{note to reader: this is the second part of a three-part series on one of the first "roads" that came through the Alle-Kiski Area. It includes a fictionalized account in italics of what an Indian warrior might have encountered here. If you missed the first part, you can find it at http://www.allekiskitoday.com/articles/1971 .} Be sure to watch the video about this month's article as we go on location on part of the Path and on the former grounds of a local Indian village. Find it at: http://www.allekiskitoday.com/webcasts/1366

As you slip and slide your way through the slightly-snow-covered ravines, you briefly consider changing direction and cutting over some hills down to the Kiskiminetas River. You know of many war parties who have used that route before. Will it save time for you? Is it a faster way? Or more treacherous?

Besides, it was always windy on the hills leading to the river. With the snow, it would be bad. The hills would provide you at least some protection from the weather. You decide to stay on your course as you come to the beginning of a stream.

We pick up our trail near Spring Church, continuing on the route of the Kiskiminetas Path. From where old Rt. 56 ends at Shady Plains, turn left on Rt. 56, going towards Apollo.

Here Paul Wallace, who wrote about this path in 1965, suggests "a quick way to follow the general route" of the path is to take Rt. 56 into Apollo and follow it to Shearersburg (near Weinel's Crossroads).

Part of the stream, Carnahan's Run (CR), along Rt. 66 in Parks Twp.. Kiskiminetas Path likely followed this stream a ways before breaking off overland. The Kiski River is just off the photo to the right.

I'm not aware of any clear evidence that Native Americans regularly followed that route to where Apollo is today, however. There are several written accounts that they did cross the Kiski River near Apollo to travel south and launch attacks upon settlers between Washington Twp. and Greensburg. From county histories, it is apparent they used this part of the Kiski frequently.

But there is another way to perhaps more closely follow the Kiskiminetas Path here. Just a few miles down Rt. 56, turn right onto Garver's Ferry. Follow it for several miles, until you get to Dime Rd (Rt. 66A).

Your slippery journey leads through ravines and across hillsides. At least the chilling wind had stopped blowing, and it was no longer snowing. Shortly you come to another stream. It is a good sign. It means fresh water, and even better, it means you are very near Kiskiminetas Old Town. Almost dusk, but now you can easily hike downstream to the village. At last…you could use a good night's sleep.

Garver Would Need A Boat Here Too

While on Garver's Ferry, you'll pass near a stream, Stitt's Run, which is actually a part of Carnahan's Run. This stream eventually empties into the Kiski a little over a mile downstream, next to the Galaxy Drive-In and Lee's Lanes Bowling Alley. On the opposite side of the road is a stone marker pointing out the trail crossing and the location of Kiskiminetas Old Town.

Here at Dime Rd., you have two choices. Turn left on Dime to get where you are going, or plunge ahead on Garver's Ferry to see the likely route of the path. You can turn left on Dime Rd. and go down the hill to the next traffic light, where Dime and Rt. 66 (River Road) intersect. Turn right, traveling just over a mile and a half out of North Vandergrift, through the community known as Parks, and then to Lee's Lanes (on your right)—the next step in our journey.

The monument for the Kiskimenitas Path is just across from Lee's Lanes outside Leechburg on Rt. 66.

Or, take the other choice, and follow where the path likely went—but it's at your own risk. If you are a little daring and wish to see some beautiful country, continue straight on Garver's Ferry. The road may get a bit rough, and eventually becomes impassable, ending where a bridge over Carnahan's/Stitt's Run went out years ago.

On the other side of the stream you can see the rest of the road, but you'll have to turn back here, and follow the first route. (The road you see on the opposite side runs into Airport Rd. It ends about three miles later at Rt. 66 just outside Leechburg, just a mile or so below Lee's Lanes.)

[Mysteriously, Garver's Ferry Rd. vanishes here. And picks up high on a hill on the other side of the Kiski, way down at Freeport. I have a theory about Garver's Ferry, but that is another story and I have more research to do. You are welcome to please email me here at jeff@alle-kiskitoday.com if you know anything about it.]

