Great Minquas Path - Gap, PA
N 39° 59.516 W 076° 01.219
18S E 412894 N 4427360
Yet another important PHMP marker along the Lincoln Highway which traces this historic, late 20th century road back to the original and ancient inhabitants of this land, the Great Minquas Path.
Waymark Code: WMCKWF
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 09/18/2011
Views: 5
Great Minquas Path (or The Great Trail) was a 17th-century trade route that ran through southeastern Pennsylvania from the Susquehanna River, near Conestoga, to the Schuylkill River, opposite Philadelphia. The 80-mile (130 km) east-west trail was the primary route for fur trading with the Minquas (or Susquehannock) people. Dutch, Swedish and English settlers fought one another for control of it.
The Susquehannocks/Minquas lived in the lower Susquehanna Valley, fairly distant from colonial outposts on the Atlantic coast, but they played an important role in the early colonization of the mid-Atlantic region. They traveled east to trade with the Dutch and Swedish by way of an ancient path that connected the lower Susquehanna and Delaware rivers. European traders named this route the "Great Minquas Path" after the native peoples it carried to their doorstep.
This marker is on the south side of the road or right side when traveling eastbound toward Philadelphia. It is right in front of McDonalds. The historic marker was dedicated on August 23, 1951. The marker reads:
An Indian path, going east
to the Dutch and Swedish
trading posts on the
Delaware and Schuylkill,
forded Conestoga Creek at
this point. It was used by
the Minquas
(Susquehannocks). Later
known as the Great Cones-
toga Road.