History & local legend
Blue Hill, above the Susquehanna confluence near present-day Sunbury, was once associated with caves called the Demon’s Den. Moravian traveler Count Zinzendorf recorded a visit on September 30, 1742, after crossing the river near the Indigenous village of Shamokin. A guide showed his party the cave and explained the local belief that spirits gathered within the hill for revels.
Farther along the path, the horse carrying the party’s supplies broke its tether and ran back toward the cave. Conrad Weiser dismounted and recovered the animal from bushes. The incident followed the warning closely enough to earn a place in the journey’s narrative.
A later local history placed the caves at the foot of Blue Hill, below the landscape now known as Shikellamy Overlook, and reported that railroad construction destroyed them.
Sources
- Count Zinzendorf, journal of September 30, 1742, reprinted in Memorials of the Moravian Church, pp. 93–94
- Now and Then, Blue Hill and the caves at the Reading Railroad cut, p. 85
- Pennsylvania DCNR, history of the Shikellamy Overlook section, also known as Blue Hill
- Uncovering PA, Shikellamy Overlook entrance
