The Back Mountain Corridor: Shavertown
As soon as settlers on the Wyoming Valley’s West Side could see each other’s cabins from their individual clearings, a few yearned to explore openings in the mountain range carved by Abram’s, Toby’s and Harvey’s Creeks. The earliest settlers in this vast wilderness “back of the mountain” who followed Toby’s Creek were brave souls with names like Kelley, Rice, Spencer, Honeywell, Wort, McCoy, Trucks (Trux), and others. A few stayed; most did not.
In 1810, William Trucks (Trux) bought the Connecticut title to Lot 3 Bedford from the State of Connecticut and the Susquehanna Company. He later completed the transaction when he secured the title from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania following the Yankee-Pennamite Wars. Trucks never ventured beyond the settlement which bore his name, and in 1813, he sold all 333 acres of certified Bedford to Philip Shaver. Shaver, a native of Vienna, Austria, came to Wyoming Valley by way of New Jersey. He sold the north half of his acreage (now Dallas Borough and parts of Dallas Township) to Jonah McClellon and settled on the lower half in the area now known as Shavertown. He and his wife, Mary Ann Workhizer, were blessed with at least 77 grandchildren, and their descendants became numerous InSide the Back Mountain! My husband is a direct descendant of Philip Shaver through his son, William, and because I love history and personal connection, I chose Shavertown as the springboard for my Summer Challenge!
Late this past winter, when friends were planning trips to Florida, the Bahamas, Paris, Great Britain, and Italy, I said to myself, “Sue, you need a new project–a challenge out of your comfort zone.” My comfort zone is painting our quiet forested gamelands with creeks and waterfalls, so my Summer Challenge to myself is definitely outside my box: paint on location at each major intersection of the Back Mountain Corridor from the Rock Cut up through Trucksville, Shavertown, and Dallas, ending at the Route 118 intersection just short of Idetown. Traffic! Noise! Heat! I imposed my personal rules: (1) Each intersection must be painted on location; (2) Each painting would fall into the “Urban Sketching” category: small, about 8”x10”, quick, direct, immediate; (3) Paint in oil, with perfect ventilation in the open air, because while I love oil paint, I have developed a sensitivity to it and/or solvents and can’t paint oil inside anymore; (4) Each painting will be alla prima, no studio touch-ups, created in a single one or two-hour session, thick and wet.
For several months I scouted painting locations. In mid-June, on a sunny Saturday morning, in a relatively secluded perch between two trees, slightly above the highway in Shavertown’s empty Rite-Aid parking lot, I began my series. I set up my easel, unpacked my canvas, palette, paints and brushes, and began! Yeeehawww! Arriving home, I proudly told my husband Joe that I didn’t think anyone saw me except for a little dog who barked out the window and stopped barking as soon as the light changed and the car passed. (Through Facebook, I learned I was wrong!)
My next few sketches were also based in Shavertown. One beautiful Wednesday evening I parked on the north side of the Burger King lot and painted the Shavertown Post Office with its neighboring buildings. It's not a true street intersection, but it's still a very active business intersection in that area. I was so focused on painting, I didn't notice the change in the sky and the light, and barely packed up before the rain began!
A difficult challenge for me was the 8x16 inch oil I painted of the intersection of 309 and Center Street. I parked at the edge of the shopping center parking lot on a Sunday morning, expecting very little activity. Was I wrong! That area is as active on a Sunday morning as on Friday night! But what began as a morning filled with sunshine soon turned into gray gloom. I will return.
“There's no cars!” I hear people say. “Where are the 18-wheelers, the motorcycles, the traffic?” I tried. Believe me, I tried! However, it's in the best interest of this project and my sanity that I dedicate these urban sketches–sans vehicles–to the buildings, poles, signs, trees, and streets that stay still!
Urban Sketching is a specialized off-shoot of plein air painting. The Back Mountain Corridor isn't New York City or London, yet I like to think that famous urban painters of the past, like Camille Pissarro or Childe Hassam, or contemporary urban painters would enjoy finding beauty here InSide the Back Mountain!
This article originally appeared in the August 2026 publication of InSide the Back Mountain.
