Where I Run: Swamp Fox Road

There's a little town nearby called Marion that I run through on about 1/4 of my runs. It's quaint and quiet, inhabited by perhaps 650 people. Both of its main streets, the east-west (PA Rt 914, the Swamp Fox Road) and the north-south (US Rt 11) have bypasses around them so the heart of the village remains calm.


The town is in fact named after the American Revolutionary war general Francis Marion, immortalized to my generation by a Walt Disney TV series starring Leslie Nielsen.

I've always wondered about the name--whether some person from this little village in southern Pennsylvania had some personal connection to General Marion. Or whether the village was founded at a time when there were heroes and a grateful populace named their town after such a hero.

By the way, this route is along what I call the "Pig Farm 10 miler." Although the pig farm that once existed along this road is no longer there (it's still a farm, thank goodness, they just don't raise pigs any more), the route is forever and always just the Pig Farm to me and the family.

When I slip out early for a run before anyone else is awake, I always leave a note of my whereabouts. When I run here the note just says something like: "Pig Farm, ETA 8:00 am."