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Wissahickon Creek runs through Fort Washington State Park in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Wissahickon Creek runs through Fort Washington State Park in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Fort Washington State Park is a Pennsylvania State Park in Springfield and Whitemarsh Townships Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Montgomery County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania, in the United States.

Wissahickon Creek is a stream in southeastern Pennsylvania. A stream is a body of Water with a current, confined within a bed and stream-banks The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern Rising in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, it runs about 23 miles (37 km) passing through and dividing Northwest Philadelphia before emptying into the Schuylkill River at Philadelphia. Montgomery County is a County located in the US state of Pennsylvania, in the United States. Northwest Philadelphia ("Uptown Philly" is a section of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Schuylkill River, most often ˈskuːkəl ("SKOO-kull" is a river in the U Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə Its watershed covers about 64 square miles (166 km²)

Much of the creek now runs through or next to parkland, with the last few miles running through a deep gorge. The beauty of this area attracted the attention of literary personages like Edgar Allan Poe and John Greenleaf Whittier. Edgar Allan Poe (January 19 1809 – October 7 1849 was an American poet, short-story Writer, editor and Literary critic, John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17 1807 &ndash September 7 1892 was an influential American Quaker Poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of Slavery The gorge area is now part of the Fairmount Park system in Philadelphia, and the Wissahickon Valley is known as one of 600 National Natural Landmarks of the United States. Fairmount Park is the municipal park system of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The National Natural Landmark (NNL program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the United States ' natural history

The name of the creek comes from the Lenape language for "catfish creek" or "stream of yellowish color". The Delaware languages, also known as the Lenape languages, are Munsee and Unami, two closely related languages of the Eastern Algonquian [1] On the earliest map of this region of Pennsylvania, by Thomas Holme, the stream is called Whitpaine's creek, after one of the original settlers with William Penn. Thomas Holme (1624-1695 was the first Surveyor General of Pennsylvania. William Penn ( October 14, 1644 – July 30, 1718) was founder and "Absolute Proprietor" of the Province of Pennsylvania, Industry sprang up along the Wissahickon not long after European settlement, with America's first paper mill set up on one of the Wissahickon's tributaries. A few of the dams built for the mills remain visible today.

Contents

Geography

Though at first fairly tame, in its last 7 miles (11 km), the Wissahickon stream drops over 100 feet (30 m) in altitude. Its dramatic geography and dense forest attract thousands of walkers, riders, and bikers. Except for the main trail that parallels the stream, Forbidden (or Wissahickon) Drive, permits are required to bicycle or ride horseback on the trails. All users of the park are asked to stay on marked trails to protect against erosion.

Forbidden Drive, also known as Wissahickon Drive, is the gravel road which follows the Wissahickon Creek from Lincoln Drive to the County Line and is the most popular point of access to explore the stream valley. Originally known as Upper Wissahickon Drive, it received its current name in the 1920s when automobiles were first banned from the road. As stated above, Forbidden Drive is the only trail open to bicyclists and equestrians without a permit.

A paved path on the west bank connects the junction of Forbidden Drive and Lincoln Drive south to Ridge Avenue at the confluence of the Wissahickon and Schuylkill River. This path is a popular access point for cyclists coming off the River Drive bike paths to Center City Philadelphia, or for pedestrians departing the R6 transit route at Wissahickon Station or Bus Interchange. The SEPTA R6 is a route of the US SEPTA Regional Rail ( Commuter rail) system

Forbidden Drive is also accessible at its midpoint at the Valley Green Inn. Valley Green Road can be reached from Springfield Avenue in Chestnut Hill, two blocks west of St. Chestnut Hill is an affluent neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Martin's Lane and the St. Martin's R8 Station. Just above Valley Green, Wise's Mill Road meets Forbidden Drive, connecting it to Henry Avenue in Roxborough. Roxborough is a neighborhood in the Northwest Philadelphia section of the United States city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Wise's Mill Road may be the same as that described in Edgar Allan Poe's 1844 story "Morning on the Wissahiccon": "I would advise the adventurer who would behold its finest points to take the Ridge Road, running westwardly from the city, and, having reached the second lane beyond the sixth mile-stone, to follow this lane to its termination. Edgar Allan Poe (January 19 1809 – October 7 1849 was an American poet, short-story Writer, editor and Literary critic, " Morning on the Wissahiccon," also called " The Elk," is an 1844 work by Edgar Allan Poe describing the natural beauty of Wissahickon Creek He will thus strike the Wissahiccon, at one of its best reaches […]". Forbidden Drive ends at Northwestern Avenue (which is the county line) after crossing Bell's Mill Road.

