Hopeland, PA

Hopeland is a small Lancaster County CDP in western Clay Township, drained by Middle Creek and Furnace Run as they flow toward Cocalico Creek and the Conestoga River. That puts the community in the Susquehanna watershed, with the creeks doing the local work. Its name sounds hopeful, but the map is all water lines: a small hamlet, creek tributaries, and a place shaped by the way water moves south. Hopeland is an unincorporated Pennsylvania community whose identity sits in the folds of the watershed rather than around a municipal center.