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95-619: The line was originally chartered as the Allegheny and Bald Eagle Railroad, Coal and Iron Company on June 12, 1839. It was to extend from the western side of the Allegheny Mountains to Bald Eagle Creek . For many years, however, it showed no organized activity, although the Pennsylvania General Assembly periodically renewed its charter. On May 2, 1855, a charter supplement allowed it to extend to Bellefonte , to connect with

190-533: A telegraph line from Snow Shoe to Wingate in 1869. In 1871, the directors resolved to construct a branch from Bellefonte to the vicinity of Oak Hall to connect with the Lewisburg, Centre and Spruce Creek Railroad when it reached that point. However, the financial difficulties of the latter long delayed its construction, and while the link would be built (as the Bellefonte, Nittany and Lemont Railroad ), it would not be

285-496: A cave bat . Bobcat , snowshoe hare , wild boar and black bear and coyote are also found in the forests and parks of the Alleghenies. Mink and beaver are much less often seen. These mountains and plateau have over 20 species of reptiles represented as lizard, skink, turtle and snake. Some of the icterid birds visit the mountains as well as the hermit thrush and wood thrush . North American migrant birds live throughout

380-549: A dispute over the extent of lands belonging to either Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron or to the English Privy Council . An expedition of 1736 by John Savage established the location of the source of the North Branch Potomac River . In March 1742, a frontiersman named John Howard—along with his son and others—had been commissioned by Governor Gooch to explore the southwest of Virginia as far as

475-687: A high reputation, and d'Invilliers suggested that the Pennsylvania should concentrate on new fields exploiting the Moshannon seam, in the upper Moshannon Valley and elsewhere, and allow the New York Central to compete for the lower seams of Kittanning coal remaining in the Philipsburg area. The only known surviving copy of his report is in the archives of the Fall Brook Coal Company; this company

570-765: A horseshoe curve to cross the Beech Creek Railroad and descend to Clarence , along the North Fork Beech Creek, ending near Lehigh Valley Coal Co. #9 Mine with a length of 4.75 miles (7.64 km). The Grauer Branch left the Sugar Camp Branch just north of the Beech Creek crossing and ran 2.04 miles (3.28 km) north up Cherry Run, reaching Sugar Camp and the Clarence Colliery #1. The Fountain Branch

665-654: A lesser extent, British stock. The Braddock Road was superseded by the Cumberland Road —also called the National Road—one of the first major improved highways in the United States to be built by the federal government . Construction began in 1811 at Cumberland and the road reached Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia) on the Ohio River in 1818. Just to the south, the state-funded Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike

760-599: A little over seven dozen cave invertebrates. The indigenous people inhabiting the Allegheny Mountains emerged from the greater region's archaic and mound building cultures , particularly the Adena and Eastern Woodland peoples with a later Hopewellian influence. These Late Middle Woodland culture people have been called the Montaine (c. A.D. 500 to 1000) culture. Their neighbors, the woodland Buck Garden culture, lived in

855-501: A lower Greenbrier Valley map during the earlier decades of the 18th century. As early as 1719, new arrivals from Europe began to cross the lower Susquehanna River and settle illegally in defiance of the Board of Property in Pennsylvania, on un-warranted land of the northeastern drainage rivers of the Allegheny Mountains. Several Indian Nations requested the removal of "Maryland Intruders". Some of these moved onward as territory opened up beyond

950-530: A major disaster relief effort. Support for victims came from all over the United States and 18 foreign countries. After the flood, survivors suffered a series of legal defeats in their attempts to recover damages from the dam's owners. Public indignation at that failure prompted the development in American law changing a fault -based regime to strict liability . In the 1920s and '30s, Allegheny highways were extensively paved to provide access for automobiles. From

1045-665: A military trail— Braddock Road —was blazed and opened by the Ohio Company in 1751. (It followed an earlier Indian and pioneer trail known as Nemacolin's Path .) Braddock Road connected Cumberland, Maryland (the upper limit of navigation on the Potomac River) and the forks of the Ohio River (the future Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ). It received its name from the British leader of the French and Indian War (1754–63), General Edward Braddock , who led

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1140-774: A paper railroad called the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railway , would bring the New York Central's trains to Jersey Shore , on the West Branch Susquehanna River to the west of Williamsport. From there, the Susquehanna and South Western would head west by way of Beech Creek and Moshannon Creek to the vicinity of Clearfield . The initial incorporators of the railroad were William A. Wallace , B. L. Wallace, Israel Test, and E. H. Bigler, of Clearfield, S. R. Peale and William H. Brown of Lock Haven , John G. Reading and Joseph M. Gazzam , of Philadelphia . Gazzam

