"Mahantongo" is a Lenape word, translated "where we had plenty of meat to eat" or "good hunting grounds." The name is shared by a creek, a valley, and a mountain in central Pennsylvania, and is a common street name in the area. The alternate spelling "Mahantango" is often found in early publications, e.g., (Floyd 1911). The Mahantongo culture The Mahantongo culture area is much more extensive than the creek valley itself. It straddles Schuylkill, Northumberland, and Dauphin Counties, including several adjoining valleys, among them the Lykens or Hegins Valley to the South, and the Schwaben Creek and Mahanoy Creek valleys to the North. The part of this area that is now included in Schuylkill County was in the first decade of the nineteenth century a huge township called Mahantongo Township. Until 1811, when Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania was set off, Mahantongo Township was part of Berks County, and was later divided into Upper and Lower Mahantongo Townships, which in turn were divided into smaller subdivisions. After 1800 the Mahantongo area in Schuylkill and Northumberland Counties became an important settlement point including new industrial towns that were growing up in the anthracite Coal Region to the north - including Shamokin and Mt. Carmel. Mahantongo Township, north of Blue Mountain, is now Schuylkill County. The Mahantongo Valley Nestled in the pocket of the Blue Mountains of the Appalachian chain, the Mahantongo Valley extends east from the Susquehanna River for 17 miles. Bordered to the north by Line Mountain, once the boundary between the Commonwealth and the Indian Lands, it extends four miles to the south where the Mahantongo Mountain closes the valley. rises in the mountains of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania The Mahantongo Valley aesthetic has been explored in various recent studies, particularly those of Frederick S. Weiser and Mary Hammond-Sullivan who focused attention on decorated furniture made in the region. They described the highly distinctive furniture that had been created between 1798 and 1828 along the Schwaben Creek Area of the Mahantongo Valley. The decorative furniture of the region has also been featured in national publications such as Early American Homes. Throughout the 20th century the fertile Mahantongo Valley has provided the bordering coal regions with produce. At the northeastern end of the valley where the Line and Mahantongo Mountains meet, farmers traveled to the densely populated coal towns of Shamokin, Mount Carmel, Ashland, Girardville, Shenandoah, Frackville, Mahanoy City, Minersville and others to