Our story · history brief
The working landscape is still here
A recent farm census shows how much land still supports agriculture, while historical records show the landscape has never been fixed.
Chapter 01
A snapshot, not a postcard
Chester County’s facts page reports 1,558 farms and 143,442 farmland acres in the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture. These are countywide measures of working land, not acres of public recreation or a count of places visitors can enter. The figures are a useful scale for thinking about food, livelihoods, land ownership, and development decisions.
Chapter 02
Fields through another century
The National Park Service describes the Valley Forge area in 1777 as a patchwork of fields, pastures, hedgerows, woodlands, and a forge. The army’s encampment disrupted local farms. This is one documented landscape within today’s county and its neighbors, not a claim that every part of Chester County followed the same agricultural path.
Chapter 03
What a park can preserve
Springton Manor Farm opened to the public as a county park in 1988. Its present public role shows one way an agricultural landscape can be interpreted, while the 2022 census reminds us that much county farmland remains active working land. Before entering a farm or preserved property, check its own access information; “preserved” does not automatically mean open to visitors.
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Research notesClaim checks and source trail
Each note records what the linked source supports. An index, institutional account, or brief page may leave parts of the story untold.
The County facts page reports 1,558 farms and 143,442 farmland acres in the 2022 USDA Census of Agriculture.
Verified · 2026-09-26The National Park Service describes fields, pastures, woodlands, a forge, and the effects of the 1777–78 encampment near Valley Forge.
Qualified · 2026-09-26The County parks chronology dates Springton Manor Farm’s public opening to 1988.
Verified · 2026-09-26