An Oldie but a Brawl: The Great Minquas Path

The Great Minquas Path, an ancient trade route across Pennsylvania, stretches over 80 miles from the Susquehanna to the Schuylkill Rivers. It was the main hub for trading furs with the Minquas, or Susquehannock, people. But this trail, mate, was way more than a simple economic vein; it was a battlefield for three European heavyweights. The Dutch, their Dutch kin, and the English all went toe-to-toe for control of the route and its hefty profits. The Dutch started things off in '63 by building Fort Beversreede at the eastern end.

The Swedes, no strangers to a fight, retaliated with Fort Nya Vasa in Delaware in '44. But the indigenous Conestoga folk were the ones who took the brunt of it all. One of the first settlers, Johan Björnsson Printz, even went to lengths to cut out Dutch businesses with the construction of New Sweden in '38. The Dutch didn't appreciate that and booted the Swedes off their turf in '55, renaming it 'New Netherlands'. The English then invaded in '64 and dubbed the Conestogas.

These unlucky folks were hit hard by smallpox and battles with European settlers. Many were forced to uproot or link their futures with other tribes. The Paxton Boys, history's persistent pain in the neck, even massacred 20 Conestogas a century later, in '63. Today, Strasburg Road in Chester and Lancaster Counties generally traces the route of the Great Minquas Path, with Pennsylvania State historical markers making it all crystal-clear.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons