Much of the ride along the Susquehanna trail on the western side of the Susquehanna River is at the base of majestic hills along the old Pennsylvania Canal bed, and more beautiful scenery it is not possible to find anywhere. Especially is this true as the motorist nears the quaint town of Liverpool. A few miles before reaching this place there is a gap in the mountains long known as Girty's Gap, named in memory of one of the most despised outlaws in the provincial history of Pennsylvania.

The rocks on the face of the precipitous hills at this point have formed an almost perfect Indian head; indeed, it seems to be smiling down upon the thousands who pause to view this wonderful natural likeness of the primitive American race.

So important is this rock-face that when the new State highway was being built at this point summer of 1922, the engineers intended that the rocks should be blasted out and the road straightened at this bend, but on account of the sentiment connected with this really wonderful image the roadway was finally laid around the rocks and so the Indian face at Girty's Notch is still to be seen.

Simon Girty, Senior, was a licensed Indian trader on the frontiers of Pennsylvania as early as 1740, and about that period he located on Sherman's Creek, in what is now Perry County. Here his son, Simon, who figures so conspicuously in the annals of border life, was born January 16, 1744. There were three other sons, Thomas, George and James.

In 1750, the father and sundry other "squatters" on Sherman's Creek, were dispossessed of their settlements by the Sheriff of Cumberland County and his posses, under orders of the Provincial authorities.

Girty removed his family to the east side of the Susquehanna River, near where the town of Halifax is now situated. Afterward he moved to the Conococheauge settlement, where it is related he was killed in a drunken brawl. In 1756, his widow was killed by the savages, and Simon, George and James were taken captives by the Indians. Thomas, the eldest brother, being absent at his uncle's at Antietam, was the only one who escaped.

Simon Girty was adopted by the Seneca and given the Indian name of Katepacomen. He became an expert hunter, and in dress, language and habits became a thorough Indian. The author of "Crawford's Campaign" says that "it must be passed to his credit that his early training as a savage was compulsory, not voluntary as has generally been supposed."

George Girty was adopted by the Delaware and became a fierce and ferocious savage, while James, who was adopted into the Shawnee nation, became no less infamous as a cruel and bloodthirsty raider of the Kentucky border, "sparing not even women and children from horrid tortures."

Simon Girty and his tribe roamed the wilderness northwest of the Ohio, and when the expedition under Colonel Henry Bouquet, at the close of the Pontiac War, in 1764, dictated peace to the Indian tribe on the Muskingum, one of the hostages given up by the Ohio Indians was Simon Girty. Preferring the wild life of the savage, Girty soon escaped and returned to his home among the Seneca.

One of the conditions of the treaty referred to, was the yielding up by the Ohio Indians of all their captives, willing or unwilling. This being the case, Girty was returned to the settlements and took up his home near Fort Pitt, on the little run emptying into the Allegheny and since known as Girty's Run.

In the unprovoked war of Lord Dunmore, in company with Simon Kenton, Girty served as a hunter and scout. He subsequently acted as an Indian agent, and became intimately acquainted with Colonel William Crawford, at whose cabin on the Youghiogheny he was a frequent and welcome guest, and it is stated by some writers, although without any worthwhile evidence to substantiate it, was a suitor for the hand of one of his daughters, but was rejected.

At the outset of the Revolution, Simon Girty was a commissioned officer of militia at Fort Pitt, took the test oath as required by the Committee of Safety, but March 28, 1778, deserted to the enemy, in company with the notorious Alexander McKee and Matthew Elliott.

Simon Girty began his wild career by sudden forays against the borderers, and in his fierceness and cruelty outdid the Indians themselves. Hence the sobriquet of "Girty the White Savage."

Many atrocious crimes were attributed to the notorious renegade, but the campaign against the Sandusky Indian towns in 1782, under the command of Colonel William Crawford, proved to be the one in which Girty displayed the most hardened nature and showed him to be a relentless foe of the Colonies.

Girty's brutality reached its climax when he refused any request, even to discuss terms of easier punishment for his former friend and brother officer, but viewed with apparent satisfaction the most horrible and excruciating tortures which that ill-fated but brave and gallant Crawford was doomed to suffer. This episode in his career has placed his name among the most infamous whose long list of crimes causes a shudder as the details are told, even after a lapse of a century and a half.

During the next seven years but little is recorded of this renegade and desperado, except that a year after Crawford's defeat, he married Catharine Malott, a captive among the Shawnee. They had several children and she survived her husband many years, dying at an advanced age.

Notwithstanding Girty's brutality and depravity he never lost the confidence of the Indians; the advice of Simon Girty was always conclusive.

Girty acted as interpreter when the United States attempted to negotiate with the Confederated Nations, for an adjustment of the difficulties during which his conduct was insolent, and he was false in his duty as interpreter.

In the defeat of General St. Clair, Girty saw and knew General Richard Butler, who was writhing in agony with his wounds. The traitor told a savage warrior he was a high officer, whereupon the Indian buried his tomahawk in General Butler's head, scalped him, took his heart out and divided it into as many pieces as there were tribes engaged in the battle.

When General Anthony Wayne in 1795 forever destroyed the power of the Indians of the Northwest, Girty sold his trading post and removed to Canada, where he settled upon a farm near Malden, on the Detroit River, the recipient of a British pension. Here he resided until the War of 1812 undisturbed, but almost blind.

After the capture of the British fleet on Lake Erie, Girty followed the British in retreat and remained away from his house until the treaty of peace was signed, when he returned to his farm where he died in the fall of 1819, aged seventy-four years.

There have been efforts to make a hero of Girty, but without success. He was without one redeeming quality. He reveled in the very excess of malignity and above all in his hatred for his own countrymen. Such was the life and career of Simon Girty, the outlaw and renegade.