HISTORY & CULTURE
The Native American tribes of the Lenni-Lenape nations were the original
inhabitants of this land and keeper of the beautiful resources.
The Lenape
people lived off the land of eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, southern
New York, and Delaware. Initially they remained friendly with the
first European groups to arrive, William Penn and the English Quakers in
the 17th century. However, when William Penn's sons  implemented
the Walking Purchase Treaty of 1737, it was clear that the European settlers
were pushing the Indians westward. Rt. 413 is the historic
route of the Walking Purchase, when Lappawinze, a Lenape chief shown here
at right, promised the white men all the land they could walk in one day.
The settlers hired a team of runners and in one day claimed 60 miles from
Wrightstown, Bucks County clear up to Jim Thorpe.
Shortly after the Quakers' arrival, other
Dutch, Swedish, and English immigrants also began setting up self-sufficient
manor farms and small market villages as the people took advantage of the
fertile farming soil. Pennsbury
Manor, the home of William Penn, is a prime example of these small,
contained farming and living communites. Irish and Scottish immigrants
began to filter into the area followed by Germans, Welsh, Czechs, Greeks,
Poles, Italians, African-Americans and many other ethnic groups, all bringing
their own hertiage and unique skills along with them, thus adding to the
great diversity of the Corridor.
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courtesy of Bucks County Visitors Bureau
Because of the strength of agriculture in the Delaware Region, most
of the area remained unaffected by the 19th century industry aside from
the use of the canal as a transportation pipeline and the establishment
of small industrial centers such as New Hope
and Yardley along the Delaware River. South of New Hope is Washington
Crossing Historic Park where George Washington made his famous crossing
of the Delaware on Christmas Day, 1776 to attack the British. This
was a turning point in the Revolutionary War.
At the lower end of the Corridor lies the town of Bristol,
the end of the Delaware Canal and a tide
water port, is the oldest town in Bucks County. This area was also
highly agricultural during the canal years but since the 1930s, the area
has been suburbanized and highly developed due to its close proximity to
Philadelphia and Trenton. During this industrial boom, towns like Fairless
and Levittown offered jobs and housing to a myriad of post-war immigrants
in the numerous factories, warehouses, shipyards, mills, and steel plants
that grew up around the region. As with each region, work is being
done to help communities recognize and interpret their heritage (land,
natural resources, culture, and history) through signage, visitor centers,
and, perhaps, more museums.
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