A number of trails climb out of the valley from Forbidden Drive to the "upper trails" which run along the precipitous walls of the valley. Many of these upper trails have been marked with colored blazes. The green blazed trail has been designated a multi-use trail approved for mountain bikers with permits. The blue blazed trail has been designated a hiking trail only, although many bikers abuse these rules and ride on these trails as well. All trails in the Andorra Natural Area are prohibited to all bicycles.

Devil's Pool is an attraction best reached from Valley Green by crossing the stream and taking the footpath on the eastern bank, going downstream to the mouth of the Cresheim Creek. The Cresheim Creek is a creek in southeastern Pennsylvania. Rising at Hill Crest in Cheltenham Township (near the border between Montgomery As the ravine widens into the Cresheim, the waters gather in a basin before leaping into the Wissahickon Creek. Legend has it that the Native American Lenape tribes used this as a spiritual area. The shannon (later named Delaware Indians by Europeans were in the 17th century organized bands of Native American peoples with shared cultural and linguistic

One of the most romantic hikes in this park leads to a precipice overlooking the gorge. It can be found by entering the main footpath at the Ridge Avenue entrance and following the west bank to Hermit's Lane Bridge. Coming from Blue Stone Bridge, follow the path at the west end to Lover's Leap.

Another well-known outlook in the park is Mom Rinker's Rock, on a ridge on the eastern side of the Park just north of the Walnut Lane Bridge, close by the Toleration statue. Mom Rinker's Rock is a scenic outlook in Wissahickon Park along Wissahickon Creek in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. Here on a moonlit night in May 1847, George Lippard, romancer of the Wissahickon, was married to his frail young wife according to so-called Indian rites. George Lippard (April 10 1822 – February 9 1854 was a 19th-century American novelist journalist playwright social activist and labor organizer Years afterward in 1883, the Toleration statue was erected, a marble statue of a man in simple Quaker clothing. Atop Mom Rinker's Rock, the nine-foot-eight-inch statue has the single word “Toleration” carved into its four-foot-three-inch base. Created by late 19th century sculptor Herman Kirn, it was brought to the site by landowner John Welsh, reported to have purchased the statue at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 the first official World's Fair in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Welsh, a former Fairmount Park Commissioner and U. S. Ambassador to Britain, donated his land to the Park prior to his death in 1886.

Some miles away is the path leading to the Indian statue, a dramatic 15 ft (4. 5 m) high white marble sculpture of a kneeling Lenape warrior which was sculpted in 1902 by John Massey Rhind. (The statue is popularly but erroneously known as "Tedyuscung," the name of an eighteenth-century Delaware chief. ) Commissioned by Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Henry, it is a tribute to the Lenape Indians who hunted and fished in the Wissahickon prior to the arrival of colonists. The statue can also be viewed from Forbidden Drive across the creek if one stands just north of the path to the Rex Avenue Bridge.

Geology

A tremendous variety of geology is evident along Wissahickon Creek. Three of the geologic regions that the stream passes through are the Newark Basin of Triassic sandstone and shale, the limestone and dolomite of the Chester Valley, and the Wissahickon Formation where the waters of the stream flow into the Schuylkill and eventually the Delaware Rivers. The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 251 to 199 Ma (million years ago Sandstone is a Sedimentary rock composed mainly of Sand -size Mineral or rock grains. Shale (also called mudstone) is a fine-grained Sedimentary rock whose original constituents were Clay minerals or Muds It is characterized by Limestone is a Sedimentary rock composed largely of the Mineral Calcite ( Calcium carbonate: CaCO3 Dolomite (ˈdɒləmaɪt is the name of a Sedimentary Carbonate rock and a Mineral, both composed The Wissahickon Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

