Allegheny Portage
Port Allegany, McKean County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The 23-mile crossing from Susquehanna West Branch to the Allegheny River followed Portage Creek to a "canoe place" near this point. From here Indians and pioneers continued on their way by boat down the Allegheny River.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Here the waters of two great river systems nearly meet, and travelers long exploited the gap. The roughly 23-mile Allegheny Portage carried canoes and cargo overland from the West Branch of the Susquehanna, up Portage Creek to a "canoe place" near this point, where boats could be relaunched down the Allegheny toward the Ohio country. Native people and, later, pioneers used this crossing to move between the eastern and western drainages of Pennsylvania.
Why it matters
Portages like this were strategic hinges of continental travel, linking the Atlantic watershed to the vast Ohio and Mississippi country beyond.
Plan your visit
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Allegheny Portage
Shippen Township, PA · est. 1949
Long before roads crossed the mountains, travelers moving between the Susquehanna's West Branch and the Allegheny River faced a 23-mile overland carry that began at a "canoe place" near this point. Native peoples and later pioneers hauled their canoes north to Portage Creek, then took to the water again near present-day Port Alleghany. The route stitched two great watersheds together across the Pennsylvania wilderness.
Allegheny River
Allegany Township, PA · est. 1947
High in Potter County rises the modest headwater of the Allegheny, a river whose importance far outstrips its quiet source. For centuries it carried Native travelers, and later French and British traders and westward-bound settlers, deep into the interior. Winding hundreds of miles to Pittsburgh, it joins the Monongahela to form the mighty Ohio, one of the great arteries of the American continent.
Sinnemahoning Path
Lumber Township, PA · est. 1950
Long before roads followed these ridges, Native travelers wore a path up the Sinnemahoning Creek valley, reaching Canoe Place — today's Emporium Junction — and continuing to the Seneca towns at the Big Bend of the Allegheny. Such trails were the region's highways, threading through mountains along the easiest grades. Early settlers pushing into Clinton, McKean, Cameron, and Potter Counties followed the very route the Seneca and their neighbors had established.
Seneca Spring
Kane, PA · est. 1951
A spring just southwest of here marked a resting place on one of the great Native footpaths that laced the eastern woodlands long before European roads. This trail crossed the high plateau known as the Big Level and formed part of the main artery linking Onondaga — the political heart of the Iroquois Confederacy — with the Ohio country and the distant Carolinas. Travelers, traders, and war parties alike relied on such springs to break the journey.