Forty Fort (Luzerne County, Pennsylvania)

Luzerne County · Pennsylvania · American Revolutionary War

Quick BriefBuilt in summer 1770 with double-thick log walls—five feet underground and twelve feet above ground—Forty Fort served as a stronghold for Connecticut settlers along the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County. During the Battle of Wyoming on July 3, 1778, Colonel Zebulon Butler led roughly 300 militia and 60 Continentals from the fort in a disastrous engagement in which about 300 Americans were killed. The fort surrendered the following day under Colonel Nathan Denison.

History & Significance

Forty Fort was a Connecticut settler stronghold built on the Susquehanna River at a time when both Connecticut and Pennsylvania claimed this territory, as Connecticut's colonial charter extended its land claims far westward. In 1769, the Susquehanna Company sent forty men to settle and hold the land against Indians and Pennsylvanians, and the fort was begun in 1770.

Its construction featured log palisades set upright in a trench five feet deep, extending twelve feet above ground with sharpened tops; joints were protected by double-thick walls of overlapping logs. The fort served as a refuge for settlers during the Battle of Wyoming on July 3, 1778, when Lieutenant Colonel Zebulon Butler's militia force was defeated by Loyalist soldiers from Butler's Rangers and their Indigenous allies.

Roughly 300 Americans were killed in the ensuing combat; the next morning, Colonel Nathan Denison surrendered the fort, and the Loyalist commander paroled the garrison on their promise to take no further part in the war. The fort was reoccupied by Americans later that year. In 1900, the Daughters of the American Revolution placed a large stone at the end of Fort Street to mark its approximate location.