Editing Wheeling, West Virginia (section)

===Arrival of early Europeans===
The origins of the name "Wheeling" are disputed. One of the more credible explanations is that the word comes from the [[Lenni-Lenape]] phrase ''wih link'' or ''wee lunk'', which meant "place of the head" or "place of the skull." This name supposedly referred to a white settler who was scalped and decapitated. His severed head was displayed at the confluence of [[Wheeling Creek (West Virginia)|Wheeling Creek]] and the [[Ohio River]].<ref>Jack M. Weatherford (1991), ''Native Roots: How the Indians Enriched America'', p. 263, {{ISBN|0-449-90713-9}}</ref> Earlier sources say that the head was that of a Native American prisoner, not a settler.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Heckewelder |first1=John |last2=Du Ponceau |first2=Peter S. |title=Names Which the Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians, Who Once Inhabited This Country, Had Given to Rivers, Streams, Places, &c. &c. within the Now States of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia: And Also Names of Chieftains and Distinguished Men of That Nation; With the Significations of Those Names, and Biographical Sketches of Some of Those Men. By the Late Rev. John Heckewelder, of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Communicated to the American Philosophical Society April 5, 1822, and Now Published by Their Order; Revised and Prepared for the Press by Peter S. Du Ponceau |journal=Transactions of the American Philosophical Society |date=1834 |volume=4 |page=371 |doi=10.2307/1004837 |jstor=1004837 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1004837 |access-date=March 29, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Erret |first1=Russell |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=at46AQAAIAAJ |title=Indian Geographical Names |journal=The National Magazine; A Monthly Journal of American History |date=1885 |volume=2 |page=243 |access-date=March 29, 2023}}</ref> Native Americans had inhabited the area for thousands of years. In the 17th century, the Iroquois from present-day New York state [[Beaver Wars|conquered the upper Ohio Valley]], pushing out other tribes and maintaining the area as their hunting ground.

Originally explored by the French, Wheeling still has a lead plate remnant that the explorer [[Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville|Céloron de Blainville]] buried in 1749 at the mouth of Wheeling Creek to mark his claim. Later, [[Christopher Gist]] and [[George Washington]] surveyed the land, in 1751 and 1770, respectively.<ref name="The West Virginia Encyclopedia">{{cite book |editor=Sullivan, Ken| title=The West Virginia Encyclopedia |orig-year=2006 |year= 2006|publisher= West Virginia Humanities Council |isbn= 0-9778498-0-5 }}</ref>