Redstone Old Fort (Fayette County, Pennsylvania)

Fayette County · Pennsylvania · French and Indian War, Lord Dunmore's War

Quick BriefRedstone Old Fort, initially called Fort Burd, was a wooden French and Indian War-era fort built in 1759 by Pennsylvania militia Colonel James Burd on the Nemacolin Trail to guard an ancient Indian ford crossing the Monongahela River in present-day Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The fort was abandoned during Pontiac's War in 1763 but regarrisoned during Lord Dunmore's War in 1774.

History & Significance

Constructed atop a prehistoric earthwork mound overlooking the Monongahela River's eastern shore near Dunlap's Creek, the fort's wooden stockade served as a strategic waypoint on Nemacolin's Trail, which connected Potomac River settlements to the Ohio Country. The site served as a target terminus of Braddock's Road during the French and Indian War.

Following abandonment during Pontiac's War (1763), the fort reappeared as a garrisoned post during Lord Dunmore's War (1774), and later served as a rendezvous for George Rogers Clark's men in 1778 and as an assembly point for Whiskey Rebellion agitators in 1791. Meriwether Lewis referenced the fort in an 1803 letter to President Thomas Jefferson describing his route from Harper's Ferry to Pittsburgh.

The settlement that developed around the fort eventually became Brownsville, Pennsylvania, named after entrepreneur Thomas Brown. No physical remains of the fort survive today.