Allegheny Episodes
is the eleventh of twelve volumes in Henry Shoemaker’s Pennsylvania Folklore Series. Published in 1922—years before Shoemaker’s time as Pennsylvania’s first state folklorist—
includes twenty-five stories written in his typical literary style. Some tales recall famous hunters and loggers who made their way through Pennsylvania’s rough country; others center on rivalry and lost love, ghosts and other supernatural phenomena, and the wilderness itself.
Shoemaker saw Pennsylvania’s folklore as a melding of Native American and European practices. Though his methods have been contested over the years, Shoemaker’s work as a folklorist stemmed from his deep affinity for Pennsylvania’s fading wilderness and his desire to capture the heart of its people through the spoken and written word.