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Pick Up At Pine Run
As you pass through the ravine, you see the pool off to the side. The day is getting bright and the sky will be clear today. The sun will be hot soon. The water is inviting you for a swim, but you remember when, on a day as this, you saw Running Deer walk on the water. The warmth of the day had helped the water fool your friend into plunging in.
Running Deer briefly became Frozen Flying Deer that day as he took wing on his way out of the water. "No," you say aloud, "no swim for me today." It is OK.
We pick up the trail of the Kiski Path West at Kiskiminetas Old Town, down by the sewage treatment plant on Pine Camp Rd. near Hyde Park. Wallace's recommendation about following the general route of the path included following Rt. 56 to near where K-mart is today, and then picking up Rt. 356/Serpentine Rd. to near where Stanford's is today.
 One of the faces you'll meet on the Kiski Path West in the new Heritage video: "Trader" Ken Blose |
A branch of the path then went to an Indian village at Springdale, and another branch went through Plum to Greensburg. Wallace's route seems to have kept to bigger roads, which in some cases today (like Rt. 56) are little roads that are now used less.
But I believe, after hours of research based on satellite photos, and USGS precision maps that Wallace did not have available—as well as studying old records and consulting with other historians—that had I been an Indian or a trader then, I would have followed a different route that closely follows Wallace's general direction but is perhaps more specific than his.
You follow upstream as the flow of water splits into small creeks that feed the run. You choose the creek that follows the setting of the sun. Rolling hills now surround you, and wide meadow-covered valleys unfold as you run-walk. The dried venison you eat along the way keeps your hunger away and your mouth from getting dry.
You are slowly climbing up. The little creek dribbles out of a forested hillside. You walk up into a dense stand of trees, barely able to trace the path covered with damp leaves. Reaching the end of the small lick, now just a ditch with a trickle of water, oozing out from some rocks, you walk up across the top of the hill and to the other side. The sun is bright here. You half-expect to see some of Chartier's men out in the woods.
 Overview of our area's towns, Indian villages, and the Kiskimenitas Path route |
Using satellite photos from www.terraserver.com, I found something interesting.
The stream of Pine Run goes from the Kiski River (near the Indian village location) to just behind Kiski High School. Just a little note: I do know for a fact this stream, below Kiski, has had multiple paths and swimming holes along it over the past century.
Pine Run then passes underneath the intersection of 356 and Melwood Rd. (near Dairy Queen) fed by two different creeks, one being Pine Run that comes from Washington Twp. The one that flows along Melwood Rd. beyond Dobi Catering comes from Allegheny Township.
The water begins on farmland in the valley before McGeary Hollow, just maybe a few hundred yards near where another stream begins. A trader would only have to walk across (after he got permission from today's landowner, of course) a big field and up a small hill, according to the satellite map, to reach where the new stream begins.
 Native Americans and traders may have used overhangs similar to this one in Pine Run for shelter |
Today was not a good day to die...
That new stream flows into another stream, which flows down past the old Melwood Pool and Greenwood Memorial Cemetery not too far from the back of Burrell High School. The same run crosses Rt. 56 and flows along Spooky Hollow Rd. past a trailer park, named—can you guess—Trader's Path. [if anyone knows of a connection between this property and this trail, please email me here at jeff@alle-kiskitoday.com ]
The same stream then follows Spooky Hollow to Garver's Ferry Rd. This is the other Garver's Ferry Rd. that is on the Burrell side of the Kiski, not the Garver's Ferry Rd. on the other side of the Kiski near Apollo. The creek goes right through Wolf Pak Park and near Braeburn and Edgecliff Rds., before emptying into the Allegheny River, across from the Allegheny Ludlum Brackenridge Plant.
You run like the wind itself. Another CRACK whizzes past you again. What? Then it hits you. The men at Chartier's town have guns now! You leap behind trees for cover. But you can breath again as you see the big turkey fall beside you. As the Shawnee warrior comes toward you, he grabs the bird and motions for you to follow.
 Numerouse pools and small falls appear along Pine Run |
It is so named for Peter Chartier, the half-French, half-Indian trader and raider who lived with a band of Shawnee Indians along the banks of today's Tarentum, near Bull Creek.
