Sunbury

Delaware Township, PA · est. 1949

The Great Shamokin Path was once the main Indian highway west, running from Shamokin—now Sunbury—toward the Ohio country. Along it traveled the Delawares (Lenape) as they were pushed out of their eastern Pennsylvania homelands by the pressure of colonial settlement. After the crushing defeat of General Braddock in 1755, Delaware warriors used this very trail to strike back at the frontier settlements during the French and Indian War.

Sunbury, PA · est. 1947

Laid out in 1772 as the seat of newly formed Northumberland County, Sunbury rose on the site of Shamokin, a major Native town at the forks of the Susquehanna. Surveyors John Lukens and William Maclay platted the town where Fort Augusta had stood since 1756, guarding the frontier, and the community grew into a hub of travel, trade, and industry before its incorporation as a borough in 1797.

Sunbury, PA · est. 1948

As war with France spread along the frontier, Colonels James Burd and John Clapham raised Fort Augusta in 1756-57 at the forks of the Susquehanna. It became the region's key stronghold, guarding the vital river junction and anchoring Pennsylvania's defenses against raids during the French and Indian War. A mansion later rose on the site in 1852, long after the fort's soldiering days had passed.

Sunbury, PA · est. 1967

During the French and Indian War, the Susquehanna frontier was a dangerous borderland where British colonists, French forces, and Native nations contested the land. From the garrison at nearby Fort Augusta, soldiers ventured out at their peril; here, one man is said to have been killed, his blood coloring the spring that gave the place its grim name. The story preserves the fear and violence that hung over Pennsylvania's backcountry in those years.