Walking Treaty
The treaty read “as far as a man can go in a day in a half.”
Years after it was written and signed, The Propriety of Pennsylvania thought they would reinterpret this wording.
The Delaware tribe figured the day and a half would equal roughly a 30 mile walk, and so they signed over land west and north of the Delaware river from Philadelphia.
So the government of the time got to cutting the straightest path from the northwestern most curve in the Delaware river as far west as they thought necessary for their ploy. Next they found a fit chap who was known for his endurance. He left at midnight, ran 36 hours straight and then collapsed after 150 miles. This was the new western boundary, and the treaty was known in jest from then on as the “Walking Treaty.”
– Read in the introduction of That Dark and Bloody River by Allan W. Eckert
