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. Settlement processes were often convoluted because of differences among land policies of the several colonies claiming the land, specifically Pennsylvania and
Virginia. On April 3, 1769,
Andrew Montour, an Indian interpreter who had provided service to the
English settlers during the French and Indian War, was granted one of the first land patents for approximately of what later became the borough of
Coraopolis and
Neville Island. In 1773, the settler John Meek was awarded a land grant from
Virginia above the river bottom and between the Thorn Run and Montour Run valleys, and "Moon Township" was born, although formal, legal recognition would have to wait until 1788. The settlers Robert Loudon and John Vail were awarded grants to a total of . Loudon's tract was situated on the Coraopolis Heights adjacent to the Meek grant. Vail's grant was established between the current Thorn Run and Narrows Run valleys (although the exact location is open to some interpretation). Three other early grants were warranted by either Virginia or Pennsylvania land speculators. The boundaries of these land tracts are hard to identify, and the names of the original grantees are contested. But historians believe that they encompassed about or so, and were occupied by anonymous squatters. Given that the history is somewhat hazy, it remains that in abandoning their lands, the unidentified squatters ceded any potential claims to settlers who would otherwise improve and/or cultivate the land. As the 18th century drew to a close, abandoned lands were taken up by new settlers who were drawn to the region by the fertility of the soil. This round of pioneers were, by and large, wealthier than their predecessors and had the means to develop the broken and hilly areas into plots suitable for farming. Moon Township was created in 1788 as one of the original townships of the newly created Allegheny County. In 1789 by an act of the legislature a portion of Washington County south of the Ohio River was transferred to Allegheny County. The transferred area became part of Moon Township. At this time Moon Township occupied an enormous tract of land, possibly . Some reports and, more often, legends of the time indicate that it would take one man on horseback two days to travel between the boundaries of the township. The sheer difficulty of settlers performing their civic duties (e.g., reporting to assigned polling places or attending jury trials) made it necessary for local governing authorities to parcel out the land into smaller municipalities. So, in 1790, the current Fayette Township was portioned off from Moon Township, to be followed by
Findlay and
Crescent townships, respectively.
19th century In 1800, when
Beaver County was created from Allegheny and Washington Counties that portion of Beaver County south of the Ohio River that it received from Allegheny County was in Moon Township. Upon the creation of Beaver County that portion of Moon Township that Allegheny County lost to Beaver County was divided into two new townships:
First Moon and
Second Moon Townships, Beaver County.
20th century In 1943, the
federal government designed and built a housing plan known as
Mooncrest for defense workers. Mooncrest residents produced
armor plates,
munitions and
ships at the nearby Dravo Corp. during
World War II. Operated by the
U.S. Air Force after 1945, homes were sold to private investors in the mid-1950s. Moon became home to
Pittsburgh International Airport in 1951, replacing the
Allegheny County Airport as the main terminal for the region. The area developed mainly due to the airport. Prior to this time, the western hills of Allegheny County consisted largely of rolling farms and small residential developments. On April 1, 1956,
TWA Flight 400 crashed on takeoff from the airport, killing 22 people just past the east end of the runway, which lies in Moon Township. Development of
Pennsylvania Route 60 (now
Interstate 376) to the Pittsburgh airport, plus the addition of the
Parkway West from Pittsburgh and nearby exits of
Interstate 79, allowed Moon to become the area's crossroads for transportation via air and road. During the
Cold War, Moon Township was the location of
Nike Site PI-71, which was a battery of Nike Ajax and/or Nike Hercules surface-to-air missiles, used by US armed forces for high – and medium-altitude air defense. The former missile site is now a nature preserve. In 1991, the relocation of the landside terminal of the
Pittsburgh International Airport to nearby
Findlay Township resulted in a loss in traffic to the township. Moon experienced a significant loss of tax revenues but has since rebounded as the cargo area for the airport. A large part of the airport's runways and facilities are located within the boundary of Moon Township, although the terminal and about half of the airport's land area are in
Findlay Township, to the west. Since the loss of the airport terminal, the township has shifted its focus from airport commerce to corporate development, residences and university hub. The main campus of
Robert Morris University is also located within the township. Playing off the township's unique name, supervisors in 2005 gave Moon a new slogan, "Explore Our Universe". "The slogan is a play not only on the township's lunar name but also on
Robert Morris University and the University Boulevard business corridor, which township officials would like investors and consumers to explore a little more thoroughly," wrote the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2005. ==Geography==