Editing Gallitzin, Pennsylvania (section)

==History==
 
[[Dutch Republic|Dutch]] [[fur trade|traders]] and [[fur trapping|trapper]]s friendly to the Susquehannock may have visited the region about 1620,<ref name="AmHeritageBk">{{cite encyclopedia |year=1961 |title=The American Heritage Book of Indians |publisher=American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc. |url=https://archive.org/details/americanheritage00bran/page/186/mode/2up |editor=Josephy Jr. |editor-first=Alvin M. |page=197 |lccn=61-14871 |quote=Some, maybe many, escaped from the long nightmare to the intact tribes beyond the [colonies'] borders; the Narraganset went to Maine and turn [into] [[Abnaki]] by the hundreds, maybe thousands, after [[King Philip's War]]; and the parade of Tuscarora plodding north to the Iroquois took 100 years to pass.&nbsp; But one after the other of the intact tribes marched to destruction in their turn in the major colonial wars from 1689 to 1763, echoes for the most part of European wars between [[Kingdom of France|France]] and [[Kingdom of England|England]], but in America, fought on the American plan, with as much use as possible of Indian allies.}}</ref> as the town sits atop a [[mountain pass]] through which the ancient Amerindian trails (later renamed the [[Kittanning Path]]) transited. The plateau atop the escarpment was the domain of the [[Iroquoian language|Iroquoian]] confederations of the [[Erie people]] and the [[Susquehannock people]]s,<ref name="AmHeritageBk"/> both sharing the byways and hunting lands of the Allegheny Mountains until about the mid-1650s.<ref name="AmHeritageBk"/><ref>American Heritage's editors present the Erie, Neutrals, Tabacco, and Huron had all been overcome by the Iroquois by around 1649-1656, the Erie being the last to fall in that year. Note the conflict with data of 1662's alliance.</ref>  The Susquehannock and [[Erie people]] are known to have traded through the area, one of the few avenues the Erie, who dominated the hunting lands west of the Alleghenies, had to obtain by firearms; though, by all accounts, all the tribes in contact with the numerous Erie were reluctant to trade them firearms.<ref 
 name=ERIEHIST>[http://www.dickshovel.com/erie.html ERIE HISTORY], http://www.dickshovel.com/erie.html,  2016-0612</ref> Further, Susquehannocks are quoted to have expected 800 Erie warriors in 1662 to join in their war with the Iroquois.<ref 
 name=ERIEHIST2>[http://www.dickshovel.com/erie.html ERIE HISTORY], http://www.dickshovel.com/erie.html,  2016-0612, quote: "In 1662 the Susquehannock told the Dutch they expected 800 Honniasont warriors to join them in their war with the Iroquois. Honniasont is a Iroquoian word meaning "wearing something around the neck" and refers to the Black Mingua habit of wearing a black badge on their chests. The Honniasont (Black Mingua) are believed to have been a division of the Erie that lived around the upper Ohio River in western Pennsylvania. 800 warriors would require a population in excess of 3,000 and may have been an exaggeration (Susquehannock or Dutch). It does, however, indicate that there was a large group still free in 1662, but they were gone by 1679."
</ref><ref>Alternative nicknames of the later [[Mingo]] tribe who definitely lived west of the mountains & shared Iroquoian ancestry with and the commonalities with the Black Mingua name suggest the Erie remnants also became the seed tribe of the new Mingos.</ref> By 1675,  both the Susquehannocks and Erie tribes would both fall to rampant multiple-years of epidemic diseases, in combination with the vicious multi-decade internecine territorial bloodletting known as the [[Beaver Wars]], which left the Alleghenies a remote hunting ground of the [[Five Nations of the Iroquois]] Confederation.
 