1235-698: A portion of the Eastern Continental Divide in this area. A number of impressive gorges and valleys drain the Alleghenies: to the east, Smoke Hole Canyon ( South Branch Potomac River ), and to the west the New River Gorge and the Blackwater and Cheat Canyons . Thus, about half the precipitation falling on the Alleghenies makes its way west to the Mississippi and half goes east to Chesapeake Bay and

1330-562: A possible Fort Ancient (c. AD 850 to 1680) presence during the 15th century. Washington Boro ceramics have been found on the Barton (18AG3) and Llewellyn (18AG26) sites in Maryland on the northeastern slopes of the late Susquehannock sequence. The early Monongahela (c. AD 900 to 1630) are called the Drew Tradition in Pennsylvania. According to archeologist Richard L. George: "I believe that some of

1425-494: Is a defunct railroad which operated in central Pennsylvania between Jersey Shore and Mahaffey . Originally chartered in 1882, it was leased by the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad (later the New York Central Railroad ) in 1890 and was directly operated by that company afterwards. Much of the line was abandoned in the second half of the 20th century, though sections at both ends are still active. The company

1520-601: Is at the Mason–Dixon line and the southern is at the West Virginia-Virginia border on Peters Mountain . The bedrock of the Alleghenies is mostly sandstone and metamorphosed sandstone, quartzite , which is extremely resistant to weathering. Prominent beds of resistant conglomerate can be found in some areas, such as the Dolly Sods . When it weathers, it leaves behind a pure white quartzite gravel. The rock layers of

1615-616: Is managed by the U.S. Forest Service .) The Alleghenies also include a number of federally designated wilderness areas , such as the Dolly Sods Wilderness , Laurel Fork Wilderness , and Cranberry Wilderness in West Virginia. The mostly completed Allegheny Trail , a project of the West Virginia Scenic Trails Association since 1975, runs the length of the range within West Virginia. The northern terminus

1710-653: Is not definitively known but is usually translated as "fine river". The closest approximation which makes sense is some context from the Jesuit Relations showing that Alligeh was one of several accepted renderings of the name of the Erie people among the early 17th century missionaries among the Native peoples throughout the eastern Great Lakes region, along with Rique, Yenresh and Erichronon. The suffix -ni means "of the," in Lenape, despite

1805-531: Is still served by a rather sparse secondary highway system and remains considerably lower in population density than surrounding regions. In the telecommunications field, a unique impediment to development in the central Allegheny region is the United States National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ), a large rectangle of land—about 13,000 square miles (34,000 km )—that straddles the border area of Virginia and West Virginia. Created in 1958 by

1900-580: The Alleghenies , is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the Eastern United States and Canada and posed a significant barrier to land travel in less developed eras. The Allegheny Mountains have a northeast–southwest orientation, running for about 300 miles (480 km) from north-central Pennsylvania southward, through western Maryland and eastern West Virginia . The Alleghenies comprise

1995-602: The Bald Eagle and Spring Creek Navigation canal . In 1857, a survey of the line was finally completed. Construction began in 1858, and it was completed in 1859, from the coal mines at Snow Shoe to Snow Shoe Intersection (now Wingate ) in the Bald Eagle Valley . There it connected with the west end of the newly constructed Tyrone and Lock Haven Railroad , which ran up the valley to Milesburg and then south to Bellefonte, and over which it had trackage rights . The name of

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2090-613: The Federal Communications Commission , the NRQZ severely restricts all omnidirectional and high-power radio transmissions, although cell phone service is allowed throughout much of the area. Much of the Monongahela (West Virginia), George Washington (West Virginia, Virginia) and Jefferson (Virginia) National Forests lie within the Allegheny Mountains. (No part of the wooded Alleghenies in Maryland or Pennsylvania, however,

2185-618: The Interstate Highway System was extended into the northern portion of the Alleghenies, and the region is now served by a network of federal expressways— Interstates 80 , 70 / 76 and 68 . Interstate 64 traverses the southern extremity of the range, but the Central Alleghenies (the "High Alleghenies" of eastern West Virginia) have posed special problems for highway planners owing to the region's very rugged terrain and environmental sensitivities (see Corridor H ). This region

2280-605: The Iroquois , Shawnee , Delaware , Catawba and others, for purposes of trade , hunting and, especially, warfare . Western Virginia " Cherokee " were reported at Cherokee Falls , today's Valley Falls of the Tygart Valley . Indian trader Charles Poke's trading post dates from 1731 with the Calicuas of Cherokee Falls still in the region from the previous century. The "London Scribes" (The Crown's taxation records) vaguely mentions

2375-806: The Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad , the Allegheny Portage Railroad and the Pennsylvania Canal system. Lying astride the border separating the Union and Confederacy , the Alleghenies were among the areas most directly affected by the American Civil War (1861–1865). One of the earliest campaigns of the War was fought for control of the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike and for the access it provided to

