Welcome to The Shawnee Preservation Society

Few American communities can trace their history back 11,000 years. The Village of Shawnee-on-Delaware, Smithfield Township, and Middle Smithfield Township have a rich and diverse past reaching back for thousands of years. The Delaware River and its sparkling tributaries, the rocky fields and mountains, the majestic woods and the abundant wildlife have drawn people to the area for millenia.

The native people, the Minsis, established towns in the area. Dutch and English colonists arrived in the early eighteenth century and lived peacably for decades with their neighbors. Yet the area became a battlefield during the French and Indian War and was contested during the American Revolution. The now peaceful region was once the center of a vicious and bloody war.

Farmers and loggers came to dominate the area in the new nation, but by the early twentieth century, the combination of the natural beauty of the hills and valleys with the work of environmentally aware residents made Shawnee and the Smithfields a recreational and cultural center where visitors and residents came and still come to enjoy boating, skiing, hiking, plays, concerts, art, and the rich history that survives in the houses, churches, inns, farms, parks, and the National Recreation Area. It is this heritage that the Shawnee Preservation Society seeks to remember and preserve.