A unique and very distinctive rock of the Wissahickon Creek valley is Wissahickon schist, the predominant bedrock underlying the Philadelphia region, found over a broad swath of southeastern Pennsylvania from Trenton into Delaware and Maryland. The Wissahickon Formation is a mapped bedrock unit in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. This Precambrian to Cambrian stone, first studied in the Wissahickon gorge, has flecks of glittery mica, small garnets, and many-toned shadings of gray, brown, tan, and blue, and is attractive enough to have become a common building material in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Precambrian ( Pre-Cambrian) is an informal name for the supereon comprising the eons of the Geologic timescale that came before the current The Cambrian is a geologic period and system that began about Ma (million years ago at the end of the Proterozoic eon and ended about Ma with The word "mica" is thought to be derived from the Latin word la micare, "glitteren" in reference to the brilliant appearance of this mineral (especially

In addition to Wissahickon schist, there are layers of quartzite in the valley. Quartzite (from German Quarzit) not to be confused with the Mineral Quartz, is a hard Metamorphic rock which was originally Both schist and quartzite are metamorphic rocks formed from sedimentary deposits of mud and sand that one time were washed from ancient continents into a shallow sea. Metamorphic rock is the result of the transformation of an existing rock type the protolith, in a process called Metamorphism, which means "change Sedimentary rock is one of the three main rock types (the others being igneous and Metamorphic rock) These sedimentary deposits were over time compressed into shale and sandstone. During long periods of mountain building, the shale and sandstone were slowly transformed into the schist and quartzite found today. In some places, the compression and heat were extreme enough to fuse the schist with emerging igneous rocks into hard-banded gneiss. Igneous rocks (etymology from Latin ignis, fire are rocks formed by solidification of cooled Magma (molten rock Gneiss (ˈnaɪs is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from preexisting formations that were originally

Other rocks in the valley are layers of igneous pegmatite and remains of granite plutons, embedded crystals within the schist. Pegmatite is a very coarse-grained Igneous rock that has a grain size of 20 mm or more such rocks are referred to as pegmatitic. Granite (ˈɡrænɪt is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, Felsic, igneous rock. A pluton in Geology is an Intrusive Igneous rock body that crystallized from a Magma slowly cooling below the surface of the Earth In Materials science, a crystal is a Solid in which the constituent Atoms Molecules or Ions are packed in a regularly ordered repeating A few locations close to Devil’s Pool and along Bell’s Mill Road have a talc schist which contains the mineral talc, so soft it can be scratched with a fingernail. Talc (derived from the Persian via Arabic talq) is a Mineral composed of Hydrated Magnesium Silicate with

A virtual geologic tour of Wissahickon Creek is available at this site.

Tributaries

Cresheim Creek before it meets Wissahickon Creek.
Cresheim Creek before it meets Wissahickon Creek.

History

Kelpius and the Rosicrucians

In 1694, Johannes Kelpius arrived in Philadelphia with a group of like-minded German Pietists to live in the valley of the Wissahickon Creek. Sandy Run is a second order stream (according to the Strahler Stream Order) that is a tributary to the Wissahickon Creek at Fort Washington State Park. The Cresheim Creek is a creek in southeastern Pennsylvania. Rising at Hill Crest in Cheltenham Township (near the border between Montgomery Paper Mill Run, also known as Monoshone Creek, is a small Tributary of Wissahickon Creek in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Johannes Kelpius (1673-1708 a German Pietist, mystic musician and writer interested in the occult botany and astronomy came to believe with his followers Pietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late 17th century to the mid-18th century and later They formed a monastic-type of community and became known as the Hermits or Mystics of the Wissahickon. Kelpius was a musician, writer, and occultist. The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus (clandestine hidden secret referring to "knowledge of the hidden" He frequently meditated (some believe in a cave--the Cave of Kelpius 40°01′25″N 75°12′02″W / 40.023544, -75.200665)[2] along the banks of the Wissahickon and awaited the end of the world, which was expected in 1694. No sign or revelation accompanied that year, but the faithful continued to live in celibacy by the stream, searching the stars and hoping for the end. Celibacy refers to the lack of participation in Sexual intercourse. Kelpius described the type of meditation he used in his Method of Prayer. (See Further Reading below on this book. ) Kelpius died in 1708 and the group disbanded some time thereafter. Some members likely gave up on celibacy and married. A few joined the somewhat like-minded religious colony of Ephrata Cloister under Conrad Beissel in Ephrata, Lancaster County, even though no previous connection existed between the two communities. The Ephrata Cloister or Ephrata Community was a religious community, established in 1732 by Johann Conrad Beissel at Ephrata, in Johann Conrad Beissel ( March 1, 1691 - July 6, 1768) was the German -born religious leader who in 1732 founded the Ephrata is a borough in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States, 38 miles (61 km south east of Harrisburg and about 57 miles (91 Lancaster County Pennsylvania, known as the Garden Spot of America since the 18th century is located in the southeastern part of the state of Pennsylvania At least two from the original group, Johann Seelig and Konrad Matthaei, continued as hermits along the Wissahickon into the 1740s.

