A farmer's market opened in Park City in 1974; Amish drug-dealing case in 1999 [Lancaster That Was]

Excerpts and summaries of news stories from the former Intelligencer Journal, Lancaster New Era and Sunday News that focus on the events in the county's past that are noteworthy, newsworthy or just strange.

A criminal case that made national headlines reached its conclusion on June 30, 1999, when two Amish men from Lancaster County were sentenced to prison on federal drug charges.

The pair became involved in a drug-distribution ring run by the Pagans motorcycle gang, whose members they met on construction sites.

State police and FBI investigators said the drug ring funneled more than $1 million worth of cocaine and methamphetamine into Lancaster County between 1992 and 1997.

The Amish men began using cocaine themselves, then took the drug to distribute to other Amish youth at hoedowns, investigators said.

More than 100 Amish people traveled to Philadelphia for the sentencing and to serve as character witnesses for the two men, who were each sentenced to a year in prison.

In the headlines:

Microsoft, Intel stay with big-business computing

Phoenix is nation's fastest-growing city

McLachlan: Lilith Fair is not exclusionary

Check out the June 30, 1999, Lancaster New Era here.

Farmland may have been sacrificed to make way for Park City Center, but in 1974 - three years after the mall opened - farm produce would find its way into the mall.

The Park City Farmer's Market was under construction in June 1974, with an opening slated for August.

The market would occupy a 30,000-square-foot area in the mall's lower level, which over the years would also contain such attractions as an ice-skating rink and a miniature golf course . Mall officials said the market would have space for up to 60 standholders, and 15 already had signed up.

The Park City Farmer's Market would remain a mall fixture for a full decade, though its initial slate of produce stands would later give way to something more akin to a flea market. The market closed at the end of 1984.

In the headlines:

Israelis promised U.S. planes

Andrew Johnson birthplace being moved for fourth time

Many draft resisters still awaiting trial

Check out the June 30, 1974, Sunday News here.

Christmas in Lancaster arrived before the Fourth of July in 1949 - at least in a couple of places.

A week after the Lancaster Chamber of Commerce did a "test run" of the city's new holiday decorations - adorning the downtown area's lampposts with wreaths and garlands amid a summer heat wave - a group of schoolchildren decorated a Christmas tree.

Students in the St. Luke's Evangelical and Reformed Vacation Church School put up a tree, complete with colored lights, that they then decorated not with tinsel and ornaments, but with necessary items such as toothbrushes, socks and soap - all of which would be sent to needy children overseas.

The more than 200 "decorations" were set to be taken off the tree at a close-of-school ceremony on July 1, after which they would be taken to Church World Service for shipment overseas.

In the headlines:

Housing bill passed by House

Pretty 17-year-old girl killed on Chicago lover's lane date

Sen. Byrd says government is facing 'real financial crisis'

Check out the June 30, 1949, Intelligencer Journal here.

A new Pennsylvania State Police substation opened in June 1924 along Lincoln Highway East, at the site of the former Yeates School.

Located on the site that is currently the Lancaster Mennonite School, the Yeates School was a religious boarding school founded in 1851. The school moved to the Lincoln Highway property in 1907, and closed in 1922.

The police substation that moved into the school building would consist of four troopers, plus an additional four members of the recently formed State Highway Patrol as well as a cook, making a total staff of nine.

In the early 1940s, the substation would relocate just up the road, and Lancaster Mennonite would buy the property.

In the headlines:

Death list in Ohio storm reckoned at 94

Democratic platform committee in session