the northeast at Muncy White Deer Hole Creek from the south at Allenwood. White Deer Creek from the west at White Deer next to the Watsontown River Bridge. Buffalo Creek from the west at Lewisburg. Chillisquaque Creek from the northeast at West Chillisquaque Township 5.01 miles (8.06 km) upriver of its mouth. History Up through the early 19th century the river provided the principal canoe route across the Alleghenies connecting the Susquehanna and Ohio valleys, with a portage at Cherry Tree to Blacklick Creek, a tributary of the Conemaugh River. In the late 18th century, Cherry Tree marked the frontier between the Pennsylvania Colony and the Shawnee and Lenape lands to the west as specified by treaty. The lands along the West Branch were vital hunting grounds and agricultural lands for Native Americans. During Pennsylvania's great lumbering era, the most significant log drive was conveyed on the West Branch of the Susquehanna River. The Susquehanna's West Branch Canal Division further shaped the corridor, linking towns and villages and providing vital opportunities for commerce. Finally, railroads in the corridor fused the links between communities and commerce within the corridor. Early inhabitants The first recorded inhabitants of the West Branch Susquehanna River valley were the Iroquoian-speaking Susquehannocks. Their name meant "people of the muddy river", from the Lenape name of the Susquehanna River, Siskuwihane (sisku "mud", hane "river"). Decimated by diseases and warfare, they had died out, moved away, or been assimilated into other tribes by the early 18th century. The lands of the West Branch Susquehanna River Valley were then chiefly occupied by the Munsee phratry of the Lenape (or Delaware) people and were under the nominal control of the Five (later Six) Nations of the Iroquois. Colonial settlement Madame Montour's village of Otstonwakin or Ostuagy was a vitally important location during the settlement of what is now Lycoming County. Her village at the mouth of Loyalsock Creek on the West Branch Susquehanna River was an important stopping point for the Moravian missionaries who were spreading the gospel throughout the wilderness of Pennsylvania during the 1740s. Count Zinzendorf, a missionary being guided by Conrad Weiser with the permission of Shikellamy, came to Ostuagy in 1742. The British purchased land from the Iroquois in the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1768, opening what is now Lycoming County to settlement. However, the Line of Property (or Purchase Line) border defined by "Tiadaghton Creek"