Wappasening

Wappasening Creek rises in the wooded uplands of northern Pennsylvania and flows through the Susquehanna country to join the river. Delaware (Lenape) speakers used the name for a place of white or shining stone, and the missionary John Heckewelder recorded that explanation in 1834, noting a related word for silver. Lenape families who came into this country in the eighteenth century hunted along the creek, which marked the edge of the forest where the uplands fell toward the river flats. On the map published by Reading Howell in 1792 the stream appears as Wappasuning Creek, showing that the name had already settled into common use.