When researching what exactly these cliffs are, I came across such great headlines as "A Hike To An Industrial Waste Site" and "Treasured Trash". While those headlines may not entice you to visit, the photos just might. This is a gorgeous spot.
And the Trash, or Industrial Waste, is harmless, and I believe [although I could be wrong], natural material. This is the residue, or leftovers, from the limestone & dolomite operations.
The area is public property, and easily accessed.
Navigate to Koser Park 107 Race St, Bainbridge, PA 17502, where there is a small parking lot for the trail.
Walk 1.5 miles on the paved Northwest Lancaster County River trail. There are two access points for the cliffs, on the river side of the trail. When we were there, this was a busy trail - midweek, it was full of bicyclists and runners.
Coming from Koser Park, the "easier" access to the river view is from the second entrance to the cliffs. The second access point, mere feet from the first, also had a bike rack and a sign.
Agricultural lime was used as fertilizer, whitewash, and plaster.
Dolomite was soon discovered in the area, and with the demand for dolomite at an all time high during World War I, the quarry expanded in breadth, and depth. Houses, roads, and other structures were moved to access the dolomite deposits.
"During World War I, “Donegal Dolomite” mined from the quarries played a crucial role in the war effort. When magnesite from Austria became unavailable, the high-quality dolomite from here was used to repair furnaces needed in the nation’s war machine."
The town of Billmeyer became a booming company town, with more than 700 men working in the quarry. Many of those men, and their families, made up the town of Billmeyer.
The main street in town, consisted of simply constructed wood frames homes. William W. Mundorff built and operated a company store, and the company also built a post office, boarding house, post office, and school, in the town. The local railroad added a stop at Billmeyer.
"Billmeyer workers earned a reputation as a pugnacious group of men who worked hard and liked to play hard. Drinking, gambling, and fights were commonplace. Paydays meant the local pubs in the neighboring town of Bainbridge would be busy. Stories quickly got around about the “rough town out of sight by the river.”
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"After the war, Billmeyer was particularly impacted by the influenza epidemic of 1918. No one was permitted to leave town and trains refused to stop. Instead, mail and supplies were thrown out of a train while passing through the town. After the disease subsided and the country recovered after the end of the war, Billmeyer bounced back and operations continued to expand.
By 1927, there were 10 pot kilns and 62 flame kilns in operation. Stone from Billmeyer was used in the construction of the Columbia-Wrightsville Bridge, completed in 1930."
A large network of enormous pipes and kilns once supplied area farmers with lime, and provided dolomite to steel mills. The byproducts of the Kilning process were deposited on the Susquehanna River.
Ruins of the old Lime Operation, and remnants of the town of Billmeyer, can still be seen along the trail.
The demand for dolomite began to decline in the 1940s, and Billmeyer soon became a ghost town. By the 1950s, useful rock was more difficult to find. Operations began to slow, and then cease, with the last employee leaving in 1957.
In 1961, the quarry flooded. The flooded quarry was then opened to Scuba Diver in 1983. [Several divers have died over the years, mostly due to errors in judgement] The quarry was acquired by Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority in 2015.
Billmeyer became a ghost town. The buildings were torn down one by one.
In the 1990s, plans for the Northwest Lancaster County River trail started to come to fruition. The cliffs were still private property, but the owner agreed to lease the area to the trail. Twenty four years later, the owner gave the land to the trail.
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