Walking Purchase of 1737: Edward Marshall's 70-Mile Run and a Rigged Map

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The Walking Purchase of 1737 took about 1.2 million acres from the Lenape by turning the phrase "as far as a man could walk in a day and a half" into a rigged footrace. William Penn had built a reputation for fair dealing, but his sons John and Thomas Penn inherited heavy debts. In 1736 they produced a supposed 1686 deed that experts later judged to be an unsigned draft, a record of a verbal agreement, or a forgery, and their agents began selling land in the Lehigh Valley before the Lenape agreed. Land office agent James Logan showed the Lenape a map that passed off Tohickon Creek as the Lehigh River, and the chiefs expected a walk of about 40 miles.

Instead, the Penns cleared a trail heading northwest rather than north and hired three fast runners, Edward Marshall, Solomon Jennings and James Yates, promising 500 acres and five pounds sterling to the winner. Starting September 19, 1737, under Bucks County sheriff Timothy Smith, only Marshall finished, covering about 70 miles to near present-day Jim Thorpe. The closing line was angled northeast to the Delaware River, sweeping in land across seven present-day counties. In 2004 the Delaware Nation sued for 314 acres known as Tatamy's Place, but the district court held that how a sovereign extinguishes aboriginal title is not something a court can judge.

• The seized area was nearly the size of Rhode Island, covering parts of Pike, Monroe, Carbon, Schuylkill, Northampton, Lehigh and Bucks counties.
• Lenape chiefs including Lappawinsoe protested at once and took their complaints to the king without result.
• The Haudenosaunee, whom the Lenape asked for help, sided with the colonial government.
• Displaced Lenape moved to the Shamokin and Wyoming valleys and later scattered to the Ohio country and Quebec.
• The Third Circuit upheld the dismissal in 2006, stating that aboriginal title may validly be extinguished by fraud, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.