Long before the first orange traffic cone was placed in Pennsylvania, the state was crisscrossed by a sophisticated network of “highways” that would put our modern engineering to shame. Here is the mind-blowing truth about the roads you drive every day.
The “Great Minquas Path”: The Original Route 30
The next time you’re driving the Lincoln Highway (Route 30) between Lancaster and Philadelphia, you’re retracing the exact steps of the Susquehannock and Lenape nations.
Known as the Great Minquas Path, this wasn’t just a small trail through the woods. It was a major commercial artery used to transport thousands of beaver pelts and trade goods between the Susquehanna River and the Delaware River. Modern surveyors didn’t “invent” these routes; they simply paved over the paths that indigenous people had already optimized for the easiest grades and the most direct river crossings.
The Seneca Trail: The North-South Connection
If your travels take you toward Western PA or down through the mountains on Route 219, you are riding the Seneca Trail (also known as the Great Indian Warpath)…