Settling Down And Building A Borough In The Beginning dominant
physical characteristic of the present borough of Queens was
determined by the movement of a glacier, which halted about
15,000 years ago along a line which approximates the Grand
Central Parkway. During the American Revolution, Avenue,
originally an Indian trail, became a highway used addition to
the high ridge bounded by the appropriately named Hillside and
Highland Avenues, the melting of the glaciers left Queens with
its legacy of hills dotted with kettle ponds. Indian tribes
belonging to the Algonquin people were attracted to the sites
along the areas that offered abundant fresh water, natural
water, timber for building and shelter from winter storms.
Queens Indians were mostly a peaceful lot and they lived for
centuries harvesting salt, hay, fish, wild water fowl, oysters,
clams, shellfish, game and migratory birds. main bands of Native
Americans inhabited the lands of Queens – a tribe for whom
Jamaica was named, a tribe after whom the Rocka