By the early 1700s, the [[Delaware people]] still living along the eastern seaboard were increasingly treated as bad or worse than slaves, and displaced clear across the breadth of Pennsylvania to beyond the Allegheny Front, where they settled along the rivers of Western Pennsylvania. One of their larger settlements, and closest to the gaps of the Allegheny, was the [[Kittanning (village)|Amerindian town of Kittanning]]<ref 
 name=ToryExp>{{cite web
 | title     = HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON AND BLAIR COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA, subtitle: '''''The Tory Expedition to Kittanning'''''
 |   pages   = 26 
 |   url     = https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=os0wAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA24
 | publisher = [[J. B. Lippincott & Co.|J.B. Lippincott & Co.]]
 | editor    = LOUIS H. EVERTS
 | location  = Philadelphia
 | author    = J. Simpson Africa
 | date      = 1883
 |quote      = ...a sufficient force to garrison the frontier defenses, a large body of scouts was sent out to traverse the country along the eastern base of the Allegheny Mountain, watch the gaps, and note the approach of the expected invaders.
  }}
</ref> along the middle reaches of the [[Allegheny River]]. These towns would generally ally themselves with the French during the [[French and Indian War]], causing settlers in central Pennsylvania to mount a guard and patrol on the gaps.<ref name="H&BcntiesHist">{{cite web
 | title     = HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON AND BLAIR COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA: The Indians grow Troublesome
 |   pages   = 24
 |   url     = https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=os0wAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA24
 | publisher = [[J. B. Lippincott & Co.|J.B. Lippincott & Co.]]
 | editor    = LOUIS H. EVERTS
 | location  = Philadelphia
 | author    = J. Simpson Africa
 | date      = 1883
 |quote      = On the 30th of the same month, Maj. Robert Cluggage, in writing to Col. Piper from Huntingdon, reports that lurking [[Native Americans in the United States|bands of Indians]] had been at one of the gaps of the Allegheny, and that...
 }}</ref> By the late 1700s, the remnant Seneca and Cayuga that became known as the Ohio Iroquois or [[Mingo]] would have ranged the area, especially because they were known to make their towns along defensible hill tops and kept to the uplands. With iron and coal discovered west of the gaps, white settlers began traveling west through the area around the time the [[American Revolution]] came to a close. By 1824, the visionary [[Main Line of Public Works]] legislation had been debated and signed and the construction of the [[Allegheny Portage Railroad]] soon began aiming to connect Pittsburgh and the [[Ohio Country]] to [[Philadelphia]] by canals. In 1838, this plan was altered to incorporate the rapidly-developing and ever more capable railroad technology. In 1845, the Pennsylvania legislature required the new Pennsylvania Railroad to cross the mountains, and the surveyed route would create Gallitzin, which began life as 'Summit Tunnel'.

A Railroad town standing {{convert|12|mi}} west of [[Altoona, Pennsylvania|Altoona]], it was first incorporated in 1872, and named for [[Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin|Prince Gallitzin]],<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n133 134]}}</ref> who founded the [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] town of [[Loretto, Pennsylvania|Loretto]] in Cambria County. Coal mining, the Pennsylvania Railroad yard in the town center and the production of [[Coke (fuel)|coke]] were important industries. The town still sports an important rail yard with a turning wye for helper engine turnaround and holds two rail tunnels leading east and downward from the yard trackage to the famous [[Horseshoe curve (Pennsylvania)|PRR Horseshoe Curve]], whose upper approaches are within the town.

Gallitzin is listed by the US Census Bureau as part of the [[Johnstown, Pennsylvania|Johnstown]] [[Metropolitan Statistical Area]], although local sources consider it part of the Altoona area, due to being located closer to Altoona than to Johnstown. In 1900, 2,759 people lived in Gallitzin, and by 1910, that number had risen to 3,504 people. As of the [[2010 United States Census]], the borough population was 1,668.<ref name="Census 2010">{{cite web| url=http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/DEC/10_SF1/G001/1600000US4228328| title=Geographic Identifiers: 2010 Demographic Profile Data (G001): Gallitzin borough, Pennsylvania| publisher=U.S. Census Bureau, American Factfinder| access-date=March 12, 2015| archive-url=https://archive.today/20150316171001/http://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/DEC/10_SF1/G001/1600000US4228328| archive-date=March 16, 2015| url-status=dead}}</ref>

Gallitzin is known for its historic [[railroad]] tunnels ([[Gallitzin Tunnel]]s), which are a minor tourist draw. The scenic [[Horseshoe Curve (Pennsylvania)|Horseshoe Curve]] and the [[Allegheny Portage Railroad]] historic site are also nearby situated in different gaps of the Allegheny.