Bucks County was one of the three original Pennsylvania counties created by William Penn in 1682, and was named for his native county of Buckinghamshire. Settled early in American history, the county played a critical role in the War of Independence. One of the stops along Travelog's Bucks County tour route is to 500-acre Washington Crossing State Park, from General George Washington launched the surprise Christmas 1776 attack on Hessian troops in Trenton-a strategic move that saved his weak and floundering army from impending defeat. Today an excellent visitor center and a number of restored buildings give visitors a clear picture of Washington and his troops were up against in that fateful winter-and what they managed to achieve. 
During the 19th century, Bucks County's prosperity came largely as a result of the Delaware Canal, which runs alongside the Delaware River for about 60 miles-from Easton, Pennsylvania, at its northern end, down to Bristol, just west of Philadelphia. Open for business in 1832, the canal was built to carry coal from Pennsylvania's anthracite fields down to Philadelphia, from which point it could be distributed across the Eastern Seaboard. At its peak, in the 1850s, this towpath canal moved 3,000 mule-drawn boats per year, hauling more than a million tons of coal as well as wood, building stones, and other commodities.
In the 20th century, Bucks County became best-known as a weekend enclave of New York artistic types. In the 1930 and 1940s, it served as a playground for Broadway's elite-Oscar Hammerstein II, Moss Hart, and George S. Kaufman kept homes here. Other Manhattan literati, among them writers S.J. Perelman and Dorothy Parker, also put down roots in the area. Author Pearl S. Buck, winner of both the Pulitzer and Nobel prizes for literature and one of America's most lauded 20th-century authors, lived in Bucks County for many years. And one of America's most popular 20th-century authors, James Michener, was a longtime resident of Doylestown.
Today, Bucks County keeps both its rural splendor and its artistic bent! |