2470-567: The Riviere de la Ronceverte . The " Kanawha Madonna " may date from this period or earlier. Where the New River breaks through Peters' Mountain, near Pearisburg Virginia the 1671 journal mentions the "Moketans had formerly lived". According to a number of early 17th century maps, the Messawomeake or "Mincquas" (Dutch) occupied the northern Allegheny Mountains. The "Shatteras" (an ancient Tutelo) occupied

2565-474: The ecosystems within the Alleghenies are remarkably varied. In recent decades, the many stages of ecologic succession throughout the area have made the region one of enduring interest to botanists. The larger megafauna which once inhabited the High Alleghenies— elk , bison , mountain lion —were all exterminated during the 19th century. They survived longer in this area, however, than in other parts of

2660-661: The "Salt Village" below the Kanawha Falls , but, that simply the "Mehetan" were associated with these. He explained, below the "Salt Villages", a mass of hostile Indians had, implied, arrived and some believe these to be "Shanwans" of Vielles Expedition of 1692~94, ancient Shawnee. In 1669, John Lederer of Maryland for the Virginia Colony and the Tennessee Cherokee had visited the mouth of the Kanawha and reported no hostilities on

2755-608: The 1950s to 1992, the United States government maintained a top secret continuity program known as Project Greek Island at The Greenbrier hotel in the Alleghenies of southern West Virginia. In August 1963, at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom , Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. referenced the Alleghenies—among several in an evocative list of mountains—in his famous " I Have a Dream " speech, when he said "Let freedom ring from

2850-513: The 347 feet (106 m) Hogback tunnel, which cut across a loop of the creek, about halfway up the climb out of the watershed at Hurxthal's Summit. Tracklaying began in September 1883. In the meantime, construction began on the 1,277 feet (389.2 m) Peale tunnel 8 miles (10 km) west of the summit, on the descent approaching Moshannon Creek. Undertaken by the well-known railroad contractors P & T Collins, tunneling began on June 24, 1883, and

2945-540: The A.D. 1300 Luray phase ( Algonquian ) peoples' "invasion". It is thought that these ancient Alleghenians were pushed from the classic Huffman Phase of the eastern slopes of the Alleghenies to the Blue Ridge Mountains in western Virginia , which was eastern Siouan territory. In 1669, John Lederer and members of his party became the first Europeans to crest the Blue Ridge Mountains and the first to see

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3040-629: The Alleghenies for the first time. In the following decades, pioneer settlers arrived in the Alleghenies, especially during Colonial Virginia's Robert Dinwiddie era (1751–58). These included squatters by the Quit-rent Law. Some had preceded the official surveyors using a "hack on the tree and field of corn" marking land ownership approved by the Virginia Colonial Governor who had to be replaced with Governor John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore . Trans-Allegheny travel had been facilitated when

3135-543: The Alleghenies were formed during the Appalachian orogeny . Because of intense freeze-thaw cycles in the higher Alleghenies, there is little native bedrock exposed in most areas. The ground surface usually rests on a massive jumble of sandstone rocks, with air space between them, that are gradually moving down-slope. The crest of the Allegheny Front is an exception, where high bluffs are often exposed. Mineral springs in

3230-524: The Alleghenies. The first permanent European settlers west of the Alleghenies have traditionally been considered to have been two New Englanders: Jacob Marlin and Stephen Sewell, who arrived in the Greenbrier Valley in 1749. They built a cabin together at what would become Marlinton, West Virginia , but after disputing over religion, Sewell moved into a nearby hollowed-out sycamore tree. In 1751, surveyor John Lewis (father of Andrew Lewis ) discovered

3325-1032: The Atlantic seaboard. The highest ridges of the Alleghenies are just west of the Front, which has an east/west elevational change of up to 3,000 feet (910 m). Absolute elevations of the Allegheny Highlands reach nearly 5,000 feet (1,500 m), with the highest elevations in the southern part of the range. The highest point in the Allegheny Mountains is Spruce Knob (4,863 ft; 1,482 m), on Spruce Mountain in West Virginia . Other notable Allegheny highpoints include Thorny Flat on Cheat Mountain (4,848 ft; 1,478 m), Bald Knob on Back Allegheny Mountain (4,842 ft; 1,476 m), and Mount Porte Crayon (4,770 ft; 1,450 m), all in West Virginia; Dans Mountain (2,898 ft; 883 m) in Maryland, Backbone Mountain (3,360 ft; 1,020 m),

3420-604: The B&;O Railroad. The Battle of Rich Mountain (July 11, 1861) gave the Federals control of the turnpike, of Tygart's Valley, and of all of the territory of western Virginia to the north and west, including the railroad. (Union General George McClellan 's victory in this theater would ultimately bring him promotion to commander the Army of the Potomac .) The Federals fortified at Cheat Summit , and