Other religious groups were also associated with the Wissahickon: On Christmas Day in 1723 the first congregation of the Church of the Brethren in America - often called Dunkard Brethren – baptized several new members in the stream. The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination originating from the Schwarzenau Brethren ("Schwarzenauer Neutäufer" organized in 1708 by eight The Dunkard Brethren are a small group of conservative Schwarzenau Brethren churches that withdrew from the Church of the Brethren. Around 1747 an individual with connections to both the Dunkards and the Ephrata Cloister built a stone house on land previously owned by Dunkards. The structure, used for church retreats, still stands today, and is known as The Monastery, a remaining witness to the Wissahickon’s days as an isolated religious refuge.

Development

The same steep slopes and gorge that provided an attractive isolation to religious adherents in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, provided an efficient source of energy for the development of water mills in later years. One miller had by 1690 already constructed a dam, sawmill, gristmill, and house by the narrow shelf of land at the confluence of the Wissahickon with the Schuylkill River, but the rugged terrain of the valley forestalled further development alongside the stream itself. By 1730, however, eight mills had been constructed, and by 1793, twenty-four, along with many dams. Most of America was still wilderness, but the Wissahickon Valley was a developing industrial center. There were more than fifty watermills by 1850, though the thickly forested region about the stream still retained the character of a wilderness. This article is about a type of structure For other locational uses see Milldam. Access roads were being constructed into the steep valley, but there was still no road that followed the stream itself. The nature of the rugged terrain can be comprehended in an event that had occurred during the Revolutionary War Battle of Germantown, which was fought not too far from the stream. In this article the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies that supported the American Revolution are primarily referred to as "Americans" with occasional references to "Patriots" Prelude The campaign in Philadelphia had begun quite badly for the American forces The American General John Armstrong, compelled by the rough terrain to abandon a cannon in the valley, expressed his contempt for the "horrendous hills of the Wissahickon. John Armstrong ( October 13, 1717 &ndash March 9, 1795) was an American Civil engineer and soldier who served as a " Later legends tell of American spies taking advantage of the terrain to retrieve information from an informant named Mom Rinker, who allegedly perched atop a rock overlooking the valley to drop balls of yarn which contained messages about British troop movements during the occupation of Philadelphia. This is likely a legend, for other stories speak of a witch named Mom Rinkle who had little to do with the Revolution. There is a Mom Rinker's Rock in the park today. Mom Rinker's Rock is a scenic outlook in Wissahickon Park along Wissahickon Creek in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.

Not until 1826 were the cliffs near the creek’s mouth blasted away to provide access to the cluster of mills at Rittenhousetown, approximately 1. 5 mi (2. 4 km) up the creek on Paper Mill Run (also known as Monoshone Creek), a small tributary of the Wissahickon. Paper Mill Run, also known as Monoshone Creek, is a small Tributary of Wissahickon Creek in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Here William Rittenhouse (grandfather of the astronomer David Rittenhouse) had in the early 1700s built the first paper mill in America. William Rittenhouse (1644-1708 was born in Germany with the name Wilhelm Rittenhausen. David Rittenhouse ( April 8, 1732 June 26, 1796) was a renowned American Astronomer, Inventor, Clockmaker Gradually this road and other mill access roads were connected, and in 1856 a private toll road, the Wissahickon Turnpike, linked the entire valley (1908 photo). A toll road, (also known as a tollway, turnpike, pike, or toll highway, especially if it is constructed to Freeway standards Long gone were the religious mystics; here instead the mills of Wissahickon Creek made paper, cloth, gunpowder, sawed lumber, milled wheat and corn, and pressed oil from flax. A sizable population worked at the mills and lived in the valley in small villages like Rittenhousetown and Pumpkinville. The nation was becoming an industrial nation, and the Wissahickon was leading the way.

