Kittanning Path
The Kittanny path (by other names[b]) would also come to be used first by Dutch, then English and British colonial fur traders, as well as Amerindian emigrants moving westwards before and after the French and Indian War and in the post-1780[c] settlers migrations west of the Mountain as the American Revolution entered its final years.
For centuries the Kittanning Path, like the similar Chief Nemacolin's Trail to the south, was the overland route through very tough country[d] for Native American peoples.
They included Iroquoian-speaking tribes, such as the Erie, Susquehannock, and the Five Nations of the Iroquois confederacy, as well as the Algonquian-speaking Lenape, Miami, and Siouan Shawnee.
Early European explorers and settlers also learned to use the Indian paths to cross the Allegheny Mountains barrier ridge.
The path made use of one of the few so-called gaps of the Allegheny that accompanied the feedwater streams draining into the Juniata River, a tributary of the Susquehanna that terminated on the Allegheny River due Northeast of Pittsburgh in what is now Armstrong County, Pennsylvania at the Native American Kittanning Village (at present-day Kittanning, Pennsylvania).
[citation needed] It was located in an area of Pennsylvania that had been closed to white settlement by the original treaty of William Penn with the Lenape.
In 1744 the English trader John Hart was granted a license by colonial authorities to trade with the Indians in western Pennsylvania lands, which were then closed to white settlement.
In 1755, the Lenape chief Shingas used the trail to attack British settlements along the Juniata River, returning with captives to the village of Kittanning.
- Foot travelers could follow either large stream or the smaller stream in the Kittanning Gap (lower down, at image right), or one of the several gaps of the Allegheny (to the south of this view) which were exploited by the Allegheny Portage Railroad or the Penn Central Railroad . Mule trains of Trappers could take steeper ravines than westward migrating white settlers with animal power towed vehicles such as Wagons and carts.
- Each 'gap of the Allegheny Front' was one likely road for Amerindian and fur traders foot traffic to cross the Allegheny Front into the Allegheny Valley and reach the native settlement at Kittanning Village or beyond. Various gaps climb faster (steeper) or slower to the highland 700–900 feet (210–270 m) above.
- The terrains above the front are part of the Appalachian Plateau , which presents as a larger-than-county sized region of low hills and small creeks , topped by the eastern continental divide .
- The maps on this page also are showing the nearby PRR Horseshoe Curve , which crosses three other gaps, and the confluence of Kittanning Run with Glen White Run , which descends running nearly due west to east.
- The Kittanning Gap gives this 'choice way' of climbing the escarpment to wagons or mule trains on the way to the west side of the Allegheny Mountains and Kittanning, PA along the Kittanning Path . Taking a right through the gap to climb above the escarpment by a circuitous route following a traverse across contours climbing the sides of slopes was longer, but quite a bit easier than attempting to pull farm wagons or Conestoga wagons up either of the steep narrow creek bed straight ahead... or some of the other gaps of the Allegheny Front.