3515-517: The B&O traversed the Alleghenies, changing the economy and society of the Mountains forever. The B&O had reached Martinsburg, (West) Virginia by May 1842, Hancock, (West) Virginia , by June, Cumberland, Maryland, on November 5, 1842, Piedmont, (West) Virginia on July 21, 1851, and Fairmont, (West) Virginia on June 22, 1852. (It finally reached its Ohio River terminus at Wheeling, (West) Virginia on January 1, 1853.) The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal — also begun in 1828, but at Georgetown —

3610-434: The Bellefonte & Snow Shoe that would construct it. A serious wreck occurred on the railroad on June 11, 1878, when the Miller's Spring Trestle collapsed under the southbound mixed train from Snow Shoe to Bellefonte and it fell 55 feet (17 m) into a ravine. One passenger was killed, and two passengers and four crewmen were injured. The Bellefonte & Snow Shoe ended its independent operation in January 1881, when it

3705-423: The Bellefonte & Snow Shoe turned onto its own tracks. It followed the valley of Wallace Run through Gum Stump , and, at the forks of Wallace Run, climbed the side of a mountain by a series of switchbacks . The line continued climbing through Rhoads following the edges of the Jonathan Run and South Fork Beech Creek gorges, crossing the latter and winding through Fountain to reach Snow Shoe. The total length of

3800-415: The Big Sandy Coal Company near Shettleston . The Big Sandy Branch , built in 1915, left the Sugar Camp Branch along Big Sandy Run and climbed out of its valley and along that of an unnamed tributary, extending 2.41 miles (3.88 km) to Lehigh Valley Coal Co. #25 Mine. However, the railroad was soon to pass into a decline. The Fountain branch had already been removed by 1923. The Great Depression caused

3895-407: The Confederates established strongholds at Camp Bartow and Camp Allegheny . Here they faced each other warily through the fall of 1861 and the following winter. General Robert E. Lee 's attempt to attack Cheat Summit Fort (September 12–15, 1861) and Federal attempts to attack Bartow and Allegheny, all failed to change the strategic stalemate. Finally, the harsh, high elevation winter achieved what

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3990-744: The High Alleghenies attracted Native Americans and 18th century white settlers and provided a modest incentive to the local economy. The spas developing around these geological features include celebrated resorts that continue to cater to an exclusive clientele, such as The Greenbrier ( White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia ; hotel built 1858) and The Homestead ( Hot Springs, Virginia ; original lodge built 1766). The High Alleghenies are noted for their forests of red spruce , balsam fir , and mountain ash , trees typically found much farther north. Hardwood forests also include yellow birch , sugar and red maple , eastern hemlock , and black cherry . American beech , pine and hickory can also be found. The forests of

4085-443: The Mississippi River. Following Cedar Creek through the Natural Bridge , they floated in buffalo-skin boats down the New , Coal , Kanawha , and Ohio Rivers to the Mississippi. Although captured by the French before he reached Natchez , Howard was eventually released and (in 1745) was interviewed by Fairfax. Howard's description of the South Branch Potomac River resulted in the definite decision by Fairfax to secure his lands in

4180-440: The Monongahela were of Algonquin origin.... Other scholars have suggested that Iroquoian speakers were interacting with Late Monongahela people, and additional evidence is presented to confirm this. I conclude that the archaeologically conceived term, Monongahela, likely encompasses speakers of several languages, including Siouan." According to Dr Maslowski of West Virginia in 2009: "The New River Drainage and upper Potomac represents

4275-419: The Montaine sites in the Tygart Valley . Small groups of Montaine people appear to have lingered much beyond their classically defined period in parts of the most mountainous valleys. The watershed of the Monongahela River is within the northwestern Alleghenies, and it is from it that the Monongahela culture takes its name. The Godwin-Portman site (36AL39) located in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania , had

4370-463: The New York Central, responded to the challenge by developing a plan to enter the Clearfield Coalfield , hitherto the exclusive preserve of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Vanderbilts would provide capital to a syndicate of Tioga coal operators and businessmen of the Clearfield area, incorporated as the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Company , who could acquire coal lands without arousing suspicion. The Fall Brook's rail network, extended down Pine Creek by

4465-410: The Ouasioto Mountains and the earliest term Canaraguy (Kanawhans otherwise Canawest ) on the 1671 French map occupied the southerly Alleghenies. They were associated with the Allegheny "Cherokee" and Eastern Siouan as trade-movers and canoe transporters. The Calicuas, an ancient most northern Cherokee, migrated or was pushed from the Central Ohio Valley onto the north eastern slopes of the Alleghenies of

