Flashy Paint Needs a Good Home!

The site of the town of Laurel was a Nanticoke Indian settlement known as Broad Creek Town during most of the eighteenth century. [ citation needed ] Its Nanticoke name is unknown. The Indian settlement was created on tracts known as Bachelor's Delight and Greenland in 1711 when the government of Maryland, who originally claimed this part of Delaware, set aside land for the Nanticoke Indians. Nearly all the Indian settlers left within 50 years, relocating to western Pennsylvania. [ citation needed ] The present town was laid out along the Broad Creek in the 1790s and was named for the laurel bushes that grew alongside the creek.