Clearfield's Early Inhabitants

Clearfield's Early Inhabitants. Pennsylvania Wilds. , When the first European travelers arrived at this place now called Clearfield, they encountered open fields among the dense, old-growth forests that blanketed the region. Although local legend tells of grazing bison that created these openings, archeological evidence points to Native Americans who lived here and burned away vegetation to grow crops., For thousands of years, Native Americans traveled through and lived in the Clearfield area, then called Chinklacamoose. One tribe, known as the Black Minquas, farmed the fertile soil, hunted game, and caught fish, eels, and freshwater clams. They traveled the West Branch of the Susquehanna and its navigable tributaries in dugout canoes., Likely walled for protection from Seneca Indians from the north, their villages were home to 20-40 people, who lived in oval houses built with sapling frames and covered with slabs of bark. By the time the borough of Clearfield incorporated in the 1840s. these Indian villages had been abandoned for over a century, though their circular, mounded walls remained., A Path Through History , Though many Indian trails crisscrossed the land we know as Pennsylvania, the Great Shamokin Path was one of the most heavily traveled. Beginning near the confluence of the North and West Branches of the Susquehanna River near present day Sunbury, the Great Shamokin Path headed west to Kittanning located on the Allegheny River. European settlers also used the trail, improving it over the years to what is, west of Clearfield, now U.S. Highway 322., [Photo captions, top to bottom, read] , . Native Americans established a great network of trails across the Susquehanna and Allegheny River drainages., . The wall of sharpened sticks stood 11-12 feet high and protected the village from enemies, wild animals, and winter weather., . Cornplanter, a Seneca Indian Chief, lived along the upper Allegheny River in Pennsylvania and New York., . Chief Lappawinsoe and other Delaware Indians spent time in Chinklacamoose during their westward migration after the 1737 Walking Purchase.