This little village was called "Chartier's Old Town," just upriver from Sewickley Old Town, where Springdale is today. A trail along the Springdale side of the Allegheny River connected the two villages as well.
On an overhead satellite shot, the two streams, Pine Run and Chartier's Run, piece together a pretty good path—what I call the Kiski Path West.
I'm not crazy enough to say this is absolutely the way it is. Rather, as my brother-in-law John says, "It is what it is."
 The Kiski Path West starts up Pine Run... |
The warrior had guided you in peace to the village. Peter Chartier had reacted to your message as you thought. With thunder. With violence. And sided with the French fathers. But you had expected that. You had not expected him to send you off without a fiery tirade aimed at you and threatening your life and people.
But the eyes of Chartier, filled with lightening, were on other things. A warrior had already been sent downriver to Sewickley Old Town to tell them of the Iroquois decision to align them all with the British. Around the council fire with the others, their voices were loud. The fire of their anger was also loud and hot. It would fan a flame that would consume this land in the harvests to come. But you, you are allowed to disappear like smoke into the thick darkness.
Yes, Chartier and his warriors also sent you off without any food, shelter, or water. But he let you go with your very breath, too. That was always a plus. You knew of a place among the rocks of a hillside to bed down further down the path.
Tomorrow morn, your arrow would find a rabbit, and then you would find your way to the summer hunting grounds of the Shawnee from the Sewickley old town. You would tell them your message—they would be fighting with the British (and protected by them.). They'd complain, but in the end, they, as most of the others, would obey and you would go home. It would be OK.
 The Path may have gone up through this scenic valley located southwest of Pounds' Turkey farm on Melwood Rd. in Allegheny Twp. Note the notch where the 2 hills meet where the Path would have joined with a stream feeding Chartier's Run |
How to follow this general route I just described, of the west branch of the Kiskiminetas Path:
1. Begin at the Kiski Water Pollution Control Authority sewage treatment plant at the bottom of Pine Run Camp Rd. Go up the hill to the second stop sign. Pine Run stream is over the hill to your left.
2. Turn left onto Hyde Park Rd. Go through two traffic lights past Cinemas 123, McDonald's, Kiski High School and Dobi Catering (near Dairy Queen).
3. This is Melwood Rd. Continue straight a few miles, past Pound's Turkey Farm. The stream should be on your left.
 The Kiski Path, also known as "Trader's Path", would have followed Spooky Hollow into Braeburn, along Chartier's Run |
5. Continue on McGeary Hollow until you go up a hill and reach White Cloud Rd.
6. Turn right on White Cloud Rd. 100 ft or so away is Copeland Rd. on the left. Here you may cross it and go straight up 700 yds or so up White Cloud to one of the beginnings of Chartier's Run, which crosses White Cloud there, then about another 100 yds. or so another creek feeds into what becomes Chartier's. It actually begins way up in woods above Copeland Rd. on private property.
7. If you went past Copeland to see one of the beginnings of Chartier's, turn around now and go back, then turn right on Copeland Rd.
8. As you follow on Copeland, the stream will be on your right and meet other creeks to become Chartier's Run. Follow it downstream to where Copeland Rd. ends at Melwood Rd. Turn right on Melwood Rd.
 The Kiski Path followed along Chartier's Run until the Run emptied out into the Allegheny River at Tarentum. Here at one time were river shallows where travelers could cross to the Indian village here and continue on the Path to its' end at the Indian vil |
10. You'll pass Trader's Path Trailer Park. Spooky Hollow bends right, and a branch of Chartiers goes right then under Spooky Hollow.
11. Follow Spooky Hollow to Garver's Ferry on the left. Turn left on Garver's Ferry. Go down the hill past Wildlife Lodge Rd. Chartier's runs along Wildlife Lodge, and then through Wolf Pak Park.
12. The road turns into Braeburn Rd. Go straight; it ends at Edgecliff Rd.
13. Turn right on Edgecliff Rd. Chartier's Run is on your left below Edgecliff Rd.
 Another overview of the Kiskimenitas Path |
15. Congratulations, you just followed a pretty close way the Native Americans may have taken on the Kiskiminetas Path.
Sources:
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)):
 A scene from the video about the Kiski Path West, found at a link on this page. "Trader" Ken Blose explains his hat to Jeff Garrett. |
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
Satellite Photos at www.terraserver.com
