize picnickers up at Chickies Rock in the 1800s by stealing their apples and pelting the cores back at them. This episode of the Uncharted Lancaster Podcast takes a deep dive into the story of Columbia's little bigfoot—the Albatwitch.

To learn more, visit UnchartedLancaster.com.

Learn about other unique people and places like this when you step off the beaten path with Uncharted Lancaster: Field Guide to the Strange, Storied, and Hidden Places of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Adam Zurn. This one-of-a-kind 239-page guidebook uncovers 56 fascinating sites, from the county’s very own fountain of youth to the oldest continuously operating short-line railroad in the western hemisphere. Order your copy here.

On June 28, 1863, Lancaster County was saved by fire.

The Columbia–Wrightsville Covered Bridge—once the longest covered bridge in the world—spanned the Susquehanna as the only crossing between Harrisburg and Maryland. When Confederate troops reached Wrightsville during the Gettysburg Campaign, Union militia made a desperate decision: burn the bridge rather than let the enemy cross.

In just hours, a mile-long wooden tunnel collapsed into the river, stopping the invasion at the water’s edge. If it had stood a little longer, Confederate troops could have marched straight into Lancaster County—and history here might read very differently.

The bridge is gone, but its stone piers still stand in the Susquehanna, marking one of Pennsylvania’s most consequential moments.

To learn more, visit UnchartedLancaster.com.

Learn about other unique people and places like this when you step off the beaten path with Uncharted Lancaster: Field Guide to the Strange, Storied, and Hidden Places of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Adam Zurn. This one-of-a-kind 239-page guidebook uncovers 56 fascinating sites, from the county’s very own fountain of youth to the oldest continuously operating short-line railroad in the western hemisphere. Order your copy here.

On the approaching December 31, 1717, anniversary of the Conestoga Wagon, this episode takes a deep dive into the history of the Conestoga wagon—America’s original “ship of inland commerce.” Developed in 18th-century Pennsylvania, particularly in Lancaster County, these massive wagons were built to haul heavy freight between farms and markets long before canals and railroads reshaped transportation.

We examine what sets the Conestoga apart, from its curved floor designed to stabilize cargo to the powerful Conestoga horse bred to pull it. The episode also explores the wagon’s cultural legacy—how the bells of wagons inspired the phrase “arriving with bells on,” and how the cigar-smoking habits of wagon drivers gave rise to the term “stogie.”

Often mistaken for prairie schooners, Conestoga wagons rarely traveled west. Instead, they fueled early American commerce. Though they declined by the mid-19th century, their influence endures as a symbol of craftsmanship, innovation, and the hard road of early trade.

Read more when you visit UnchartedLancaster.com.

Learn about other unique people and places like this when you step off the beaten path with Uncharted Lancaster: Field Guide to the Strange, Storied, and Hidden Places of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Adam Zurn. This one-of-a-kind 239-page guidebook uncovers 56 fascinating sites, from the county’s very own fountain of youth to the oldest continuously operating short-line railroad in the western hemisphere. Order your copy here.