This would soon change. Benjamin Franklin already had noted in his will the high elevation and quality of Wissahickon water, proposing that in some future day the stream be dammed to supply a safe and pure water source for Philadelphia’s water supply, and even allocating funds for this purpose. Benjamin Franklin ( April 17 1790 was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America. This did not happen, but the quest for pure water affected the Wissahickon’s subsequent history. Seeking to prevent the stream’s industrial discharges from affecting the purity of the water of the Schuylkill River, the Fairmount Park Commission took title of much of the land along the Wissahickon in 1869-1870, and continued to expand its holdings in subsequent decades. Fairmount Park is the municipal park system of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The mills were razed; the last active mill was demolished in 1884. Several decades later the Schuylkill River itself became seriously polluted by sources in the coal fields far upstream beyond Philadelphia’s control, but the waters of the Wissahickon had been restored and the beauty of the Wissahickon Valley had been preserved. Most of America became more industrialized, but the Wissahickon valley quietly returned to its original wilderness character.

The reason the Wissahickon Valley retained its wilderness character, even after its clean waters were no longer essential to the water supply of the city of Philadelphia, was the advent of Romanticism and the changing attitudes which this thought engendered about nature. Romanticism is a complex artistic literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Before the nineteenth century, nature had seemed a capricious and ambivalent force, at times a dream, but at times a nightmare. Nature, according to orthodox Christian thought, had fallen with man; though the Renaissance brought about both a new view of mankind and nature, this new attitude took time to grow, but it eventually resulted in a literary and artistic movement known as Romanticism. Romantics valued heroism and chivalry in people, and regarded the wild, free, and untamed nature as the “natural” model of true beauty. NOTICE TO WOULD-BE-ROMEOS*************** Philadelphians finally came to value their Wissahickon valley for its wild character. Even when the mills were still operating, there were remote stretches of wild bluffs and overarching trees; now the old mills had become romantic and picturesque, with mossy stone walls suggesting medieval ruins. Remarks on the Wissahickon in literature by such as Fanny Kemble, Edgar Allan Poe, George Lippard, and others are noted below.

However much the stream and its valley were appreciated, it still divided parts of the city. To help overcome this, in 1906 the Walnut Lane Bridge was built over the stream, a world-class undertaking at the time, the world's largest poured concrete structure, joining the Roxborough and Germantown neighborhoods of Philadelphia, formerly separated by the Wissahickon gorge. The Walnut Lane Bridge is a Concrete Arch bridge located in Northwest Philadelphia that connects the Germantown and Roxborough neighborhoods The bridge is but 480 feet (146 m) long, with a width of 60 feet (18 m), but its center arch spans an impressive 225 feet (69 m), the crown of the arch is 109 feet (33 m) above the water, and the sidewalks of the bridge 120 feet (37 m) above the Wissahickon.

The Henry Avenue Bridge

The Henry Avenue Bridge over the Wissahickon was completed in the 1932 and is even more impressive. It is 915 feet (279 m) long, 84 feet (26 m) wide, and 185 feet (56 m) above water level of Wissahickon Creek. It was designed to carry a planned extension of a subway into Roxborough, but the subway never reached the bridge. It is one of the most beautiful bridges in the city, joining Roxborough and the East Falls-Germantown neighborhoods in Philadelphia. [3][4][5]

Today the Wissahickon is a quiet stream flowing through a beautiful gorge and park. The sole surviving commercial establishment from the pre-park days is the Valley Green Inn, but that establishment is now an integral part of the park and creek valley. Most visitors to the stream today seek the Wissahickon for reasons not too different from those of Kelpius and his followers in 1694: quiet respite from the world outside. Johannes Kelpius (1673-1708 a German Pietist, mystic musician and writer interested in the occult botany and astronomy came to believe with his followers

Fairmount Park

Fairmount Park near where Wissahickon and Cresheim Creeks meet.
Fairmount Park near where Wissahickon and Cresheim Creeks meet.