4560-420: The Railroad had already arrived eight years before. Debt-ridden, the Canal company dropped its plan to continue construction of the next 180 miles (290 km) of the Canal into the Ohio Valley. The company had long realized—especially with the difficult experience of digging the Paw Paw Tunnel —that the original plan of construction over the mountains and all the way down the Youghiogheny River to Pittsburgh

4655-491: The Shenandoah Valley and the Allegheny Mountains beyond. The proto-historic Alleghenies can be exampled by the earliest journals of the colonists. According to Batts and Fallows' September, 1671 Expedition, they found Mehetan Indians of Mountain "Cherokee-Iroquois" mix on the New River tributaries. This journal does not identify the "Salt Village", but, that the "Mehetan" were associated with these and today thought to be " Monetons ", Siouans. However, this journal does not identify

4750-410: The USGS classification of physical geography ( physiography ), the Allegheny Mountain range is part of the Appalachian Plateau province of the Appalachian Highlands physiographic division. The name is derived from the Allegheny River , which drains only a small portion of the Alleghenies in west-central Pennsylvania. The meaning of the word, which comes from the Lenape (Delaware) Native Americans,

4845-498: The United States lists the Allegheny Mountains as a section within the larger Appalachian Plateau province. It may be generally defined to the south by the Allegheny Front , and to the east by the Susquehanna River valley. To the west, the Alleghenies grade down into the dissected Allegheny Plateau. The westernmost ridges are considered to be the Laurel Highlands and Chestnut Ridge in Pennsylvania , and Laurel Mountain and Rich Mountain in West Virginia . Big Stone Ridge marks

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4940-442: The Vanderbilts and George Magee of the Fall Brook Coal Company, to whom most of that stock was then transferred starting in January 1883. Construction began at the end of 1882, starting at the town of Beech Creek and proceeding west along the creek to Mountaintop, in the vicinity of Snow Shoe . The company changed its name to the Beech Creek, Clearfield, and South Western Railroad on March 20, 1883. Around this time, it increased

5035-481: The ancient Messawomeake, Iroquois tradesmen to 1630s Kent Island, by 1710 maps. Sometime before 1712, the Canawest ("Kanawhans"-"Canallaway"-"Canaragay") had moved to the upper Potomac and made a Treaty with the newly established trading post of Fort Conolloway which would become a part of western Maryland during the 1740s. Prior to European exploration and settlement, trails through the Alleghenies had been transited for many generations by American Indian tribes such as

5130-443: The bituminous coalfields, making it vulnerable to action both by the coal operators who mined the coal and rivals like the Pennsylvania Railroad , who carried it. The coal operators of Tioga County, Pennsylvania , some of whom already shipped over the New York Central via the Fall Brook Coal Company 's railroad system, faced irrepressible labor troubles and the impending exhaustion of their mines. William H. Vanderbilt , president of

5225-415: The bore was holed through on October 30. It was ready for rail traffic by the middle of the next year. 2 miles (3 km) further west, the line crossed the creek on an iron viaduct 112 feet (34.1 m) high, opened for service on November 11, 1884. The company failed and was sold to the newly organized Beech Creek Railroad on June 29, 1886. The New York Central and Hudson River Railroad officially leased

5320-506: The closure of most of the coal mines in the area, and the Big Sandy Branch was abandoned in 1935. A fire brick manufacturer near Clarence and the remaining coal mines still provided some business to the line, but the mine branches continued to be pruned back. On March 6, 1959, the entire line from Wingate north was abandoned. Allegheny Mountains The Allegheny Mountain Range ( / ˌ æ l ɪ ˈ ɡ eɪ n i / AL -ig- AY -nee ; also spelled Alleghany or Allegany ), informally

5415-419: The colonial Alleghenian location of only a few other early colonial trading locations. A general knowledge of these few outposts are more of traditional telling of some local people. However, an example is the "Van Metre" trading house mentioned in an earlier edition of the "Wonderful West Virginia Magazine" being on the South Branches of the upper reaches of the Potomac. Another very early trading house appears on

5510-420: The company was changed to the Bellefonte and Snowshoe Railroad Company on March 24, 1859, shortly before a ceremonial opening on 21 June 1859, featuring a special train from Bellefonte to Clarks , then the terminus of the line. It would be extended to Snow Shoe later in the year, and regular passenger service begun in December. The railroad's operations began at Bellefonte, site of coal-hungry iron furnaces and

5605-507: The eastern United States. Naturalist John James Audubon reported that by 1851 a few eastern elk ( Cervus canadensis canadiensis ) could still be found in the Alleghany Mountains but that by then they were virtually gone from the remainder of their range. Mammals in the Allegheny region today include whitetail deer , chipmunk , raccoon , skunk , groundhog , opossum , weasel , field mouse , flying squirrel , cottontail rabbit , gray foxes , red foxes , gray squirrels , red squirrels and

