French Creek (Allegheny River) - Name

Name

The stream has been sometimes called a river and sometimes a creek. It is thought that the stream's Seneca name, in nungash, was modified over time to Venango. The phrase in nungash may have derived from Onenga, the Seneca word for mink but may have stemmed from Winingus, the Delaware word for the same animal. Interpretations of Venango have included "crooked", and the Seneca chief Cornplanter suggested that in nungash referred to a particular carving on a tree along the stream. Venango was likewise the name of a native settlement at the creek's mouth, later the site of Franklin, Pennsylvania.

In the 18th century, the stream was an important link between the Great Lakes and the Ohio River. The French built Fort Presque Isle and Fort Le Boeuf to control the portage from the stream's headwaters to Lake Erie. They called the stream Rivière aux Boeufs (Cattle River) because bison in the vicinity reminded them of French cattle. In 1753, George Washington, a British subject at the time, was sent to deliver a message to Fort Le Boeuf asking the French to leave the region. Washington called the stream French Creek rather than Beef Creek (another common rendering of Rivière aux Boeufs), and his version prevailed.