Welcome to the Lehigh Valley Landmarks with Leon podcast series, celebrating 250 years of independence. I'm your host, Rachel Leon. Since being elected in 2022 and serving as Vice President of Bethlehem City Council, I'm humbled by the opportunity to serve the diverse communities that make up our great city. But to understand where we're going, we need to understand our past. Each week, I'll share a short feature with a big story about the 250 years that made the Lehigh Valley and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, known as the Christmas City, as we explore historic landmarks.
The Bethlehem Pike is a historic 42.21 mile road that originated from a Native American pathway known as the Minsi Trail. Named after the Minsi people, the trail was a significant footpath connecting Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is considered one of the oldest indigenous routes on the East Coast.
While there isn't a single designated Minsi Trail historic marker, the Boy Scouts of America established the Minsi Trail Council Historic Trails program. The Minsi people were also known as the Lenni Lenape people. The Lenni Lenape, also known as the Delaware, were the indigenous people who inhabited the region of what is now eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The Minsi were a sub-tribe of the Lenni Lenape. Not a surprise that Lenni Lenape translates into "original people."
In December 1740, David Nitschman, who was consecrated in Berlin in 1735 as the first bishop of the renewed Unitas Fratrum Moravians, band with his party to Bethlehem and Nazareth along the Minsi Trail. A year later, in 1741, count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, who was a German religious social reformer and a bishop of the Moravian Church who considered David Nitschman like a father, joined him in the second party to traverse the same path on the Minsi Trail. On Christmas Eve in 1741, Count Zinzendorf celebrated a famous love feast service, during which the new settlement was named Bethlehem.
After the founding of Bethlehem, a number of settlements began to rise along the Minsi Trail path, causing a constant use of it and the highway to be called Kings Road. In 1804, the trail would become a toll road and renamed the Bethlehem Turnpike.
During the Revolution, the Minsi Trail dealt with a busy time period, for Bethlehem was crowded with officers, prisoners and soldiers from the war. There was great excitement in Bethlehem on September 13, 1777, when the Patriot army retreated from Philadelphia. Later, a letter arrived by express courier from David Rittenhouse announcing that all the military stores in 700 wagons were sent north on the Minsi Trail. Even the church and state bells were sent along for safe keeping. What would become the most famous of the State House Bells was used on at least three occasions to mark the reading of the Declaration of Independence.
When the State House Bell arrived in Allentown, Pennsylvania by way of the Minsi Trail, it was hidden beneath the Zion Reform Church for protection from British troops. One year later, it would return to Philadelphia. In the 1830s the State House bell would be given the name Liberty Bell to become a symbol of the anti-slavery movement.
Today, PennDOT estimates 10.95 million to 13.14 million people travel over the Minsi Trail Bridge each year.
If you're interested in exploring any of the Minsi Trail hiking programs, contact the Minsi Trail Council at 610-264-8551.
