page_title: West Branch Susquehanna Valley
section_title: Early inhabitants
hierarchical_section_title: West Branch Susquehanna Valley / History / Early inhabitants
caption_attribution_description: View east of the West Branch Susquehanna River Valley from Hyner View State Park in Clinton County, Pennsylvania, United States
context_page_description: The West Branch Susquehanna Valley of central Pennsylvania, United States, in the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians, is the low-lying area draining into the West Branch Susquehanna River southeast of the Allegheny Front, northeast of the Bald Eagle Valley, southwest of the Wyoming Valley and north of the water gap formed between Shamokin Mountain and Montour Ridge.
  The river enters the valley after emerging from a deep gorge in the Allegheny Plateau above Lock Haven, then turns east entering a broad alluvial flood plain, where it receives the Bald Eagle Creek after passing the town. The flood plain lies at the foot of the Bald Eagle Mountain ridge, with large fertile farm fields in and around the river's meanders and islands. The valley above the flood plain is a series of knolls below the plateau. Further down the valley, the river receives Pine Creek which has also entered the valley from a deep gorge, Pine Creek Gorge. East of Williamsport, the Bald Eagle ridge ends, the river turns south, and the valley opens up and follows the river to the water gap at Lewisburg.
  In Clinton and Lycoming Counties, it is northeast of the Bald Eagle Valley and runs from Lock Haven to Williamsport.
context_section_description: The first recorded inhabitants of the West Branch Susquehanna River valley were the Iroquoian speaking Susquehannocks. Their name meant "people of the muddy river" in Algonquian.  Decimated by diseases and warfare, they had died out, moved away, or been assimilated into other tribes by the early 18th century. The lands of the West Branch Susquehanna River Valley were then chiefly occupied by the Munsee phratry of the Lenape (or Delaware), and were under the nominal control of the Five (later Six) Nations of the Iroquois.
  The British purchased land from the Iroquois in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1768, opening what is now Lycoming County to settlement. However, the Line of Property (or Purchase Line) border defined by "Tiadaghton Creek" dividing colonial and Native American lands was disputed. The colonists claimed this was Pine Creek, the Iroquois and other tribes Lycoming Creek. The area between Pine and Lycoming Creeks was disputed territory. The illegal settlers there were part of the "Fair Play Men" system of self-government, with their own Declaration of Independence from Britain on July 4, 1776.
  In the American Revolutionary War, settlements throughout the Susquehanna valley were attacked by Loyalists and Native Americans allied with the British. After the Wyoming Valley battle and massacre in the summer of 1778 (near what is now Wilkes-Barre) and smaller local attacks, the "Big Runaway" occurred throughout the West Branch Susquehanna valley. Settlers fled feared and actual attacks by the British and their allies. Homes and fields were abandoned, with livestock driven along and a few possessions floated on rafts on the river east to Muncy, then further south to Sunbury. The abandoned property was burnt by the attackers. Some settlers soon returned, only to flee again in the summer of 1779 in the "Little Runaway". Sullivan's Expedition helped stabilize the area and encouraged resettlement, which continued after the war.
caption: West Branch Susquehanna Valley, seen from Hyner View State Park in Clinton County
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