''Great Minquas Path'' (or ''The Great Trail'') was a 17th-century trade route that ran through southeastern Pennsylvania from the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River (; Lenape: Siskëwahane) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, overlapping between the lower Northeast and the Upland South. At long, it is the longest river on the East Coast of the ...

, near Conestoga, to the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It ...

, opposite

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. The 80-mile (130 km) east-west trail was the primary route for fur trading with the Minquas (or

Susquehannock The Susquehannock people, also called the Conestoga by some English settlers or Andastes were Iroquoian Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, ranging from its upper reaches in the southern ...

) people. Dutch, Swedish and English settlers fought one another for control of it.

Dutch

The Dutch began the fur trade in the 1620s, and named the trail "Beversreede" or "Beaver Road." Sometime after 1633, they built Fort Beversreede at the trail's eastern terminus, the confluence of the

and the Delaware River. A 1655 Swedish map shows the fort on Providence Island, on the west bank of the Schuylkill at its mouth, although Scharf & Westcott state that the fort was on the east bank. In 1634, the

used the Great Minquas Path in their conquest of the

Lenni-Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...

(or Delaware) people. "Minquas," meaning "treacherous," was the Lenni-Lenape name for the Susquehannock, their traditional enemy. The name was adopted by the Dutch, and later the Swedes.

Swedes

The Swedish colony,

New Sweden New Sweden ( sv, Nya Sverige) was a Swedish colony along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now the United States from 1638 to 1655, established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a great military power. New Sweden fo ...

, was founded in 1638, about 20 miles (32.5 km) south of Fort Beversreede, in what is now

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington (Lenape: ''Paxahakink /'' ''Pakehakink)'' is the largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish settlement in North America. It lies at the confluence of the Christin ...

. In 1644, Governor

Johan Björnsson Printz Johan Björnsson Printz (July 20, 1592 – May 3, 1663) was governor from 1643 until 1653 of the Swedish colony of New Sweden on the Delaware River in North America. Early life in Sweden He was born in Bottnaryd, Jönköping County, in the pr ...

built Fort Nya Vasa where the Great Minquas Path crossed

Cobbs Creek Cobbs Creek is an U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of Darby Creek in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It forms an approximat ...

. This attempt to siphon off Native American trade from the Dutch was unsuccessful. Printz tried again at Fort Beversreede itself. In 1648, the Swedes built a

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

directly in front of the Dutch fort, rendering it useless for defense. The Dutch abandoned the fort in 1651. Under

Peter Stuyvesant Peter Stuyvesant (; in Dutch language, Dutch also ''Pieter'' and ''Petrus'' Stuyvesant, ; 1610 – August 1672)Mooney, James E. "Stuyvesant, Peter" in p.1256 was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch Director of New Netherlan ...

, the Dutch returned and conquered "New Sweden" in 1655, renaming the colony "

New Netherlands New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva P ...

English

The English in turn conquered the Dutch in 1664, and the tiny colony became part of the 1681 land grant to

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy an ...

. The English called the Susquehannock " Conestogas," after their main settlement on the Susquehanna River. The Susquehannock were decimated by

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) ce ...

, and by long conflicts with European settlers in the

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

region, 1642–52, and the

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

to the north, 1658–62. Many of them moved or intermarried with other tribes. A century later, in December 1763, the

Paxton Boys The Paxton Boys were Pennsylvania's most aggressive colonists according to historian Kevin Kenny. While not many specifics are known about the individuals in the group their overall profile is clear. Paxton Boys Lived in hill country northwest of ...

massacred 20 of the Conestogas, and the tribe soon became extinct in Pennsylvania.

Strasburg Road Strasburg Road was an early road in Pennsylvania connecting Philadelphia to Strasburg in Lancaster County. The route was surveyed by John Sellers and others in 1772-3 under the colonial administration of Governor Richard Penn and completed unde ...

Chester County Chester County may refer to: * Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States * Chester County, South Carolina, United States * Chester County, Tennessee, United States * Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West En ...

and Lancaster County generally follows the route of the Great Minquas Path. The trail is marked by Pennsylvania State historical markers in Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, and Lancaster Counties.Great Minquas Path
from

Historical Marker Database The Historical Marker Database (HMdb.org) is an online database that documents locations of numerous historical markers in the United States as well as other countries. The database was launched in 2006 by computer programmer J. J. Prats. The HMd ...

References

{{reflist Province of Pennsylvania Native American history of Pennsylvania Native American trails in the United States Historic trails and roads in Pennsylvania Lenape New Netherland