Hike_it_Out52 t1_iui85ut wrote on October 31, 2022 at 3:08 PM

Reply to comment by knawshaw in Happy Halloween from the cemetery at 6th and Smithfield! by knawshaw

This is true. I took a historic tour through that area. Supposedly the graveyard covered multiple blocks in the city and a small remnant is left on 6th Ave near the 1st Presby church. The guide said the earthen walls of the basement will have bones occasionally poke through. It blows my mind how many cemeteries have been bulldozed when they should have been carefully excavated. He also said Heinz field stood, which had been an island, on an old native settlement who primary use in the 1750's was torturing captive European soldiers. While British soldiers had been tortured then killed during their campaigns through the area, I never have found any sources to back up that it was the use of the island.

NSlocal t1_iuihfe9 wrote on October 31, 2022 at 4:10 PM

It was called Smokey Island but was really a sandbar when the river was much more shallow. You can find info on it. The natives would capture Europeans on the North Side of the river and use the island to bind them to a pole where they'd proceed to torture and burn them in full view of people on the Point side of the river.