Great Shamokin Path

rdf:langString Great Shamokin Path

rdf:langString The Great Shamokin Path (also known as the "Shamokin Path") was a major Native American trail in the U.S. State of Pennsylvania that ran from the native village of Shamokin (modern-day Sunbury) along the left bank of the West Branch Susquehanna River north and then west to the Great Island (near modern-day Lock Haven). There it left the river and continued further west to Chinklacamoose (what is now the borough of Clearfield) and finally Kittanning on the Allegheny River. The Great Shamokin Path connected settlements along the Susquehanna River with those on the Allegheny River (and the Ohio River downstream of Kittanning). For several decades in the early 18th century, the villages of Shamokin and Kittanning were two of the most important Native American villages in Pennsylvania. The colonists recorded the path as used by Moravian Bishop Ettwein and his group of some 200 Lenape and Mohican Christians in 1772. They traveled west along the path from their village of Friedenshütten (Cabins of Peace) near modern Wyalusing on the North Branch of the Susquehanna to their new village of Friedensstadt (City of Peace) on the Beaver River in southwestern Pennsylvania. Today a 4-mile (6.4 km) long rail trail in Armstrong County follows a short portion of the Great Shamokin Path, and the former course of the Rural Valley Railroad.