Lancaster Stockyard
Updated November 2013 | By Matthew Christopher
The largest stockyards east of Chicago, the Lancaster Stockyards in Lancaster, Pennsylvania rerouted all livestock brought from the Midwest to east coast cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.
By the 1980s the idea of a central hub where livestock was distributed had become obsolete, and Lancaster also become the first stockyard to be prosecuted for animal cruelty. In the years that followed the Lancaster Stockyard dwindled into a ramshackle ghost town full of winding, dilapidated pens and livestock chutes and the bones of the animals who had once passed through. One small office remained open among the decay until 2008, when the whole complex was torn down in favor of a small office park that sits on the lot today. The nearby Stockyard Inn is the only reminder of what was once a major part of the area's culture and history.
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The largest stockyards east of Chicago, the Lancaster Stockyards in Lancaster, Pennsylvania rerouted all livestock brought from the Midwest to east coast cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.
By the 1980s the idea of a central hub where livestock was distributed had become obsolete, and Lancaster also become the first stockyard to be prosecuted for animal cruelty. In the years that followed the Lancaster Stockyard dwindled into a ramshackle ghost town full of winding, dilapidated pens and livestock chutes and the bones of the animals who had once passed through. One small office remained open among the decay until 2008, when the whole complex was torn down in favor of a small office park that sits on the lot today. The nearby Stockyard Inn is the only reminder of what was once a major part of the area's culture and history.
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