The Lewistown Narrows in Prehistory
historical marker
The Lewistown Narrows, located in Macedonia, Juniata County, Pennsylvania, holds a significant prehistoric past. This six-mile-long gorge is where the Juniata River cuts through Shade Mountain and Blue Mountain, spanning both Mifflin and Juniata Counties. Geographically, the Narrows provided a crucial natural passage through central Pennsylvania's extensive mountain ridges, which otherwise made east-to-west travel difficult. For at least 9,000 years, Native Americans repeatedly utilized this river corridor. They traveled both on foot and by river through this natural opening. Archaeological work, conducted prior to modern highway construction, uncovered eight previously unrecorded Native American sites within the Narrows. Excavations between 2001 and 2003 at one site alone yielded over 103,000 artifacts and other remains. These investigations also revealed fossils and prehistoric organic material in the excavated rocks. The Lewistown Narrows thus represents a historically significant prehistoric transportation route, continuously used for millennia.