Want to visit the petroglyphs in the Susquehanna River? Handy guidebook is now available

Paul Nevin first became interested in the petroglyphs in the lower Susquehanna River back in the early 1980s.

He'd read about them and had seen depictions of them at the Indian Steps Museum, a traditional destination for school trips back in the day, but he said, "I didn't know they even existed." He believed, like many others had, that the petroglyphs had receded, submerged in the murky water of the Susquehanna.

That began a four-decade-long fascination with the carvings in the rocks protruding from the river that date to prehistoric times, a time when the river sustained a civilization that predates European colonization of the New World.

He went to the place in the river - paddling his 16-foot aluminum Grumman canoe to the islands of rock - because, he said, "I'd like to go to the place where they were just to experience the place."

Previously: Treasure of the Susquehanna: You can see and touch more than 1,000 ancient rock carvings

It was a special experience, bearing witness to history that had mostly been unwritten. The petroglyphs were art and communiques from a community that was long gone. The sight of them was truly awe inspiring. They were not just "prehistoric graffiti," he said.

Over the years, he has compiled a massive amount of information about the carvings and has taken hundreds of people on tours of Big Indian Rock, Little Indian Rock and the other rocky outcrops that have depictions of the ancient communications. Seeing the petroglyphs in person is a different experience, he said, from say, seeing depictions in a museum or photos. Seeing them in person gives a viewer a sense of the history and the perspective of time measured by centuries.

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Nevin has just published a guide to the petroglyphs, sharing the story that he has spent decades assembling. He had information about them "all over my property," he said, and it seemed time to collect it into a booklet. The only previous publication about the petroglyphs was Donald Cadzow's booklet published in the 1930s. Coincidentally, Cadzow's booklet was 60 pages, as is Nevin's. The guide is available on Nevin's website, safeharborpetroglyphs.com.

Nevin, now 68 and retired as director of the Zimmerman Center for Heritage along the river, said he wanted to share the site with people so they could feel the same awe he has from studying the petroglyphs. "It's really about sharing the site with the public," he said. "Seeing it in person is a very different experience."

The site still inspires Nevin.

"I was just out there Saturday afternoon, and looking at them still never gets old," he said. "It still never gets old being out there."

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Handy guidebook to petroglyphs in the Susquehanna River now available