Moon Township, Pennsylvania

Moon Township is a township in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 27,261 at the 2020 census. Located 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Pittsburgh, the township is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area and is home to Pittsburgh International Airport.

History

18th century

The initial settlement of Moon Township was a direct result of the westward expansion of English settlers and traders who arrived in the Ohio Valley in the early to mid-18th century. During the French and Indian War, the Iroquois, who controlled the land for hunting grounds through right of conquest, ceded large parcels of southwestern Pennsylvania lands through treaty or abandonment to settlers. In some cases, the land was already occupied by squatters who were to be forced off the land. In the face of this turmoil, Native American settlements of the south bank of the Ohio River typically relocated to more populous areas of the north bank in the current locales of Sewickley and Ambridge.

On the southern banks of the Ohio River, political disputes among settlers clouded the disposition of lands. Generally, the Pennsylvania Land Office apportioned land to owners through grants. However, some of the land encompassing what is now the Coraopolis Heights, Thorn Run valley, and Narrows Run valley were claimed through the process of "Tomahawk Improvements", a non-specific and oftentimes contested method.