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TheKittanning Path was a major east-westNative American trail that crossed theAllegheny Mountainsbarrier ridge connecting theSusquehanna River valleys in the center of Pennsylvania to the highlands of theAppalachian Plateau and thence to the western lands beyond drained by theOhio River.Kittanning Village was the first major Delaware (Lenape) Indian settlement along the descent from the Allegheny Plateau.
The path is made up of a "series of path alternatives" that pass through seasonally or directionally more or less difficult notches[a]— the gaps were among only five places that could be crossed byanimal power from east to west across theAppalachian Mountains west ofNew England. The Kittanny path (by other names[b]) would also come to be used first byDutch, thenEnglish andBritish colonialfur traders, as well as Amerindian emigrants moving westwards before and after theFrench and Indian War and in the post-1780[c] settlers migrations west of the Mountain as theAmerican Revolution entered its final years.
For centuries the Kittanning Path, like the similarChief Nemacolin's Trail to the south, was the overland route through very tough country[d] for Native American peoples. They includedIroquoian-speaking tribes, such as theErie,Susquehannock, and the Five Nations of theIroquois confederacy, as well as the Algonquian-speakingLenape,Miami, and SiouanShawnee. EarlyEuropean explorers and settlers also learned to use the Indian paths to cross theAllegheny Mountainsbarrier ridge.
The path made use of one of the few so-calledgaps of the Allegheny that accompanied thefeedwater streams draining into theJuniata River, a tributary of the Susquehanna that terminated on theAllegheny River due Northeast ofPittsburgh in what is nowArmstrong County, Pennsylvania at the Native AmericanKittanning Village (at present-dayKittanning, Pennsylvania).
By the time of theFrench and Indian War, starting in 1754,Kittanning Village was believed by Europeans to be the largest Native American village in theOhio Country west of the Alleghenies.[citation needed] It was located in an area of Pennsylvania that had been closed to white settlement by the original treaty ofWilliam Penn with the Lenape.
In an attempt to settle frontier borders and reduce conflict among Indian tribes, the English and Native Americans signed theTreaty of Fort Stanwix after theFrench and Indian War. It opened some of Pennsylvania west of the Alleghenies to white settlement.[1] In the 1750s, this area had been the scene of a fierce raids by Native Americans against white settlement, and a major British retribution campaign.
A section of the original path is preserved in northwesternCambria County.
It began southeast ofAltoona atFrankstown on theJuniata River. It ran west, crossing theAllegheny Ridge approximately 5 mi (8 km) west of Altoona atKittanning Gap, later the location of theHorseshoe Curve railroad site.
The path ran northwest through Cambria County, passing east ofCarrolltown. It enteredIndiana County approximately 1 mi (1.6 km) south ofCherry Tree at "Canoe Place", the uppermostNative Americancanoe portage on theWest Branch of the Susquehanna.
It followed a southwest course, throughYellow Creek State Park, then along the headwaters ofTwo Lick Creek, roughly past Uniontown, Pennsylvania (not the currentUniontown),Cookport, andDiamondville toU.S. Highway 422. It followed the approximate present course of the highway west and NNW throughIndiana toShelocta. It crossed intoArmstrong County nearElderton and ended at the village of Kittanning on the east bank of the Allegheny.
The path was in use as early as 1721. In 1744 the English traderJohn Hart was granted a license by colonial authorities to trade with the Indians in western Pennsylvania lands, which were then closed to white settlement. Hart established a way station campsite, calledHart's Sleeping Place, near the continental divide in Cambria County. The way station appeared on colonial maps and was used in 1752 by Gov.James Hamilton, and in 1754 byJohn Harris, the founder ofHarrisburg. The last Native American encampment was recorded at the site in 1781.
In the 1750s the path became the raiding route taken by Lenape. Unhappy with a treaty that took away much of their land rights in western Pennsylvania, they raided white settlements in central Pennsylvania. In 1755, the Lenape chiefShingas used the trail to attackBritish settlements along theJuniata River, returning with captives to the village of Kittanning. In early August 1756, the Lenape used the path for a raid to burnFort Granville near present-dayLewistown, when they also took prisoners.
After the fort was burned, the British dispatched Lt. ColonelJohn Armstrong for retaliation. He pursued the Lenape along the path and camped at Canoe Place in early September; he continued to thevillage of Kittanning, which hedestroyed on 8 September. Armstrong earned the accolade among British colonials as "the Hero of Kittanning" for the raid. He later served as a Major General for the United States in theAmerican Revolutionary War and was elected to theSecond Continental Congress.
The path was also traveled by early German pioneerConrad Weiser, who was accompanied byWilliam Franklin, the son ofBenjamin Franklin. Weiser recorded the journey in his journal.
The Kittanning Path is not to be confused with the Kittanning Road, which was built by American rebel forces in 1779 during theSullivan Expedition. The Kittanning Road followed a more northerly course, running from Kittanning to the site of what is nowOlean, New York.
The trail has been surveyed by historians through Cambria County. An authentic section of the original trail is preserved near Eckenrode Mill east of Carrolltown.