Lock Haven, Pennsylvania

===18th century===
[[File:Big Runaway Map.PNG|thumb|alt=Eleven forts were built along or near the West Branch Susquehanna River between Fort Augusta, near the confluence with the North Branch Susquehanna, and Fort Reid at Lock Haven, near the confluence with Bald Eagle Creek.|Map of fortifications and streams in north-central Pennsylvania during the [[Big Runaway]] during the [[American Revolutionary War]] in June and July 1778]] 
In the early 18th&nbsp;century, a tribal confederacy known as the [[Iroquois|Six Nations of the Iroquois]], headquartered in [[New York (state)|New York]], ruled the Indian (Native American) tribes of Pennsylvania, including those who lived near what would become Lock Haven. Indian settlements in the area included three [[Lenape|Munsee]] villages on the {{convert|325|acre|km2|adj=on}} Great Island in the West Branch Susquehanna River at the mouth of Bald Eagle Creek. Four Indian trails, the [[Great Island Path]], the [[Great Shamokin Path]], the [[Bald Eagle Creek Path]], and the [[Sinnemahoning Path]], crossed the island, and a fifth, [[Logan's Path]], met Bald Eagle Creek Path a few miles upstream near the mouth of [[Fishing Creek (Bald Eagle Creek)|Fishing Creek]].{{sfn|Wallace|1987|p=frontispiece (map)}} During the [[French and Indian War]] (1754–63), colonial militiamen on the [[Kittanning Expedition]] destroyed Munsee property on the Great Island and along the West Branch. By 1763, the Munsee had abandoned their island villages and other villages in the area.{{sfn|Miller|1966|p=4}}<ref>The earliest recorded inhabitants of the West Branch Susquehanna River valley were the [[Susquehannock]]s, but they were wiped out by disease and warfare with the Iroquois, and the few members left moved west or were assimilated into other tribes by 1675. After that the Iroquois, who were the nominal rulers of the land but mostly lived in [[New York (state)|New York]] to the north, invited tribes displaced by European settlers to move into the region. These included the Lenape (Delaware), [[Shawnee]], and others. Generally, they moved west into the [[Ohio River]] Valley. For more information see Wallace, Paul A.W. (2005). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=4ryqOZkO1LUC Indians in Pennsylvania]'' (Second ed., revised by William A. Hunter). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.{{OCLC|1744740}} (Note: OCLC refers to the 1961 First Edition). Retrieved on December 21, 2009.</ref>

With the signing of the first [[Treaty of Fort Stanwix]] in 1768, the British gained control from the Iroquois of lands south of the West Branch. However, European settlers continued to appropriate land, including tracts in and near the future site of Lock Haven, not covered by the treaty. 

In 1769, Cleary Campbell, the first European settler in the area, built a log cabin near the present site of [[Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania]], and by 1773 William Reed, another settler, had built a cabin surrounded by a stockade and called it Reed's Fort.{{sfn|Miller|1966|pp=18, 23}} It was the westernmost of 11 mostly primitive forts along the West Branch; [[Fort Augusta]], located by the confluence of the [[North Branch Susquehanna River|East (or North)]] and [[West Branch Susquehanna River|West]] branches of the Susquehanna at what is now [[Sunbury, Pennsylvania|Sunbury]], was the easternmost and most defensible. In response to settler incursions, and encouraged by the British during the [[American Revolution]] (1775–83), Indians attacked colonists and their settlements along the West Branch. Fort Reed and the other European settlements in the area were temporarily abandoned in 1778 during a general evacuation known as the [[Big Runaway]]. Hundreds of people fled along the river to Fort Augusta, about {{convert|50|mi|km|sigfig=1}} from Fort Reed; some did not return for five years.{{sfn|Miller|1966|p=28}} In 1784, the second [[Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784)|Treaty of Fort Stanwix]], between the Iroquois and the United States, transferred most of the remaining Indian territory in Pennsylvania, including what would become Lock Haven, to the state.<ref name = "2nd Stanwix"/> The U.S. acquired the last remaining tract, the [[Erie Triangle]], through a separate treaty and sold it to Pennsylvania in 1792.<ref name = "2nd Stanwix">{{cite book|last = Day | first = Sherman | title = Historical collections of the State of Pennsylvania  |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ePzzh7IIPjAC&q=treaty%20of%20fort%20stanwix%201784&pg=PA449 | publisher = George W. Gorton | place = Philadelphia | year = 1843 | format = Google Books online reprint | pages = 315–16| access-date = October 11, 2009}}</ref>