Photo courtesy of Adam Zurn of Uncharted Lancaster
Exploring the Petroglyphs at Safe Harbor in PA
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Asia Tabb
Photo courtesy of Adam Zurn of Uncharted Lancaster
Aired; January 23rd, 2025.
Adam Zurn, Executive Director of Uncharted Lancaster offers kayak tours to see the petroglyphs at Safe Habor. The petroglyphs are so significant because they are probably one of the oldest artifacts in all the Susquehanna Valley. There used to be thousands of petroglyph sites in the Lower Susquehanna, but with the buildings of dams they have been submerged.
“There’s a series of about six rocks with like significant carvings on them. The two big standouts are little Indian rock and big Indian rock. This cluster of rocks represents one of the two largest concentrations of petroglyphs in the northeast United States, which is cool.”
Little Indian Rock is said to have the best panel rock art east of Mississippi. Zurn says this rock is really unique as it is full with all sorts of carvings.
“There are three serpent carvings on the rock, and so there is a single carving a serpent and it lines up with the solstice sunrise. And so, you can go out there on the first day of summer and the first day of winter and the sun will come up right where its tail is, it is pointing. And then at a slightly different angle are two squiggly lines, again, representing serpents and those two squiggly lines, the on the equinox or the first day of spring and the first day of fall, the sun rises directly between those two.”
The rock tells a story about their natural environment.
“They know where the sun is going to be on, you know, very specific days. And they’re and they’re marking these things on the rock. And so, for me, that’s just one of the things that make little Indian rock so special. You can go out there and you can see, you know, that these carvings are somewhere between 800 and 1200 years old.”