5700-521: The entire region are now almost all second- or third-growth forests , the original trees having been removed in the late 19th and (in West Virginia) early 20th centuries. The wild onion known as the ramp ( Allium tricoccum ) is also present in the deeper forests. Certain isolated areas in the High Alleghenies are well known for their open expanses of sphagnum bogs and heath shrubs (e.g., Dolly Sods , Cranberry Glades ). Many plant communities are indeed similar to those of sea-level eastern Canada. But

5795-417: The head of navigation on the Bald Eagle & Spring Creek canal. Using the tracks of the Tyrone and Lock Haven, it passed north through the narrow valley of Spring Creek to reach the Bald Eagle Valley at Milesburg. The Tyrone and Lock Haven was intended to stretch north up the valley to Lock Haven and south to Tyrone, but only a little grading had been accomplished north of Milesburg or south of Wingate, where

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5890-479: The heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!" The Flight 93 National Memorial is located at the site of the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 —which was hijacked in the September 11 attacks —in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania , about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Shanksville . The memorial honors the passengers and crew of Flight 93, who stopped Al-Qaeda terrorists from reaching their intended target. Beech Creek Railroad The Beech Creek Railroad

5985-404: The highest point in Maryland; Mount Davis (3,213 ft; 979 m), the highest point in Pennsylvania, and the second highest, Blue Knob (3,146 ft; 959 m). There are very few sizable cities in the Alleghenies. The four largest are (in descending order of population): Altoona , State College , Johnstown (all in Pennsylvania) and Cumberland (in Maryland). In the 1970s and '80s,

6080-435: The ill-fated Braddock expedition four years later. In addition to the war, hunting and trading with Indians were primary motivations for white movement across the mountains. Permanent white settlement of the northern Alleghenies was facilitated by the explorations and stories of such noted Marylanders as the Indian fighter and trader Thomas Cresap (1702–90) and the backwoodsman and hunter Meshach Browning (1781–1859). In

6175-408: The irony that geh is also Iroquoian for "of the." So, most likely, Alligehni, or Oligini, would probably be the Lenape name for the original homeland of the Erie people. The word "Allegheny" was once commonly used to refer to the whole of what are now called the Appalachian Mountains . John Norton used it (spelled variously) around 1810 to refer to the mountains in Tennessee and Georgia . Around

6270-448: The late 18th century, a massive migration to the Monongahela River basin took place over three main routes: along the old Braddock Road via Winchester, Virginia ; through the Shenandoah Valley to the head of the Cheat River and from there to the Monongahela; and along the Lincoln Highway to Ligonier, Pennsylvania , and thence along Jacob's Creek to the Monongahela. These immigrants were predominantly Scotch-Irish , German , and, to

6365-459: The line, from Wingate to Snow Shoe, was 20.26 miles (32.61 km) long. As new mines opened up in the region, extensions to the railroad began to be built. A line built in 1861 from Snow Shoe north, then west to Gillintown and Moshannon (also known as Per Se) was incorporated on April 11, 1863 as the Moshannon Railroad , and appears to have been operated as part of the Bellefonte and Snow Shoe, adding 2.00 miles (3.22 km) to that road. In

6460-406: The lower streams of the Alleghenies. The Mohetan representative through a Siouan translator explained to Mr Batts and Mr Fallon, Colonel Abraham Woods explorers 1671–2, that he (Moheton Native American ) could not say much about the people below the "Salt Village" because they (Mountain Cherokee) were not associated with them. The Mohetan was armed by this time of 1671 for the Mohetan Representative

6555-470: The meantime, the Pennsylvania Railroad had taken control of the Tyrone and Lock Haven, reorganized in 1861 as the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad , and begun to extend it up and down the valley. In 1863, it was completed south from Wingate to Vail , where it reached the PRR-controlled Tyrone and Clearfield Railroad , and in 1865, the line was finished from Milesburg to Lock Haven . The Bellefonte & Snow Shoe continued to improve its physical plant, stringing

6650-573: The mountains during the warmer seasons. Occasionally, osprey and eagles can be found nesting along the streams. The hawks and owls are the most common birds of prey . The water habitats of the Alleghenies hold 24 families of fish. Amphibian species number about 21, among them hellbenders , lungless salamanders , and various toads and frogs . The Alleghenies provide habitat for about 54 species of common invertebrate . These include Gastropoda , slugs , leech , earthworms and grub worm . Cave crayfish ( Cambarus nerterius ) live alongside

6745-422: The pair. Sewell eventually settled on the eastern side of Sewell Mountain, near present-day Rainelle, West Virginia . They may well have been the first to settle what was then called the "western waters"— i.e. , in the regions where streams flowed westward to the Gulf of Mexico rather than eastward to the Atlantic. Among the first whites to penetrate into the Allegheny Mountains were surveyors attempting to settle

