PARKER, Pa. (EYT) — The public is invited to attend the formal dedication of a new Pennsylvania Historic Museum Commission state historical marker commemorating the Parkers Landing Petroglyphs on Saturday July 17.

(Image courtesy Larry Smail.)

The dedication will take place at 1:00 p.m.

In Pennsylvania, only a very few special places still exist where evidence of prehistoric activities can be found as part of the undisturbed natural landscape. The Parkers Landing Petroglyphs (36CL1) along the Allegheny River in Clarion County is one of the rarest and perhaps the most significant of these sites.

For many generations, native people visited this riverbank to inscribe images of humans, fish, birds, animals, and their tracks, as well as mythological figures and other abstract forms into the rocks.

Parkers Landing was the first archaeological site (36CL1) to be recorded in Clarion County and was surveyed in 1962 by Dr. James Swauger with the Carnegie Museum and later published in his book, Rock Art of the Upper Ohio Valley.

In 1996, local archaeologists Ken Burkett and Ed Kaufman resurveyed the site for Carnegie and added a significant amount of new information which was published in 2005 in the Pennsylvania Archaeological Journal.

Since the marker project began in 1914, over 2,000 panels have been installed across Pennsylvania. The Parkers Landing Petroglyphs marker is the seventh to be installed in Clarion County and is being sponsored by the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology.

The Parkers Landing Petroglyphs marker installation is in Clarion County approximately one-quarter mile from the bridge over the Allegheny River at Parker on property owned by Carla and Matthew Manculich at 380 Route 368, Parker, Pa. Parking is available roadside along State Route 368 or in the adjacent grassy area along Manculich Lane.