This Old Town

You are glad to reach the village. The canoe trip across the Kiskiminetas was swift. Now sleep would come just as swiftly. Good. You will need your strength tomorrow for the next leg of your trip. The village elders here had not taken the news from your message well. It did not matter. You are certain it will be the same reaction—or worse—when you get to the Chartier half-breed's village tomorrow. The journey will not be as long as it was today, and there were several streams to follow along the way.

The stone marker across the street from Lee's Lanes commemorates the Path, Kiskiminetas Old Town Indian village and two scouts/traders, Conrad Weiser (in 1748) and Christian F. Post (in 1758) who came this route. The inscription on the marker notes they were "both in mission to Indians on Ohio for Pennsylvania Goverment."

This memorial grindstone about the Kiskimenitas Path, the men on it and Kiskiminetas Old Town village is located across Rt. 66 from Lee's Lanes outside Leechburg and across the river from Kiski Valley Water Pollution Control Authority.

You awake before the sun. Washing the sleep from your eyes with the crystal, crisp waters of the Kish-kee-man-i-toos River, you decide being the Iroquois messenger to the Lenni-Lenape and Shawnee was not the breezy flight of the sparrow you thought it was going to be--more like the lumbering of the bear in the snow. But your father taught you the toughness of the bear, and you know you will finish what you had been given to do.

Besides, you'd handled the meeting at the council fire last night well. You delivered the message well ahead of the Yan-kheez that were a few days behind you. The Lenape at the Kiskiminetas village would complain like old women, but by the time the Yan-khee called Post got to the village, these Lenape would comply. Just like they always did. Like they did eleven harvests before, when the Yan-khee called Weiser came. "Like old women," you think to yourself.

Weiser Guys

What exactly were these two guys doing here in our neck of the woods? Well, it took some digging online over at Google, but I struck some gold history nuggets when I found Weiser and Post had both written a journal online.

OK, they didn't write it online themselves, but almost 250 years ago they each kept journals and someone at the Library of Congress American Memory website has been nice enough to put them on the internet. You can find the Internet address for them at the end of this article.

Pennsylvania's British government sent Weiser into our area to the Native Americans for several reasons. The Iroquois tribes had conquered the Lenape (Delaware) tribes—many who lived near today's Hyde Park, Saltsburg and Apollo—50 years before, and claimed to represent them.

Marker commemorates the Path, Kiskiminetas Old Town, and Weiser and Post who came this route. Inscription includes that they were "both in mission to Indians on Ohio for Pennsylvania Goverment."

The Iroquois maintained they "put the petticoat" on the Lenape, making them into "women." They made decisions for the Lenape and sometimes the Shawnee, and sold their land in parcels to the Pennsylvania government.

Conrad Weiser also was a Lutheran lay minister who later spent time in a religious community. He had spent significant time with Native Americans, gaining a solid knowledge and relationship with the Iroquois/Six Nations. Because of this unique respect and bond he had among both his own people and the Indians, he was sent to work out the sale with the Lenape and Delaware in our area.

The letter of instruction given to Weiser noted the French had not given the Indians needed supplies but had treated them poorly, "enslaving them," and as such he was to express the British desire for peace and give them a needed "Supply of Goods & Powder, which in this time of Scarcity they cou'd have from no other Place."

He also was asked to find out about the Indians in the area, get information about what the French (enemies of the British) were up to, and to see what Peter Chartier and the Shawnee were doing (who were over where Tarentum is today.)

You remember meeting the Yan-khee called Weiser when you were younger and ran around the knees of the village mothers at the longhouses. Weiser was well-liked among his people. But the Yan-kheez did not always carry out the words Weiser brought. And the fur-trader, Crog-han, everyone knew.

But now Weiser is gone and this new Yan-khee, Post, you do not know. You hope things will be better in the harvest to come after he too is gone, which could be soon if the French fathers have their way. Very soon.

Conrad Weiser drawing, courtesy of Conrad Weiser descendent Linda Clinton. Read more about this portrait at http://www.rootsweb.com/~pajcwfa/pictures.htm

Weiser, when he crossed the Kiski August 25th, 1748, was likely with George Croghan, who'd been sent at the same time by the PA government as well. Croghan was an Indian trader who knew the area well and at one point lived not far downriver from Sewickley Old Towne, an Indian village located where Springdale sits today.