6840-492: The range of the Huffman Phase (Page) hunting and gathering area or when it is found in small amounts on village sites, trade ware or Page women being assimilated into another village (tribe)." Finally, according to Prof Potter of Virginia, they [the people represented by the Huffman Phase of Page pottery] had occupied the eastern slopes of the Alleghenies on the upper Potomac to the northern, lower Shenandoah Valley region before

6935-405: The region, but most of the revenues flowed out of the mountains to the cities of the eastern seaboard where the captains of industry were headquartered. This inequity created a bitter legacy that would last for generations and form the foundation of the mountaineers' poverty and the area's immense environmental degradation . The most momentous disaster to afflict the people of the Alleghenies

7030-652: The region. An expedition under Peter Jefferson and Thomas Lewis in the following year emplaced the " Fairfax Stone " at the source of the North Branch and established a line of demarcation (the " Fairfax Line ") extending from the stone south-east to the headwaters of the Rappahannock River . Lewis' journal of that expedition provides a valuable view of the Allegheny country before its settlement. Jefferson and Joshua Fry 's "Fry-Jefferson Map" of 1751 accurately depicted

7125-519: The reservoir known as Lake Conemaugh . (This body of water had been built as part of the Main Line of Public Works , then abandoned.) With a flow rate that temporarily equalled that of the Mississippi River , the flood killed 2,209 people and caused US$ 17 million of damage (about $ 425 million in 2012 dollars). The American Red Cross , led by Clara Barton and with 50 volunteers, undertook

7220-610: The rugged western-central portion of the Appalachians . They rise to approximately 4,862 feet (1,482 m) in northeastern West Virginia. In the east, they are dominated by a high, steep escarpment known as the Allegheny Front . In the west, they slope down into the closely associated Allegheny Plateau , which extends into Ohio and Kentucky . The principal settlements of the Alleghenies are Altoona , State College , and Johnstown, Pennsylvania ; and Cumberland, Maryland . Using

7315-451: The same route that the Susquehanna and South Western would take, but never initiated construction. The Pennsylvania may have been influenced by a report from one of their civil engineers, Camille d'Invilliers, prepared in December 1883, which suggested that the Moshannon seam was being exhausted in the older collieries in the Philipsburg and Houtzdale area. Coal from the Moshannon seam enjoyed

7410-522: The same time, Washington Irving proposed renaming the United States either "Appalachia" or "Alleghania". In 1861, Arnold Henry Guyot published the first systematic geologic study of the whole mountain range. His map labeled the range as the "Alleghanies", but his book was titled On the Appalachian Mountain System . As late as 1867, John Muir —in his book A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf —used

7505-602: The southern extent of the Alleghenies and is an outlier of Flat Top Mountain , with the Tug Fork river running along its western flank. The land to the south and to the west of the Alleghenies is the Valley and Ridge physiographic province. The eastern edge of the Alleghenies is marked by the Allegheny Front , which is also sometimes considered the eastern terminus of the Allegheny Plateau . This great escarpment roughly follows

7600-441: The stock issue to $ 5,000,000 and issued an additional $ 5,000,000 in fifty-year bonds. The Clearfield Bituminous Coal Company signed a contract to ship exclusively over the new railroad, and George Magee was appointed general contractor for construction. The new line was built to high standards in anticipation of heavy coal traffic. It eschewed severe grades, at the cost of extensive curvature and bridges as it followed Beech Creek, and

7695-455: The troops had failed to accomplish, and in the spring of 1862 both armies moved on down the pike to the Battle of McDowell (May 8, 1862), and then on to fight what became General Stonewall Jackson 's Shenandoah Valley Campaign (spring 1862). Two years later, much of this contested area (along with much else) became part of the new state of West Virginia . The very rugged terrain of the Alleghenies

7790-569: The western valleys of the central Allegheny range. The Montaine sites extend from the tributaries of the upper Potomac River region south to the New River tributaries. These also were influenced by the earlier Armstrong culture of the more southwestern portions northern sub-range of the Ouasioto (Cumberland) Mountains and by the more easterly Virginia Woodland people. The Late Woodland Montaine were less influenced by Hopewellian trade from Ohio, although similarly polished stone tools have been found among

7885-620: The word "Alleghanies" in referring to the southern Appalachians. There was no general agreement about the "Appalachians" versus the "Alleghanies" until the late 19th century. From northeast to southwest, the Allegheny Mountains run about 300 miles (480 km). From west to east, at their widest, they are about 100 miles (160 km). When combining the Allegheny Province with the Kanawa Province, they run 400 miles (640 km). The USGS physiographic classification of all land in

