On the Pioneer Trail in Rural Cambria County Page 2 10-2002 Website Brochure
THE ALLEGHENY WILDERNESS
The Allegheny Wilderness is generally that part of
the Allegheny Plateau west of the Front (Cresson Ridge)
and north of the Conemaugh which due to the Penns'
pacts with Indian tribes remained closed to white settlement until the Treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768. The area
was an obstacle to westward expansion of both the
Colonies and the new American republic. It lay astride the
shortest portage between the eastern and western waters
of Pennsylvania and on the shortest land route from
Philadelphia to the Great Lakes, geographical facts which
KITTANNING PATH
explain the later location here of US Routes 22, 422, and
Four major wilderness paths crossed the county
219, the Portage Railway and the Mainline of the Pennof which the best known is the Kittanning Path because of
sylvania RR even after other ways West were long in use.
its association with Indian trader John Hart and with a
Indian politics and the physical challenge of the Eastern
major campaign of the French & Indian Wars. Travel on
Divide isolated the region; only an occasional official
this trail began as early as 1721 and continued at least
traveler on the Governors' business or a licensed trader
until 1781 when the last hostile Indian acts were
like John Hart ventured in.
recorded. Indians alienated by the infamous "walking
purchase" used the path to raid white settlements in the
INDIAN PATHS AND VILLAGES
Juniata Valley (Frankstown, Huntington, and Lewistown)
FORT HILL
from a major encampment at Kittanning. The colonial
Delaware and
Colonel John Armstrong was sent in pursuit of the
Delaware marauder Shingas who in 1755 had raided
Shawnee Indians were
settlements in Fulton County taking prisoners back via
the main early occuthis trail. Armstrong camped near Ashville and Canoe
pants of the area and
Place (Cherry Tree) on the 3rd and 4th of September
had settlements at
1756 before going on to destroy Kittanning. He was
Conemaugh Old Town
known thereafter as the "hero of Kittanning," a Major
(Johnstown), at Fort Hill
General in the Revolutionary War and member of the
(Prince Gallitzin State
Second Continental Congress. The Kittanning Trail across
Park), and probably at
Cambria County has been very precisely surveyed in
Wilmore. The second,
recent times and an authentic section is preserved at
FORT HILL, is the most
Eckenrode Mills. It is known that this particular part of the
extensive and varied,
path never had a wheel or plow on it, so that it is in the
and the one of which
very form and shape that it had when used, worn, and
most is known. On this hill within sight of Lake Glendale a
abandoned by the aborigines and Indian traders.
large earthen work about 300 feet in diameter existed; it
was about 5 feet high with openings on the east and
HARTS SLEEPING PLACE
west. This "fort" as the settlers called it may have been
The history of Indian affairs along the Kittanning Path is
used for councils, a place of worship or for military
not entirely one of hostility. In 1744 John Hart was
purposes. The village was several hundred feet to the
granted a license to trade
west and had nearby an agricultural area where settlers
with the Indians on
found stubble of Indian corn and called it "The Indian
western Pennsylvania
Garden". A burial mound about 200 x 400 feet in area and
lands then closed to white
5 feet high lies some 1500 feet north of the "fort". Even in
settlers. On the high
our century local boys "scratched for arrowheads" here
ground where the path
and over time many weapons, utensils and skeletons
crosses the Continental
have been recovered. Regular use of the complex by
Divide he established a
Indians seems to have stopped after local French and
campsite for use in his
Indian War activity (1755-65). Though obscured by farm
dealings with area tribes.
use, the key elements of Fort Hill are easily identified
Hart's Sleeping Place is
from old accounts and the locality remains rural enough
the first place in Cambria County selected and frequented
to spur the visitor's imagination.
by white men; it appears on the very earliest maps and
was used as a way station by important colonial
Pennsylvanians such as Gov. James Hamilton (1752) and
John Harris (1754), founder of Harrisburg. The last Indian
encampment of importance at Harts Sleeping Place, a
number of bark huts with 20 or 30 Indians, was recorded
in the Spring of 1781.
FORGOTTEN GRAVES OF THE ALLEGHENIES &
PENNS MANOR
The earliest claim by
white men to Indian land on
the Allegheny Mountain was
made by the successors of
William Penn himself. The idea
of joining the eastern and
western waters had occurred
to Pennsylvania's founder and
in 1760 the Penns warranted
to themselves 1,123 acres on
today's Loretto-Chest Springs
road. In 1762, Dr. David
Rittenhouse and Rev. Wm.
Smith were employed to survey a portage route. The names Chest Manor and Penns
Manor are associated with the area which is one of the
earliest frequented by hunters and traders. In many, if
not most cases, the stories of the very first pioneers are
lost to us and only remote small burial plots remind us of
them. One such is located about a mile south of Chest
Springs (Shanks Cemetery) and contains the graves of
Jane Nugent 1729-1800, Patrick Nugent 1732-1801 and
Andrew Anderson 1762-1818. Local tradition holds that
Indian remains lie with those of these unknown settlers.
The place is known as the Forgotten Graves of the
Alleghenies and is a tribute to those who made life
possible here for later generations. The actual graves are
about 700 feet from the road at the edge of the woods
where the ridge begins to drop toward the Clearfield
Creek, and are accessible via a right-of-way between
farmers' fields.
ABOUT THIS FOLDER
The aim of this folder is not to give a complete picture of Pioneer
landmarks in Cambria County, but rather to serve as an
introduction to key sites in areas least affected by urbanization
and the developments of the Coal, Steel and Railroad Age which
is the subject of other literature. Space also limits full coverage of
all worthy rural sites but an effort has been made to include
essential ones from the earliest period, especially those easily
reached by visitors. Indian remains, homesteads, mills and
religious centers are the main focus.