Kittanning Path - History

History

The path was in use as early as 1721. In 1744 the trader John Hart was granted a license to trade with the Indians on western Pennsylvania lands that were closed at the time to white settlement. Hart established a way station campsite, called Hart'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 by John Harris, the founder of Harrisburg. The last Native American encampment was recorded at the site in 1781.

In the 1750s the path became the route by which Lenape, unhappy with the treaty that had given away much of their land rights in western Pennsylvania, raided white settlements in central Pennsylvania. In 1755, the Lenape chief Shingas used the trail to attack British settlements in the Juniata River, returning with prisoners to the village of Kittanning. In early August 1756, the Lenape used the path to burn Fort Granville near present-day Lewistown and take prisoners. After the burning of the fort, the British dispatched Lt. Colonel John Armstrong, who pursued the Lenape along the path, camping at Canoe Place in early September before moving on to destroy the village of Kittanning. Armstrong earned the title "the Hero of Kittanning" for the raid, and later went on to serve as a Major General for the United States in the American Revolutionary War and to serve in the Second Continental Congress.

The path was also traveled by Conrad Weiser, who was accompanied by William Franklin, the son of Benjamin Franklin. Weiser recorded the journey in his journal.