Pennsylvania's Great Hemp Industry: Our Proud History

[Hempstone]

The great history of hemp in Pennsylvania is a fascinating story that should be told all over the land. Let it be told that hemp was planted here at the very founding of "Penn's Woods", at the encouragement of William Penn himself.

In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania (which is where I am from) there are the townships of East and West Hempfield. They were named for the vast quantities of hemp raised there. Between the years of 1720-1870 there were over 100 water-powered hemp mills for processing hemp fiber just in Lancaster County alone. Dozens of hemp mills existed in neighboring York County and there were dozens more throughout every county in the region.

There is a great book by Les Stark on the subject and it is called Hempstone Heritage. Every inhabitant of Pennsylvania should know the information in this book. Here is a link to an interview with Les Stark about the Pennsylvania hemp industry on Mike Nixson's show Common Sense in York County. Check it out http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6796234320308569689&q=Hempstone

By the way, I'm Les Stark, glad to meet you.

[Hempstone]

The goal is to make every single person in the state of Pennsylvania know this information and to make it generally known throughout the United States that Pennsylvania was a leading producer of hemp in the early days of America. The purpose of this information of course is to familiarize the public and enlighten the politicians while educating the farmers, investors and manufacturers and create the circumstances that will allow us to again grow hemp and rebuild the infrastrucuter needed to become a leader once again in the field...the Hempfield that is!