January/2011/
Long before
Europeans settled in modern-day Monroe County,
the Lenni Lenape called this area home. These
Native Americans were the first inhabitants of
the Pocono Mountains, having settled in the area
over 10,000 year ago. The name Lenni Lenape
translates into “the original peoples,” and the
term Pocono in the native Lenape tongue means “a
river between two mountains.” Because the Lenape
did not have a written language, their history
was passed from generation to generation by
storytellers. The ancestors of the Lenape, the
true “original peoples,” were said to have come
from the great sea in the west thousands of
years before Christopher Columbus.
Read More...
July/2010/
When Thomas
Penn, one of William Penn's sons, sought
additional lands from native Americans for the
Pennsylvania colony, it was agreed between the
two parties that this new land grant would
contain a tract of land beginning at Wrightstown
and extending northward as far as a man could
walk in one and one-half days. This became known
as the infamous "Walking Purchase."
Read
More...
July/2010/
On Friday, July
2, 2010, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum
Commission, together with the Smithfield
Township Board of Supervisors, the Middle
Smithfield Township Board of Supervisors, and
the Eastern Monroe Regional Commission dedicated
an official State Historical Marker
commemorating the Shawnee/Minisink
Archaeological Site at Rivers Edge Park in
Minisink Hills. Read
More...
February/2010/
An old tale
from Monroe County’s history recounts the legend
of a love between and Indian princess and an
early Dutch settler. The story, which may or may
not be true, was first recorded in Luke W.
Brodhead’s 1870 book, The
Delaware Water Gap, Its Legends and Early
History. As the story
goes, Princess Winona was the beloved and only
daughter of Chief Wissinoming, the noble leader
of the Minisink. While the chief ruled all of
the land along the Delaware and Susquehanna
rivers to the Atlantic Ocean, the headquarters
of the tribe was located near Shawnee Island and
present-day Smithfield Township, Monroe
County. Read More...
September/2009/
The area now
known as East Stroudsburg has a rich and early
history. East Stroudsburg was settled by the
Brodhead family in 1737, while Stroudsburg was
not settled until Jacob Stroud purchased his
first piece of land in 1769. Read More...
November/2005/
The Lenni
Lenape were the first inhabitants of the Pocono
Mountains area. Long before European settlers
called Monroe County home, these Native
Americans occupied the land. Indeed, the name
Lenni Lenape translates into “the original
peoples,” and the term Pocono in the native
Lenape tongue means “a river between two
mountains.” Many times, the Lenape were referred
to as Delaware because they lived along the
Delaware River. The Wolf Clan (also known as
Munsee or Minsi) occupied land in what is now
Monroe County. Their area stretched northward
along the Delaware River from the point where
the Lehigh River meets the Delaware in what is
now Easton. Read More...
