Burnt Cabins is a historic
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in
Dublin Township,
Fulton County,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
, United States, at the foot of
Tuscarora Mountain
Tuscarora Mountain is a mountain ridge of the Appalachian Mountains in the Ridge and Valley province in central Pennsylvania. It reaches its highest point on Big Mountain (Pennsylvania) at above sea level. The mountain is named after the Tusca ...
. It is approximately three miles west of the
Tuscarora Mountain Tunnel
Tuscarora Mountain Tunnel is one of four original Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels still in active use. A second tube was bored in the late 1960s to ease traffic conditions. The Tuscarora Mountain tunnels measure in length and are the second-long ...
on
I-76
Interstate 76 or I-76 may refer to:
Transportation
* Interstate 76 (Colorado–Nebraska) (I-76), US
* Interstate 76 (Ohio–New Jersey) (I-76), running through Pennsylvania, US
Other uses
* ''Interstate '76'', a vehicular combat video game for W ...
(
Pennsylvania Turnpike
The Pennsylvania Turnpike, sometimes shortened to Penna Turnpike or PA Turnpike, is a controlled-access toll road which is operated by the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (PTC) in Pennsylvania. It runs for across the southern part of the st ...
) and the turnpike runs within 100 yards of the village.
U.S. Route 522 also runs through the village.
History
The land was occupied by
Native American tribes until 1758, and permanent European colonization did not start until 1763, after the
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...
.
[ ''Note:'' This includes ]
Nevertheless, by 1750, a hamlet known as Sidneyville had grown to 11 squatters cabins. The homes of these early settlers were burned by order of the provincial government to maintain the peace and to demonstrate to Native Americans that their ownership would be respected.
[ExplorePAhistory.com]
/ref> Participants in the burning included Conrad Weiser
Conrad Weiser (November 2, 1696 – July 13, 1760), born Johann Conrad Weiser, Jr., was a Pennsylvania German pioneer who served as an interpreter and diplomat between the Pennsylvania Colony and Native American nations. Primarily a farmer, ...
, Richard Peters, George Croghan
George Croghan (c. 1718 – August 31, 1782) was an Kingdom of Ireland, Irish-born fur trader in the Ohio Country of North America (current United States) who became a key early figure in the region. In 1746 he was appointed to the Onondaga Cou ...
, and Benjamin Chambers.
The area developed as a linear village
In mathematics, the term ''linear'' is used in two distinct senses for two different properties:
* linearity of a '' function'' (or '' mapping'');
* linearity of a ''polynomial''.
An example of a linear function is the function defined by f(x)= ...
along eighteenth century roads that led from Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
across the Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following:
First nations and Native American people and culture
* Tuscarora people
**'' Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960)
* Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people
* ...
and Allegheny Mountains to Pittsburgh. Burnt Cabins first developed along a pack horse trail that generally followed an earlier Indian trail. In 1755 the Forbes Road
The Forbes Road, a historic military roadway in what was then British America, was initially completed in 1758 from Carlisle, Pennsylvania, to the French Fort Duquesne at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in what is now d ...
expanded the trail to get British troops and supplies in place to take Fort Duquesne
Fort Duquesne ( , ; originally called ''Fort Du Quesne'') was a fort established by the French in 1754, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. It was later taken over by the British, and later the Americans, and developed ...
. In 1771 the Three Mountains Road was opened to connect Burnt Cabins more directly to Shippensburg. However, by 1815 the Chambersburg and Ft. Bedford Turnpike was opened, bypassing both Burnt Cabins and Shippensburg from the most direct route between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Surprisingly, Burnt Cabins benefited by being bypassed by the turnpike, as the county population grew and drovers used the older, free roads to take their cattle to market.National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.
The town received international attention in May 1966 as a chief location of an eight-day manhunt for the ex-convict kidnapper of 17-year-old Peggy Ann Bradnick.
The 1964 book ''Bread-and-Butter Indian'' by Anne Colver is set among Pennsylvania Dutch settlers in the Burnt Cabins community. It based on true events in the life of Barbara Baum which took place there in 1783.
Burnt Cabin is in the Eastern Standard Time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico.
* Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behind ...
zone. Elevation is 889 feet.
ZIP code information
The Burnt Cabins ZIP code 17215 covers , with a population of 437 and 163 housing units, with 123 of the latter occupied.[ Note that this is not an official USPS website, but it includes a map.]
Further reading
Alan Jalowitz, "Burnt Cabins: Against the Odds," Pennsylvania Center for the Book, Pennsylvania State University Libraries, Fall 2010
References
{{authority control
National Register of Historic Places in Fulton County, Pennsylvania
Greek Revival architecture in Pennsylvania
Gothic Revival architecture in Pennsylvania
Populated places established in 1758
Unincorporated communities in Fulton County, Pennsylvania
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
Unincorporated communities in Pennsylvania