Carrying Path
Athens, Bradford County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Here the Indian voyager down the Chemung lifted his canoe and carried it a hundred and ninety yards across the neck to ascend the Susquehanna.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
At the narrow neck of land where the Chemung and Susquehanna rivers nearly meet, Native travelers once lifted their canoes from the water and carried them a hundred and ninety yards overland. This short portage linked two great river highways of the Northeast, a well-worn shortcut used for generations before European settlement reached the valley. Such carrying paths were the hinges of Indigenous travel and trade across the region.
Why it matters
The portage is a reminder that the rivers of Pennsylvania were interconnected Native highways long before roads, and that Indigenous knowledge shaped how people moved through the land.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Tioga Point Museum0.2 mi away
- Sayre Historical Society2.2 mi away
- S.R.A.C. Susquehanna River Archaeological Center3.8 mi away · 343 Broad Street, Waverly, NY
- Ashland Historical Society14.5 mi away · 3064 Lower Maple Avenue, Wellsburg, NY
Food & drink
- Maple Lawn Dairy14.1 mi away · 3162 Lower Maple Avenue
Places to stay
- Comfort Inn2.5 mi away · 2160 Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Candlewood Suites3.1 mi away · 2775 North Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Hampton Inn Sayre3.3 mi away · 3080 Elmira Street, Sayre, PA
- Econo Lodge3.4 mi away · Spring Street, Sayre, PA
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Sheshequin Path
North Towanda Township, PA · est. 1948
The Sheshequin Path was a Native trail linking the Iroquois homelands of the north with the important Indigenous town of Shamokin to the south. Along this route the colonial interpreter and diplomat Conrad Weiser traveled to Onondaga, the capital of the Iroquois Confederacy, to represent Pennsylvania in council with the Six Nations. Weiser's journeys over such paths helped keep an uneasy peace between the colony and the powerful League.
Warriors Path
Wyalusing Township, PA · est. 1949
Long before European maps named these valleys, an Indian thoroughfare threaded the Appalachian spine, linking the Six Nations homelands of what is now New York to the Catawba country of the Carolinas. Following the natural grades of the Susquehanna and Juniata, it carried war parties, traders, diplomats, and messengers across hundreds of miles of mountain and forest. Such paths were the interstate highways of their age, engineered by generations of foot travel to find the easiest way through hard terrain.
Sheshequin Path
McIntyre Township, PA · est. 1949
In 1745 the Moravian bishop Augustus Spangenberg passed through this valley along the Sheshequin Path on his way to the Onondaga council of the Six Nations. He left a memorable description of woods so thick that "one does not see the sun all day," hemmed in by mountains that pressed close as ant hills. His journey was part of the Moravians' remarkable engagement with the Native peoples of the Pennsylvania frontier.
Wyalusing Path
Davidson Township, PA · est. 1951
An old Native trail led from Wyalusing on the Susquehanna's North Branch down Muncy Creek toward the river's West Branch. In 1772 a band of Christian Munsee and Mohican converts, guided by Moravian Bishop John Ettwein, followed this path westward on their long journey to found a "City of Peace" on the Beaver River. Their trek carried a whole community through the Pennsylvania wilderness in search of a settled, faith-centered life.