The Indian Walk of 1737: A Walk That Became a Fraud

Here, on September nineteenth, seventeen thirty-seven, Edward Marshall set out on what became one of the most notorious land frauds in colonial American history. Under a treaty with the Lenape, Pennsylvania was to receive as much land as a man could walk in a day and a half. The proprietors hired three of the fastest runners in the colony and cleared a straight path through the forest rather than following natural trails.

Marshall ran through this area on the first day, pushing far beyond what the Lenape expected. The other two runners dropped out, and one is said to have died afterward. Marshall alone completed the walk and then, by the Penns' interpretation, the boundary was drawn perpendicular to the finish, sweeping in an enormous triangle of Lenape territory. The Lenape called it a cheat. They were right. The Walking Purchase dispossessed thousands of people and remained a grievance for generations.