7980-618: Was "wildly unrealistic". Public works financed at the state level were not lacking during this period. The Main Line of Public Works was a transportation network project built between 1826 and 1834 by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania . It created a railroad and canal system across southern Pennsylvania between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh , intended to transport freight (notably including anthracite coal ) and people with greater reliability, speed and capacity. The Main Line of Public Works included

8075-521: Was William Wallace's law partner; Reading, a wealthy banker, was Gazzam's father-in-law. William Wallace was appointed president. The railroad selected Samuel Brugger as its locating engineer: an experienced civil engineer, he had recently surveyed part of the same route on behalf of the Pennsylvania and Western Railroad , an independent vehicle of New York speculators which did not succeed in laying track. This allowed him to quickly complete his survey, which

8170-502: Was also a public work of enormous economic and social significance for the Alleghenies. It approached Hancock, Maryland , by 1839. From the beginning, the B&O Railroad and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal operated in bitter legal and commercial competition with one another as they vied for rights to the narrow strips of land along the Potomac. When the Canal finally reached Cumberland in 1850,

8265-410: Was an ally of the New York Central in penetrating the coalfield, suggesting that the Pennsylvania and New York Central came to an understanding to allow the Beech Creek's construction. The Susquehanna and South Western financed its construction with the issue of $ 4,000,000 in stock. Nearly all of the initial issue was purchased by William Wallace, Peale, and Reading, but these purchases were financed by

8360-489: Was approved by the board in September 1882. The Pennsylvania Railroad did relatively little to block the construction of the Susquehanna and South Western. The failed Pennsylvania and Western had induced the Pennsylvania to charter the Lock Haven and Clearfield Railroad in 1879, which would have built from their Bald Eagle Valley Railroad at the mouth of Beech Creek to their Tyrone and Clearfield Railroad at Philipsburg ,

8455-788: Was built in 1903, 1.32 miles (2.12 km) in length, crossing the Beech Creek Railroad to serve Lehigh Valley Coal Co. #14 Mine. On March 31, 1908, the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad was at last merged into the PRR, including the Snow-Shoe and other branches. The PRR would construct a few more mine branches, extending the Sugar Camp Branch 3.87 miles (6.23 km) in 1914 and 1915. The extension continued east out of Clarence, then climbed steeply north to Poorman Side , then descended along Contrary Run and (Big) Sandy Run to Cherry Run #4 Mine of

8550-524: Was constructed to provide a direct route for the settlements of the Shenandoah Valley to the Ohio River by way of the Tygart Valley and Little Kanawha Rivers. Planned and approved in 1826 and completed in 1848, the Staunton and Parkersburg was maintained by fees (tolls) collected at toll houses placed at regular intervals. Construction on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad began at Baltimore in 1828;

8645-555: Was given several pouches of ammunition for his and the other's weapons as a token of friendship. Somebody had already been trading within the central Alleghenies before the Virginians historical record begins in the Allegheny Mountains. Some earlier scholars found evidence these Proto-historics were either Cistercians of Spanish Ajacan Occuquan outpost on the Potomac River or Jesuits and their Kahnawake Praying Indians ( Mohawk ) on

8740-416: Was not at all amenable to a large-scale maneuver war and so the actions that the area witnessed for the remainder of the conflict were generally guerrilla in nature. With the further spread of the railroad networks in the 1890s and early 1900s, many new towns developed and thrived in the Alleghenies. The lumbering and coal industries that boomed in the wake of the railroads brought a measure of prosperity to

8835-504: Was originally chartered as the Susquehanna and South Western Railroad on August 12, 1882. That company's charter called for a 100-mile (160 km) line from Williamsport, Pennsylvania to the southern line of Clearfield County . The proposed line was initiated with the backing of the New York Central Railroad , as part of a far-reaching strategy to ensure access to bituminous coal reserves. The New York Central did not itself extend into

8930-662: Was sold to the Bald Eagle Valley Railroad, long a subsidiary of the PRR. The Bellefonte & Snow Shoe and the Moshannon Railroads were merged into the Bald Eagle Valley on April 7, 1881 to become the Snow-Shoe Branch . Several new branches were built off the line under Bald Eagle Valley management to reach nearby coal mines. Two were constructed in 1890. The Sugar Camp Branch diverged 0.8 miles (1.3 km) north of Snow Shoe and ran north, then turned west and rounded

9025-584: Was the Johnstown Flood —locally known as the "Great Flood of 1889"—which occurred on May 31 of that year after the catastrophic failure of the South Fork Dam on the Little Conemaugh River 14 miles (23 km) upstream of the town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania . The dam broke after several days of extremely heavy rainfall, unleashing 20 million tons of water (18 million cubic meters) from

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