Once the stream enters the city of Philadelphia, the creek valley and its deeply wooded gorge form part of the Fairmount Park system in Philadelphia, a jewel of a park and of nature set in the middle of an urban landscape. The park here is a ruggedly beautiful valley for the naturalists, artists, fishermen, bicyclists, equestrians, and hikers who are drawn to the wooded, steep banks of the stream. Precipitous wooded inclines that rise more than 200 feet (61 m) above the water create a feeling of remoteness and mountain vastness. There are two main and many smaller bridle paths crossing the park's 1,372 acres (5. 5 km²) along the Wissahickon Creek. Thomas Mill Road covered bridge spans the creek in the park. A covered bridge is a Bridge, often single-lane with enclosed sides and a roof The Wissahickon Valley is one of fewer than 600 National Natural Landmarks in America. The National Natural Landmark (NNL program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the United States ' natural history

References in culture

Literature

Actress Fanny Kemble, grandmother to novelist Owen Wister, visited the stream in 1832; her writing awakened a more general interest in the stream and its valley. This article refers an actress For other uses of the proper noun Kemble see the disambiguation page entitled Kemble. Owen Wister (July 14 1860 – July 21 1938 was an American writer of Western fiction. Her description of the gorge's dramatic end at the stream's confluence with the Schuylkill River and her verse To the Wissahickon both sparked a keen interest in this natural treasure often overlooked by its neighbors. She wrote:

The thick, bright, rich-tufted cedars, basking in the warm amber glow, the picturesque mill, the smooth open field, along whose side the river waters, after receiving this child of the mountains into their bosom, wound deep, and bright, and still, the whole radiant with the softest light I ever beheld, formed a most enchanting and serene subject of contemplation.

Edgar Allan Poe alluded to Fanny Kemble's writing in his description of a beautiful Wissahickon valley in his 1844 essay "Morning on the Wissahiccon", in which he wrote:

Now the Wissahiccon is of so remarkable a loveliness that, were it flowing in England, it would be the theme of every bard, and the common topic of every tongue, if, indeed, its banks were not parcelled off in lots, at an exorbitant price, as building-sites for the villas of the opulent. Edgar Allan Poe (January 19 1809 – October 7 1849 was an American poet, short-story Writer, editor and Literary critic, " Morning on the Wissahiccon," also called " The Elk," is an 1844 work by Edgar Allan Poe describing the natural beauty of Wissahickon Creek Yet it is only within a very few years that any one has more than heard of the Wissahiccon […] the brook is narrow. Its banks are generally, indeed almost universally, precipitous, and consist of high hills, clothed with noble shrubbery near the water, and crowned at a greater elevation, with some of the most magnificent forest trees of America, among which stands conspicuous the liriodendron tulipiferum. The immediate shores, however, are of granite, sharply defined or moss-covered, against which the pellucid water lolls in its gentle flow, as the blue waves of the Mediterranean upon the steps of her palaces of marble.

The erratic and almost forgotten novelist George Lippard frequently wrote about the Wissahickon, and was even married at sunset on or around May 14, 1847, on a rocky crag called Mom Rinker's Rock, overlooking the stream. George Lippard (April 10 1822 – February 9 1854 was a 19th-century American novelist journalist playwright social activist and labor organizer Events 1264 - Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured in France making Simon de Montfort the Year 1847 ( MDCCCXLVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Mom Rinker's Rock is a scenic outlook in Wissahickon Park along Wissahickon Creek in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. One of his books, The Rose of Wissahikon; or, The Fourth of July, 1776. A Romance, Embracing the Secret History of the Declaration of Independence (1847) may refer not only to the Wissahickon, but to his wife, the former Rose Newman. He wrote:

A poem of everlasting beauty and a dream of magnificance - the world-hidden, wood embowered Wissahickon.

