Parkers Landing Petroglyphs

Beneath the surface of the Allegheny River near here, often under water, lies one of Pennsylvania's most remarkable prehistoric records. For thousands of years, native people carved images into the bedrock along the riverbank: human figures, animals, mythological creatures, and abstract forms whose meanings we can only partly guess. The number and variety of these carvings, along with the largely undeveloped landscape surrounding them, make this site unusual even among Northeastern petroglyph sites.

When river levels drop, some of the rocks are said to emerge, offering a rare window into the spiritual and symbolic world of people who traveled and lived along this corridor long before European contact. They are a reminder that this river has been a highway of human meaning for an almost unimaginable stretch of time.