He was also at a peace council between the British and Indians in Pittsburgh in July 1759. A bit of an uneasy peace had been brokered between the two parties in October of 1758, and Croghan had been there as well.

Though it is not readily apparent that Croghan crossed the Kiski, it is highly unlikely that he would not have been here—considering the Kiski Path was a central link between the path to Philly and his home near Sharpsburg—and almost certainly was not ignorant of the area.

He was in the area trying to work out the details of the peace arrangement in late November of 1758, along with Christian Post, who notes in his journal that he was at the Kiski only 11 days before he met Croghan. George Croghan was involved in every major treaty during through the 1760s and was a major player in the founding days of our nation.

The Post Man Cometh

Christian Post, a Moravian missionary and frontiersman, was sent out through our area in 1758 by the Pennsylvania Governor. He was the British government's envoy, agent and representative. They sent him to spread news of the peace treaty at Easton, PA between the British and the Lenape, and deliver promises of economic conciliatory aid.

Conrad Weiser was at the signing of this treaty.

Storm clouds of war had been gathering. Post was also commissioned to gather intel about the French in the area, as well as take note of how the Indians here were feeling about helping fight against the French. In November of that year, he came into our area with a price on his head, courtesy of the commander of the French fort where Pittsburgh is today (Fort Duquesne.)

Post, after stopping apparently at Indian villages at Saltsburg and Pine Run/Hyde Park, survived his days in our AK valley. He, Weiser, Croghan and most likely another guide, Christopher Gist all used the Kiskiminetas Path. And, another explorer—this one you may have heard of—very well may have used the Kiski Path, someone Gist was acquainted with.

President George Washington, a young surveyor for the Virginia colony and a Colonel, mentioned the Kiski in his colonial papers.

I have been unable to find out what he said about it, but it is not inconceivable that he would have ventured this far and used these paths. During this time, he had been in this part of Pennsylvania surveying, and eventually Virginia (for a brief period before the Revolutionary War) would claim all the land to the Kiski.

Half awake, you lumber, like the bear, up the small creek above the village. The village was stirring before you left, but no one saw you leave. Nor did they wish to. It is OK. There is a small stone rectangle in the cool waters of the creek where the people of the village kept food chilled. You take what you need for the journey ahead.

[Note: I remember see something like the stone place mentioned above in this location, last century in the late 1980s. It is probably still there. I was hiking up a creek on the side of Pine Camp Rd. from the railroad tracks above the Kiski Water Pollution sewage plant. The person I was with pointed out to me in that creek was a small stone rectangle used by the Indians for keeping food cool. The same person, and others including Frank "Mertz" Laero and Ken Blose, have also told me of times they swam in the stream of Pine Run as children.]

Note Conrad Weiser's listing as Interpreter at the bottom of the page.

You do not wish to return to the village. So, to pick up the path to Chartier's place, you hike over the small rise towards the rising of the sun, around the hill, and across the small flat to the large stream that flows into the Kiskiminetas. The gorge is deep and the hills rise high above you as you walk the path along the water.

It will be another long day before you reach the no-good Chartier half-breed, and you do not exactly look forward to his reaction. Instinctively, you check the blade on your knife. It is sharp and your arrow is swift. You would not die without a fight.

Be sure to see the video about "Who You Might Have Met On The Kiskiminetas Path", found at http://www.allekiskitoday.com/webcasts/1366

Don't forget to watch next month for the last and final part of First Roads: The Kiskiminetas Path. It features the Kiski Path West and we visit Burrell, Tarentum and Brackenridge.

Some Sources To Check Out:

Library of Congress' American Memory website: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

Journals of Conrad Weiser (1748), George Croghan (1750--1765) Christian Frederick Post (1758), and Thomas Morris (1764) http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbtn:@field(DOCID+@lit(lhbtnth001))

Weiser's journal: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbtn:@field(DOCID+@lit(lhbtnth001div9))

Croghan's journals: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbtn:@field(DOCID+@lit(lhbtnth001_0044))

Post's journals: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/lhbtn:@field(DOCID+@lit(lhbtnth001_0174))

Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution, Vol. II., Chapter X. http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~wcarr1/Lossing1/Chap42.html