Most of the covered structures are maintained by Lancaster County, four jointly with nearby counties, and here are found some of the most picturesque and unique settings of all. They are well preserved, painted and repaired regularly, and with continued care will last another hundred years. You’ll find them on the back roads, off the main thoroughfares, back where the dirt roads twist and turn around a barn or a wood, you’ll go down a hill over a half dozen “thank-you-moms” and there tucked away in some of Lancaster’s most harmonious settings you’ll find the most romantic covered wooden bridges you’ve ever seen. And maybe, if you tarry a while you’ll see a couple of fishermen, because that’s where the biggest trout are found, or maybe it’s a favorite swimming hole for the neighborhood youngsters. The shortest covered bridge in Lancaster County is just west of Long Park, near Oreville. It measures 53 feet long. The longest covered span in Lancaster County was destroyed by fire in 1970. This bridge, known as “Second Lock Bridge,” was 349 feet long and crossed the Conestoga just off New Danville Pike, south of Conestoga Memorial Cemetery. The last covered bridge to be built was in 1891 over the Cocalico one-half mile north of Akron. It is hoped this bit of Americana, of which Lancaster County has been blessed with the second largest number in Pennsylvania—those romantic symbols of an earlier day—may be preserved for posterity as historical monuments. The Plain People By PROFESSOR A. FRED RENTZ _The late Professor Rentz was an Educator and Authority on the Pennsylvania Dutch._ Religion was one of the strong motives in the lives of our Pennsylvania Dutch forbears. It was upon the invitation of William Penn, who offered them a religious haven in Penn’s woods, that they came to America out of the Palatinate in Germany. The first ones to come were the Lutherans and Reformed, who even today form the largest segment of the Pennsylvania Dutch people. The Lutherans and Reformed were followed in quick succession by the so-called plain people, the Mennonites, the Amish and the [1]Brethren; the heart of whose life is still in Lancaster County, Pa. We speak of them as “plain” because they dress in a religious garb. They speak of us as “fancy” or “gay.” “Plain and Fancy.” Here they live having preserved the customs of our forefathers most faithfully over a period of two hundred and fifty years.