Nessmuk
Shippen Township, Tioga County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The pen name of poet, woodsman, outdoor writer and pioneer conservationist George Washington Sears (1821-1890), a resident of Wellsboro, Pa. From near this spot he wrote the first prose and verse descriptions of the Pine Creek Gorge.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Under the pen name Nessmuk, George Washington Sears (1821–1890) of Wellsboro became one of America's earliest voices for wilderness and conservation. From near this spot he penned the first prose and verse descriptions of the Pine Creek Gorge, now celebrated as Pennsylvania's 'Grand Canyon.' A poet, woodsman, and outdoor writer, Sears helped teach a rapidly industrializing nation to value its wild places.
Why it matters
His writings helped seed the American conservation ethic, shaping how the country came to cherish and protect its remaining wilderness.
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Related people
- · George Washington Sears
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
William A. Stone
Delmar Township, PA · est. 1948
Born about two and a half miles from this spot in 1846, William A. Stone became one of Tioga County's most prominent sons. Trained at the Mansfield Normal School, he opened a law practice in Wellsboro in 1870, later relocating to Pittsburgh, and went on to serve in Congress in the 1890s and as governor of Pennsylvania from 1899 to 1903. He died in 1920.
Nessmuk
Wellsboro, PA · est. 1972
George Washington Sears (1821–1890), writing as Nessmuk, was a Wellsboro poet, canoeist, and adventurer best remembered as the author of the first popular book on woodcraft. His guidance on traveling light in the wilderness influenced generations of campers and outdoorsmen. As a pioneer conservationist, he championed the beauty of the wild during an era of headlong industrial growth.
William A. Stone
Wellsboro, PA · est. 1948
William A. Stone rose from a Tioga County farm to the top of Pennsylvania politics, born just southwest of here in 1846. A graduate of the Mansfield Normal School, he began practicing law in Wellsboro in 1870 before moving to Pittsburgh, serving in Congress through the 1890s and as governor from 1899 to 1903. His career spanned the Gilded Age into the new century.
Julia C. Collins (? - 1865)
Williamsport, PA · est. 2010
Julia C. Collins was a Black essayist and teacher in Civil War–era Williamsport whose serialized novel, The Curse of Caste, is regarded as among the first published novels by an African American woman. Appearing in 1865 in the AME Church's Christian Recorder, a paper read across the nation, her fiction and essays reached a wide Black readership at the very moment of emancipation. She died that same year, her story left tantalizingly unfinished.