Wyoming Path
Bloomsburg, Columbia County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Important path linking the many Indian settlements in the Wyoming Valley with Shamokin, now Sunbury. In 1742 Count Zinzendorf, organizer of Moravian missions, came this way after visiting the Shawnees at Wyoming.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
The Wyoming Path was one of the great Native highways of colonial Pennsylvania, tying the villages of the Wyoming Valley to the diplomatic hub of Shamokin, at the forks of the Susquehanna where Sunbury now stands. In 1742 the Moravian nobleman Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf traveled this route after meeting the Shawnees at Wyoming, part of the Moravians' remarkable effort to plant Christian missions among the region's Native peoples. The trail carried traders, missionaries, and diplomacy alike through a contested frontier.
Why it matters
It captures the meeting of Native geography and European missionary ambition on the eve of the wars that would decide the fate of the Pennsylvania frontier.
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Related people
- · Count Nicolaus von Zinzendorf
Related events
- · Moravian missions to the Shawnee
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Nescopeck
Salem Township, PA · est. 1949
From the mouth of Nescopeck Creek, a Native trail struck eastward over the mountains, running by way of present-day Hazleton to the Lehigh River near Mauch Chunk and onward to the Forks of the Delaware at Easton. It was one strand in the dense web of Indigenous paths that laced eastern Pennsylvania long before European roads. Such routes carried trade, war parties, and treaty delegations across an otherwise trackless landscape.
Wyoming Path
Northumberland, PA · est. 1949
Long before highways traced the Susquehanna, the Iroquois maintained a network of foot trails linking their homelands to the Native town of Shamokin, a vital multi-tribal settlement at the river's forks that is now Sunbury. This segment, the Wyoming Path, carried warriors, diplomats, and traders between the Wyoming Valley and Shamokin, and its practical route down the valley was later inherited by U.S. Route 11. The trail's crossing to Shamokin Island marks how thoroughly Indigenous knowledge of the terrain shaped later European travel.
Wapwallopen
Conyngham Township, PA · est. 1948
Near the mouth of Wapwallopen Creek once stood a Native town at a crossroads of ancient travel. Here the great foot routes of the region converged—the paths linking the Wyoming Valley, the north–south "Warrior's Path," and the trails reaching toward the Juniata and West Branch Susquehanna valleys. Long before roads and rails, such junctions made a place important, funneling trade, migration, and war parties through a single point.
Great Shamokin Path
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.