Great Minquas Path
Salisbury Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
An Indian path, which was later the original Conestoga Road, passed through Gap half a mile south of here. Over it, in the 17th century, Minquas (Conestoga) Indians carried quantities of beaver skins from the Susquehanna Valley to trading posts near Philadelphia.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
An ancient Indian path once ran through the Gap just south of here, later becoming the original Conestoga Road. In the 17th century the Minquas—the Conestoga—used it to carry great quantities of beaver skins from the Susquehanna Valley to the trading posts near Philadelphia. What began as a Native trail hardened over time into one of the region's foundational overland routes.
Why it matters
It shows how the roads of colonial and early America often followed footpaths first walked by Native peoples, whose trade routes became the young nation's highways.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Great Minquas Path
West Goshen Township, PA · est. 1951
In the 1600s, before English rule was secure, the Great Minquas Path was one of the most valuable trails in the region — the key artery of the fur trade linking Native towns of the interior with trading posts on the lower Schuylkill. Along it flowed the beaver pelts that made the Delaware Valley a prize, and the Dutch, Swedes, and English each struggled to control it. The path crossed near this spot, a quiet reminder of a contest for commerce and empire.
The Great Trail - Minquas or Susquehanna Indians- PLAQUE
West Goshen Township, PA · est. 1925
Long before roads crossed this country, a great Indian path ran from the Susquehanna to the Schuylkill, carrying the Minquas or Susquehannock people on their wars and their commerce. Along it flowed a fortune in beaver pelts, thousands each year hauled down the "Beversrede" to the Dutch and Swedish traders on the Delaware. The trail was a highway of the fur trade that first tied the interior nations to European markets on the coast.
Great Minqua Path
Manor Township, PA · est. 1951
This was the great artery of the mid-17th-century fur trade, the chief trail by which the Minqua—also known as the Susquehannock—carried beaver pelts eastward to the European settlements along the Delaware. The trade was so lucrative that the Swedes, Dutch, and English fought one another to control it. The path traced a route of immense commercial and political importance in the early contest for the region.
Martin Chartier - PLAQUE
Manor Township, PA · est. 1925
Martin Chartier was a French adventurer from Canada who had served at La Salle's Fort St. Louis in the Illinois country before leading a band of Shawnee eastward, first to Maryland and then, by 1697, to the Susquehanna at Pequea Creek. Settling on a tract granted him by William Penn, he became one of early Pennsylvania's most important Indian traders and interpreters, and an agent in Penn's treaties with the Susquehanna nations. His son Peter, born of his Shawnee wife, carried on the trade after him.