After six months or so of Covid-19, Ye Olde Photographer and his Faire Spouse, met friends from the other end of the state at this park and had a grand picnic with homemade bread and rolls for sandwiches, homemade apple salad and chocolate chocolate chip cookies — YES!

Fort Hunter Mansion and Park is a Dauphin County facility with acres of ground and a number of historic buildings from the site's history as a farm and dairy and estate near what had been a fort back in the French and Indian War days. The site has access to the Susquehanna River and offers a view of the famous Rockville Bridge, originally built in its current design in 1902, by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The bridge is now part of the Norfolk-Southern and we saw a passenger train and maybe seven or eight freights during the five hours or so we were at the site.

The mansion at the park is a Federal style and was built in three sections beginning in 1786. The grand front portion dates from 1814, and an addition was put on the back in 1870. The mansion can be toured, another large house and former tavern is used as offices by the parks and recreation folks. There is a quite large structure, the Centennial Barn, which appeared in 1876 as the owner of the property got into a serious dairy operation.

The site is easy to get to, sprawling along Front Street at a short distance (~6 miles) above Harrisburg.