Shamokin and Shikellamy
In 1727, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the People of the long house, took control of the lands of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. The new southern border was administered from Shamokin (the Place of Eels) at the confluence of the forks of the Susquehanna River (modern Sunbury, Packers Island, and Northumberland). Shamokin was one of the most important Indigenous cities in Pennsylvania during the first half of the 18th century and had a reputation for rowdiness. The resident Haudenosaunee welcomed displaced tribes to shelter under their Tree of Peace, including, Conestoga, Conoy, Nanticoke, Tutelo, Saponi, Occaneechi, Tuscarora, Lenape and their king, and the rebellious Shawnee, making for a volatile atmosphere, made even more incendiary with visits by their British trading partners.
Canoe routes and about ten Indigenous paths converged on the town, including important highways to Indigenous cities like the Great Warriors Path to Tioga and the Haudenosaunee homelands in New York, the Great Shamokin Path to Kittanning, the Paxtang Path to Harrisburg, the Penns Creek Path to Frankstown; the Tuscarora Path to North Carolina; and also the Tulpehocken Path which led through Conrad Weiser’s hometown and on to the capital of the Provence of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia.
In 1728, the Haudenosaunee sent an overseer from the Oneida, the People of the standing stone, to be the eyes and ears of the confederacy and to insure peace between the Indigenous people and the European colonists. This intermediary had many titles attributed to him, like ambassador, interpreter, diplomat, negotiator, half-king, emperor, viceroy, and magistrate, and also multiple names, but is most famous as Shikellamy, “our enlightener.”
Known to be level-headed, honest, fair, kind, and trustworthy, Shikellamy used persuasion and common sense to quell rumors and brewing hostilities. He facilitated trade and judged disputes between the shifting arrays of peoples. He was present at most treaties and land sales negotiated with the Provence of Pennsylvania at that time, and even some treaties with Maryland and Virginia, preventing a war between the Haudenosaunee and powerful tribes from Virginia and North Carolina. He permitted the Moravians (German Christians) to build a mission in Shamokin. Shikellamy requested a blacksmith for Shamokin, and when the Moravians supplied a smith, Shikellamy helped build the shop.
In 1731, Shikellamy met a German settler named Conrad Weiser, who knew the culture and customs of the Haudenosaunee, and knew the language of the Mohawks, Keepers of the eastern door. A year later, Shikellamy took Weiser to Philadelphia to be his translator to the provincial government. This began a long and fruitful partnership between the two who made many trips around Pennsylvania and between Onondaga (NY), Shamokin, and Philadelphia, which helped bind the powerful Haudenosaunee Confederacy and Pennsylvania in a chain of friendship. This favoritism soured the provincial government’s relationships with the Lenape and the Shawnee.
Shikellamy received another title in 1745 and was made a sub regent of the Haudenosaunee Confederation, exercising control over all Indigenous people in the Susquehanna Valley.
Shikellamy converted to Christianity in 1748, the same year he died of an illness. Shikellamy was buried along the Susquehanna River in a location that has faded out of memory, unlike the memory of the man that still inspires peaceful relations between different cultures.
Shikellamy was married and is believed to have had at least five children, one he named for James Logan, the provincial secretary of Pennsylvania. One son became a powerful chief of the Mingos, and the reputed author of the famous speech “Logan’s Lament.”
After the nearby massacre at Penns Creek in 1755, the Moravians abandoned their mission. The formerly important city of Shamokin burned to the ground and was abandoned.
Sunbury and Fort Augusta
With the start of the French and Indian War in 1754, the Susquehanna Valley became the front line with constant rumors of invasion by the French and their Indigenous allies, including the Shawnee and Lenape, who were a constant threat to British settlers.
In 1756, Colonel Clapham and 400 troops marched upriver and began building Fort Augusta on the ashes of Shamokin. The fort was named for the daughter-in-law of King George II. At its peak, the fort was 200 feet across, had 16 canons, four bastions, a dry moat, and officers and soldiers quarters. Four blockhouses and a stockade made a protected path to the river. Today, all that remains of the fort are the well and powder magazine.
Although never directly besieged, there were constant rumors of an impending attack and the fort was often loosely encircled by hostile forces and snipers that ambushed incautious soldiers. Groups of soldiers also left the fort to attack nearby Indigenous towns.
The war ended in 1763 and tensions in the area cooled, then flared up again during the American Revolution when the fort was a base for American soldiers and an important place of refuge. The Haudenosaunee sided with the British, making 1778-1779 particularly tragic with attacks and reprisals on both sides. Not until the 1784 land purchase by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania did the violence diminish as many of the Indigenous people in Pennsylvania moved west or north.
The nearby town of Sunbury was founded in 1772. The no longer needed Fort Augusta was dismantled.
