Shamokin

At the meeting of the North and West Branches of the Susquehanna stood Shamokin, a town whose name has been rendered as the Place of Eels. Canoe routes and paths converged here, including the Great Warriors Path leading north and the Great Shamokin Path crossing the mountains to Kittanning. By the eighteenth century it was a meeting place for peoples displaced from other parts of the region, among them Lenape, Shawnee, Conoy and Tutelo.

The Oneida leader Shikellamy represented Haudenosaunee interests in the Susquehanna valley and worked with the interpreter Conrad Weiser in dealings with Pennsylvania. Shamokin became a centre of trade and diplomacy, and Moravian missionaries established a smithy there in 1747. The outbreak of the French and Indian War brought an end to the town: its inhabitants left, and in 1756 colonial troops began building Fort Augusta on the site.