The Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization connecting people to the Susquehanna River and its history as it flows through Lancaster and York Counties in Central Pennsylvania.

Mission
The Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area enhances our region’s quality of life and economic vitality by promoting the preservation, conservation and interpretation of the Susquehanna River’s cultural and natural heritage.

We advance our mission by building public awareness and understanding of the Susquehanna’s value to our region, state and nation and preserving and enhancing the river’s assets for the enjoyment of residents and visitors alike.

Our work is based at The John & Kathryn Zimmerman Center for Heritage, an historic home on the riverfront south of Wrightsville. We are part of HeritagePA, Pennsylvania’s statewide network of designated Heritage Areas, and are working towards recognition by Congress as a National Heritage Area.

History
The Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area, originally known as the Lancaster-York Heritage Region, was designated as an official Pennsylvania Heritage Area by Governor Tom Ridge in August 2001. State designation resulted from an extensive, locally-driven community involvement process in the late 1990’s, with grant support from the Pennsylvania Heritage Areas Program.

Feasibility Study – The Lancaster and York County Boards of Commissioners, together with the region’s county Planning Commissions, Convention and Visitors Bureaus and the York County Chamber of Commerce, sponsored the original 1999 Lower Susquehanna Heritage Area Feasibility Study. The Feasibility Study determined that Lancaster and York Counties possessed the cultural, natural, and recreational resources needed to successfully interpret one or more aspects of Pennsylvania heritage and provided evidence of organizational capacity to implement regional heritage development initiatives.

View the complete 1999 Feasibility Study

Management Action Plan – After completion and submittal of the Feasibility Study to the state, and at the request of the York and Lancaster County Boards of Commissioners, the two County Planning Commissions led a joint effort to prepare the Lancaster-York Heritage Region Management Action Plan. Involved citizens worked together with a team of professional planners, designers, historians and economists, led by Mary Means & Associates, to develop the plan. A Steering Committee of community leaders served as a sounding board throughout the plan’s preparation. The planning process took place over a sixteen-month period from 1999 to 2001. The final Management Action Plan was released in June 2001 and the area was officially designated as a Pennsylvania Heritage Area by Governor Tom Ridge in August 2001. The Lancaster-York Heritage Region was incorporated as a Pennsylvania 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization in 2002 with a 19-member, two-county Board of Directors. Staff was hired and programs and projects were launched in 2003.

View the complete 2001 Management Action Plan 

A New Name and Focus on the River – In early 2007, after five years of successfully advancing the Management Action Plan, the staff and Board of Directors conducted a strategic planning retreat to assess the organization’s focus and priorities. Those discussions established a new core focus on preserving and enhancing the cultural and natural resources of the Susquehanna River corridor through Lancaster and York Counties. This focus on the river also led to a new name for the region in 2008 - the Susquehanna Gateway Heritage Area - with the Susquehanna Heritage Corporation serving as the not-for-profit management entity. Today the organization has a ten-year track record of successful heritage development activities across York and Lancaster Counties and along the Susquehanna River.