Submitted by Leona Baker for the Historical Society of Salisbury Township

Those two words, or their like, have been heard in every language in history since a hundred-pound, two-legged being jumped upon a 1,000-pound, four-legged being and urged the beast toward a finish line. The speed, the grace and the camaraderie between man and his horse seem to be embedded in our DNA.

Around 1830, sulky racing became a fad among the wealthy. Even as the automobile emerged as a faster mode of transportation, people kept breeding faster horses. By 1890, regional horse racing tracks and country resorts were booming. New Jersey entrepreneur August Belmont is the most famous aficionado. When sulky racing lost its appeal, Belmont's hobby morphed into what we know today as the Belmont Stakes, one of the three most famous horse-racing events in the country, the other two being the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.

Meanwhile, the hard limestone substrata of eastern Lancaster County immediately attracted the sport. Often called "trotting courses," Salisbury Township had at least two race courses during the fad, generally recorded as being popular from 1880 to 1910. One track sat on the flat prominence, today buried under the housing development just southwest of the village of Gap. Unfortunately, researchers have found very little information about that track.

The other one, atop one of the forested ridges in the Welsh Mountains, holds more local lore. Located just north of Meetinghouse Road where it meets Springville Road (Route 897), a tall aerial briefly glimpsed on the horizon stands on land that, around 1880, Mr. D. Smith Talbot, West Chester financier, laid out as a potential summer racing resort. Sadly, the "Sassafras Fields" resort and race track remained largely a "potential" rather than a long-lasting landmark. It fell victim to the financial panic of 1893, which halted leisure-industry construction across Pennsylvania.

While Mr. Talbot's resort never materialized, remains of the now-overgrown race track were still discernible into the 21st century. Local lore states that those abandoned "cottages" did not remain empty for long. That section of the Welsh Mountains had long been a haven for those whom society had cast off; Indigenous people, free Black persons, runaway slaves, drifters, and outlaws moved into the abandoned buildings that had been built for that "resort." The track itself continued as an informal race course long after. Some of those who could scrape together enough cash actually bought land, often with the "resort" home included. Unlicensed "businesses" grew up around it: whiskey stills and bars, as well as "welcome houses." Valley people might not employ the mountain people, but they would take advantage of their illegal businesses.

Fast forward to the 1960s, and the press designated the area as the "worst slum in Lancaster County." Social workers came looking to improve the lives of the mountain people; a medical clinic was built. "Outside" saw cheap land ripe for development. Trees grew on the racetrack.

By 2026, the old racecourse is just a memory, a story told to get attention at family gatherings.