Agriculture has long shaped the culture and economy of the South Mountain area, first drawing settlers to cultivate its soils and raise crops and continuing today through efforts by agricultural and community leaders to foster entrepreneurship and innovation. Many local Quakers were successful farmers and fruit-growers who played a key role in the Underground Railroad, helping escaping slaves as they used the South Mountain travel corridor and ancient Native American footpaths to hide their movements, and the nearby Menallen Friends Meetinghouse remains an important site in that history. During the Civil War, agriculture made the area a valuable source of supplies and nourishment for Union and Confederate troops, helping draw Robert E. Lee and his troops across the Mason-Dixon Line. At nearby Caledonia, Camp Michaux, once a prosperous farm owned by the South Mountain Iron Company, became Pennsylvania's first Civilian Conservation Corps camp under Roosevelt's New Deal, and in 1942 the Army's Intelligence Department turned it into a prisoner of war camp that housed German naval officers, then some of Rommel's African Corps, and later Japanese officers, with many prisoners working on surrounding farms, including local fruit farms.