Crossing the River
Early people in the area used canoes and later bateaux boats to cross the river and haul supplies. As the population grew, the need to cross the river increased, leading to the first ferry operated by Robert King in 1772, soon followed by others. A log dam built in 1821 made the river deep enough for steamboats. In addition to being ferries, steamboats sometimes hauled canal boats across the river, and caught canal boats that escaped due to strong currents. In 1859, Ira Clement opened a steamboat ferry company which also offered evening leisure activities with musicians and floating dance floors towed behind the boats.
In 1813, the Northumberland Bridge Company built the first bridge which connected Sunbury and Packers Island. A covered bridge followed in 1831 and spanned from Northumberland to the west shore. Built primarily to get the mules from the North Branch canal to the West Branch canal, a second lane was for public traffic. When the canal closed, the bridge became two public lanes. The wooden bridge survived in use until 1923 when it burned. Reports claim that it burned in as little as 20 minutes, and up to 50 minutes.
Packers Island
In 1784, Mungo Reed purchased the island from the Penns for $1,413. He soon sold it and the island changed hands many times over the years, with farming being the main use. When John Packer purchased the island in 1877, there were three homes, buildings, farm fields, and also a railroad bridge and public bridges connecting the island to the two shores. Packer’s son, James, built a one-mile horse sulky racetrack on the north end of the island.
In 1894, Packer opened Island Park as an “easily accessible pleasure ground” which had a stop for the new Sunbury and Northumberland Electric line (trolly). Today’s swings are reminiscent of the ones pictured in postcards from that era. The park closed in 1911. The park was planned to reopen multiple times, but did not until 1923. The new park had a ballroom, swimming pool, and even a roller coaster, but closed in 1934. The ballroom continued to host concerts and dances, before becoming a skating rink. The Island Amusement Center hosted concerts and mini golf until at least 1977.
In 2016, an observation area on the southern point of Packers Island was named Kury Point, honoring Franklin Kury, the Pennsylvania representative and senator who authored the Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution.
Article 1, Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustees of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.
An Accidental Airport
In the earliest days of airmail, weather forced two pilots to land in a farmer’s field on the north end of Packer’s Island. Shortly thereafter, the U. S. Department of Commerce designated the island an official emergency stop for aircraft and established a charted airfield on the farm. On February 26, 1926, the Post Office Department assigned the first caretaker and weather observer to the Sunbury Intermediate Field. He worked in a small 12’ x 12’ building which had phone service to Bellefonte. In 1929, Amelia Earhart encountered weather that forced her to land at the airport. Eventually airplanes improved enough to render the airfield unnecessary for airmail, but the airport continues to operate to this day.
Blue Hill
The earliest name known for the Shikellamy Overlook side of the park is Blue Hill, said to be because of the color of the hill against the western sky. A huckleberry picking party in 1775 described the hill as “so high and so steep,” and “covered in shrubby pines.”
The Leaning Tower of Pennsylvania
Built in 1839 by John Mason the reclusive farmer who owned the top of Blue Hill, the two-story, wooden tower projected out and up from the clifftop and gave panoramic views of the confluence of river branches. Mason was buried on the hilltop in 1849, but the exact location has been lost to history. Fifteen years after the death of the “Recluse of Blue Hill,” vandal railroad workers broke the support cables, sending the tower crashing to the ground 360 feet below.
Hotel with a View
In 1890, construction began on Hotel Shikellamy on top of the cliff. This summer resort opened in 1891 and had three gabled roofs, large porches, ballroom, billiard room, smoking room, writing room, and bowling alley. The hotel burned down in the spring of 1898, but was never rebuilt as it was not financially viable.
The State Park
Shikellamy State Park opened in 1962 and was the overlook on Blue Hill. As part of the creation of the dam on the river, part of Packers Island was purchased and was added to Shikellamy State Park. The Marina on Packer’s Island opened in 1972 and the dedication included water skiing shows, a rock concert, and fireworks.
Adam T. Bower Memorial Dam
The old log dam was swept away by ice in 1904, making the river only navigable at higher water levels. In 1958, the local tourism board suggested damming the river to create a lake for recreation. Due to concerns that the dam would create flooding of the nearby towns, the US Army Corps of Engineers vetoed the dam proposal. Maurice K. Goddard, the secretary of the Department of Forests and Waters (now DCNR), suggested a new technology of a fabridam be used. Made of nylon bags attached to a cement base, this inflatable and deflatable dam would allow the dam to be raised and lowered as needed, and the proposal was accepted.
In 1969, the world’s largest fabridam was dedicated. Stretching 2,100 feet across the Susquehanna River, the seven inflatable bags create the seasonal 3,000-acre Lake Augusta. In 2001, the dam was renamed for Adam T. Bower, a member of the House of Representatives and later the chief clerk of the House, who helped get funding for the dam.