Venango Path was a Native American

trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or small road usually passing through a natural area. In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, a path or footpath is the preferred term for a pedestrian or hiking trail. Th ...

between the Forks of the Ohio (present day

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

) and Presque Isle,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. The latter was located at

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...

. The trail, a

portage Portage or portaging (Canada: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a ...

between these important water routes, was named after the

Lenape The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...

(formerly known as Delaware) village of Venango, at the confluence of French Creek and the

Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ) is a long headwater stream of the Ohio River in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York. The Allegheny River runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border northwesterly into ...

. The village site was later developed by European Americans as the small

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

, Pennsylvania.

Washington's mission to Fort Le Boeuf

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

, a 21-year-old major in the colonial Virginia militia, and explorer

Christopher Gist Christopher Gist (1706–1759) was an explorer, surveyor, and frontiersman active in Colonial America. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country (the present-day states of Ohio, eastern Indiana, western Pennsylvania, and nort ...

traveled along the trail during December 1753 to deliver a message to the French who had constructed

Fort Le Boeuf Fort Le Bœuf (often referred to as Fort de la Rivière au Bœuf) was a fort established by the French during 1753 on a fork of French Creek (in the drainage area of the River Ohio), in present-day Waterford, in northwest Pennsylvania. The fort ...

near Venango, a

village. The French were ordered to leave the area, as the British claimed control of the region. It had been contested between these powers for some time. Due to inclement weather, the men left the trail at the

Forks of the Ohio Point State Park (locally known as The Point) is a Pennsylvania state park on in Downtown Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, forming the Ohio River. Built on land acqu ...

, and found shelter in the Indian village of

Logstown "extensive flats" , settlement_type = Historic Native American village , image_skyline = Image:Logstown1.jpg , imagesize = 220px , image_alt = , image_map1 = Pennsylvania in United States ...

(near present-day

Ambridge Ambridge may refer to: * Ambridge (''The Archers''), a fictional place in the UK radio programme, ''The Archers'' * Ambridge, Indiana, a former neighborhood, now part of Ambridge Mann, Indiana, US ** Ambridge station, a former railway station in A ...

, Pennsylvania). Washington and his men left the village a few days later and proceeded northeast through what is now

Cranberry Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus ''Vaccinium''. In Britain, cranberry may refer to the native species ''Vaccinium oxycoccos'', while in North America, cranberry ...

to Murdering Town along the

Connoquenessing Creek Connoquenessing Creek is a tributary of the Beaver River, approximately 50 mi (80 km) long, in Western Pennsylvania in the United States. Course Connoquenessing Creek rises in eastern Butler County and flows southwest, through the L ...

. On their return from

, Washington and Gist left the Venango Path at Murdering Town, which was located at or near present-day

Evans City Evans City is a borough in Butler County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 1,833 at the 2010 census. Geography Evans City is located in southwestern Butler County at (40.769310, -80.061409), in the valley of Breakneck Creek. It is ...

, and

Harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

, Pennsylvania, on what Gist termed the "southeast fork of Beaver creek" (present-day

). A Native at the village agreed to guide them down a different trail to the Forks. After marching several miles to the northeast of the original path, the Native turned on Washington and Gist, and fired his gun at them.''Journals of Washington and Gist'', p. 36. The men escaped harm, but Gist wanted to execute the Native man. Washington ordered his attempted killer released. After this incident, the two men traveled "across country" through the forest, using a

compass A compass is a device that shows the cardinal directions used for navigation and geographic orientation. It commonly consists of a magnetized needle or other element, such as a compass card or compass rose, which can pivot to align itself with ...

to reach "the head of Piney creek." From there, they traveled downstream to the Allegheny River. After spending the night on a small island (Herr's Island, later renamed

Washington's Landing Herrs Island, also known as Washington's Landing, is an island in the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is officially considered part of the Troy Hill neighborhood. Rehabilitation As a result of the industrial ...

), they moved a short distance downriver, just above the Native village of

Shannopin's Town Shannopin's Town, or Shannopintown, was an 18th-century Lenape (Delaware) town located within the site of modern-day Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, along the Allegheny River, approximately two miles east from its junction with the Monongahela River. In ...

.''Journals of Washington and Gist'', p. 37. From there, they continued their trek back to

Williamsburg, Virginia Williamsburg is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it had a population of 15,425. Located on the Virginia Peninsula ...

, the colony's capital, which they reached on January 16, 1754.

French and Indian War

During the early French and Indian War years, when the French occupied western Pennsylvania, the trail was improved and used as a military road connecting a series of French forts from Lake Erie to Pittsburgh that were constructed to defend it against the British colonists. These forts included

Fort Presque Isle Fort Presque Isle (also Fort de la Presqu'île) was a fort built by French soldiers in summer 1753 along Presque Isle Bay at present-day Erie, Pennsylvania, to protect the northern terminus of the Venango Path. It was the first of the French pos ...

located on

(present-day

Waterford "Waterford remains the untaken city" , mapsize = 220px , pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe , pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe , pushpin_relief = 1 , coordinates ...

Fort Machault Fort Machault (, ) was a fort built by the French in 1754 near the confluence of French Creek with the Allegheny River, in northwest Pennsylvania. (Present-day Franklin developed here later.) The fort helped the French control these waterways, ...

at Venango (present-day

) and

Fort Duquesne Fort Duquesne (, ; originally called ''Fort Du Quesne'') was a fort established by the French in 1754, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. It was later taken over by the British, and later the Americans, and developed a ...

at present-day

. When the British drove the French from Western Pennsylvania (1758), the French burned and abandoned all four forts. The British rebuilt all four again during 1759, renaming Fort Machault as

Fort Venango Fort Venango, a small British fort built in 1760 near the present-day site of Franklin, Pennsylvania, replaced Fort Machault, a French fort built at the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny River. The French burned their fort in 1759 aft ...

, and Fort Duquesne as Fort Pitt. Thus the British continued to use the Venango Path as a military road. During

Pontiac's War Pontiac's War (also known as Pontiac's Conspiracy or Pontiac's Rebellion) was launched in 1763 by a loose confederation of Native Americans dissatisfied with British rule in the Great Lakes region following the French and Indian War (1754–176 ...

four years later (1763), hostile warriors from several tribes burned Forts Presque Isle, Le Boeuf and Venango, in an attempt to push the colonists from the region. After the

Battle of Bushy Run The Battle of Bushy Run was fought on August 5–6, 1763, in western Pennsylvania, between a British column under the command of Colonel Henry Bouquet and a combined force of Delaware, Shawnee, Mingo, and Huron warriors. This action occurred du ...

, where a British army defeated several combined warrior bands, the Natives relocated into

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and westward. They gave up use of Venango Path. After hostilities ceased in western Pennsylvania, the British also abandoned major military use of the trail.

Notes

References

*''The French and Indian War in Pennsylvania 1753-1763'', Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1996, . *''The Journals of George Washington and Christopher Gist: Mission to Fort Le Boeuf 1753-1754'', Edited and Annotated by Kevin Patrick Kopper, Slippery Rock University, 2003. *Novak, Michael, and Jana Novak, ''Washington's God'', Basic Books, 2006, {{ISBN, 0-465-05126-X.

External links

Washington's Trail 1753
Native American trails in the United States Historic trails and roads in Pennsylvania Lenape Trade routes George Washington French and Indian War Transportation in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Transportation in Butler County, Pennsylvania Transportation in Crawford County, Pennsylvania Transportation in Erie County, Pennsylvania Transportation in Mercer County, Pennsylvania Transportation in Venango County, Pennsylvania Native American history of Pennsylvania