Since its original publication in 1965, Indian Paths of Pennsylvania has remained the standard volume for charting the foot trails forged and followed in Pennsylvania by Native Americans, documenting an era of interaction between Indians and European settlers in the 17th and 18th centuries. With the advent of European settlement, the Indian trails that laced the wilderness were so well-situated that there was little reason to forsake them until the age of the automobile. The trails that traverse the mountains “kept the level” so well that they remain an engineering curiosity. Equally as remarkable are the complexity of the system and its adaptability to changing seasons and weather.
This book describes 131 paths with maps, history, significant points along the way, and information on approximating the course of the trails by automobile. Five appendices trace other historically significant routes such as the Forbes Road and George Washington’s 1753 path to Fort LeBoeuf. A new foreword by Kurt W. Carr, senior curator of archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania, sets the work in context and provides insight on a volume that remains valuable for historians, anthropologists, archaeologists, and anyone interested in Pennsylvania history.