Depending on one of Lippard's mostly contrived stories, John Greenleaf Whittier wrote about Johannes Kelpius and his followers on the Wissahickon in his 1872 poem Pennsylvania Pilgrim:

Painful Kelpius from his hermit den, By Wissahickon, maddest of good men, Dreamed o'er the 'Chiliast dreams of-Petersen. John Greenleaf Whittier (December 17 1807 &ndash September 7 1892 was an influential American Quaker Poet and ardent advocate of the abolition of Slavery Johannes Kelpius (1673-1708 a German Pietist, mystic musician and writer interested in the occult botany and astronomy came to believe with his followers Year 1872 ( MDCCCLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year '
Deep in the woods, where the small river slid, Snake-like in shape, the Helmstadt mystic hid, Weird as a wizard over arts forbid.

Christopher Morley also portrayed the valley's beauty in his writings. for the actor see Christopher Morley (actor Christopher Morley ( 5 May, 1890 – 28 March, 1957)

The Wissahickon is mentioned very briefly in A Biography of the Poet, Sidney Lanier by Edwin Mims. Sidney Lanier ( February 3, 1842 – September 7, 1881) was an American Musician and Poet.

Mark Twain mentioned the Wissahickon during the short time he spent in Philadelphia working for The Philadelphia Inquirer: "Unlike New York, I like this Philadelphia amazingly, and the people in it […] I saw small steamboats, with their signs up—"For Wissahickon and Manayunk 25 cents. Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30 1835 – April 21 1910 better known by the Pen name Mark Twain, was an American Humorist, satirist The Philadelphia Inquirer is a morning daily Newspaper that serves the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area of the United " Geo. Lippard, in his Legends of Washington and his Generals, has rendered the Wissahickon sacred in my eyes, and I shall make that trip, as well as one to Germantown, soon […]"

Art

Artists have portrayed the stream and its valley:

There exists a Currier & Ives Scenery Of The Wissahickon

The Swann Memorial Fountain, a fountain sculpture by Alexander Stirling Calder that is located in the center of Logan Circle, also known by its historic name Logan Square, in Philadelphia, contains three large Native American figures that symbolize the area’s major streams: the Delaware, the Schuylkill, and the Wissahickon. Currier and Ives was an American Printmaking firm headed by Nathaniel Currier (1813–1888 and James Merritt Ives (1824–1895 and based in The Swann Memorial Fountain is a fountain sculpture located in the center of Logan Square, encircled by Logan Circle in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Alexander Stirling Calder ( January 11 1870 – January 7, 1945) was an American sculptor, born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania Logan Circle, also known as Logan Square, is an open-space park in Center City Philadelphia 's northwest quadrant and one of the five original planned The young girl leaning on her side against an agitated, water-spouting swan represents the Wissahickon Creek.

Music

There exists a song called "The Gentle Wissahickon: A Ballad" published in 1857 by Edmund L Walker, 142 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. The words are by Col. James G Wallace, the music by Herman Trevor, and it recalls a "happy childhood time", "the picnic grove", and at the end "dear Alice Ray" who became the singer's "blushing bride. "

There exists sheet music mentioning the Wissahickon:

"Wissahickon Drive" is the name of one of the tracks on the CD Here's to You by the Bog Wanderers, "a collection of original, contemporary and traditional slides, jigs, reels, waltzes and songs. " Liner notes say the tune is "of the great fiddler/composer Liz Carroll. "

Quotations

("Changes in the Names of Streams In and About Philadelphia. " Public Ledger Almanac: 1879. Pages 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, & 13 [7]

Further reading

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ Chapter 3 - Part II, Vol. The Wissahickon Green Ribbon Trail is a Suburban Trail in southeastern Pennsylvania, United States. This is a list of streams and rivers in the US state of Pennsylvania By Drainage basin This list is arranged by drainage basin with respective II - Watson's Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania, 1857
  2. ^ Cave of Kelpius
  3. ^ http://www.maggieblanck.com/Land/Images/PhillyHenryAve.jpg
  4. ^ http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=40024985&x=-75195880&z=15&l=0&m=a
  5. ^ LOC Photo Display
  6. ^ Philly H2O: Ledger Creek Names 1879
  7. ^ Philly H2O: Ledger Creek Names 1879
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