Blank Hi everyone! Last night on my way to Renovo, I happened to remember the indian statue that stands on top of the rock mountain below Sinnemahoning. (I always have to think about the spelling on that). There it was, still standing after all this time. Anyway, what's the story on that indian statue? Anyone know? Bernie

The Story of Altar Rock by Henry W. Shoemaker “The Story of Altar Rock” was one of the first legends I collected. I obtained it in 1898 from Seth I. Nelson, then virtually the last survivor among Pennsylvania’s famous big-game hunters. His life had nearly spanned the nineteenth century, as he was born in 1809. Rising above his mountain cabin near Round Island, Clinton County, was Altar Rock with a lone primeval white pine growing out of it. Nelson explained that the tree once had a companion that was blown away by a strong wind. He then proceeded o tell me the following legend woven around those two white pine trees: In the first half of the eighteenth century, several bands of French trappers found their way from the trading posts on Lake Erie to the Elk branch of the Sinnemahoning Creek. They followed this steam to the main run, where some of them went out the Bennett Branch toward Benezet, while another party of five built a camp and stockade on a high point at the great bend west of what is now Round Island station. The camp, which was christened Grande Point, and even the subsequent history of the foundations of the camp can be located in the pine forest that has since grown up on the scene of this ancient fortification. The French policy toward the Indians was to fraternize and be honorable in all dealings with them, and for this reason their trading and trapping enterprises were successful. However, a few of the young bucks did not like the whites, especially after the building of the Grande Pointe camp, which seemed to indicate that they would live there permanently. But, the squaws and less warlike of the braves, who bartered furs for undreamed-of fineries and liquor, were glad of he whites’ presence in the neighborhood. Of al the hostile braves, none carried more bitter and uncompromising hatred than did the tall, spare young soothsayer whose name translated is equivalent to “Two Pines”. A medicine man by descent, he visioned nothing but frightful omens of his people’s annihilation at the hands of the pale-faced strangers. Still, the need for barter and luxury was too strong in the majority of the tribe for them to give more than a passing thought to forebodings. They turned away, shaking their heads, when on festal days Two-Pines mounted Altar Rock for devotions; on this narrow ledge an Indian was supposed to bear a charmed life and be for the time invulnerable to poisoned arrows or javelins. Altar Rock, which modern writers call Pulpit Rock, Chimney Rock, Steeple Rock, or Nelson’s Rock, is one of the most remarkable natural wonders in Pennsylvania. Its diameter in no part being over ten feet, it rises like a graceful column to a height of sixty feet, where it is surmounted by a flat slab, the dimensions of which are about ten by twelve. The entire cliff is composed of brownstone and is undulated and fluted by the action of water in past ages. On top of the flat slab stands a living white pine, forty feet tall; its gnarled roots clutch at the rocks in a grim effort to hold its place from which the tree can gain sustenance, but it grows healthy and green in its barren home. There was once a second white pine, the exact counterpart of its mate, growing on the rock; but it was struck by lightning, lifted bodily from the roots, and blown into the valley below. One bright September morning after Two-Pines, the soothsayer, had spent the night on top of Altar Rock in meditation and prayer, he heard the crack of a gun fired somewhere near the Sinnemahoning. A few minutes later he came face to face with a Frenchman, Piere Le bo, dragging the carcass of a bill elk to the river’s edge to sink it until he might have time to prepare it for eating. Two-Pines’ anger was thoroughly aroused. To see this intruder killing the beasts of the forest, which he thought belonged to the Indians, was too much for him. He struck the Frenchman a terrific blow on the head with a stone mallet, crushing his skull and causing instant death. Then he climbed back to his retreat on Altar Rock and prayed rapturously for the gift of strength to annihilate the white beings who defiled the valley of the Sinnemahoning. It was in this attitude of prayer that he heard the footsteps and whispering voices in the wood beneath. Nearer and nearer they came, until through the leaves, he saw four heavily armed French trappers. Two-Pines arose and stood erect. In the dignity of his titanic stature, and with arms folded across his breasts, he seemed to defy the avengers to slay him on his immortal pedestal, where poisoned arrows and javelins had less effect than drops of summer rain. A little Frenchman named LaFitte leaned his heavy gun upon a snag, took careful aim, and fired at the defiant warrior. There was a loud report, and when the foul-smelling smoke had cleared, the dead body of Two-Pines lay upon Altar Rock. An hour later the Frenchmen abandoned Grande Pointe with its valuable stores and started downstream in canoes. That night the camp was looted and burned by the Indians; whether the trappers succeeded in reaching friendly refuge or were murdered on the way has never been determined. But from the flat top of Altar Rock two little pines with long silky needles sprouted slender and straight. Taller and taller they grew until, side by side, with their smooth-barked trunks and shapely tangle of dark green foliage, they resembled the figure of an Indian youth, the slain but defiant Two-Pines. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bernie Oswald" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, December 12, 2003 6:36 AM Subject: [PA-CAMERON] RE: The indian > Blank > Hi everyone! > > Last night on my way to Renovo, I happened to remember the indian statue that stands on top of the rock mountain below Sinnemahoning. (I always have to think about the spelling on that). There it was, still standing after all this time. Anyway, what's the story on that indian statue? Anyone know? > > Bernie > > > > ==== PACAMERO Mailing List ==== > Invite your family and friends to join us! > http://www.rootsweb.com/~pacamero > >