#old pike

[vandaliatraveler]

Icons of the National Road, Part 2. A bloody confrontation at this idyllic notch on the spine of Chestnut Ridge in May, 1754 set off the French and Indian War in North America, which contributed subsequently to the global conflagration between Great Britain and France known as the Seven Years’ War. A French expedition led by Joseph Coulon de Villiers, Sieur de Jumonville left Fort Duquesne (at present-day Pittsburgh) to warn a British colonial militia building fortifications to the east of Chestnut Ridge not encroach on French Territory to the West. The colonial militia was led by George Washington. Tipped off by their Native American allies, Washington’s men ambushed the French party in the secluded, boulder-strewn depression that would later become known as Jumonville Glen. Jumonville was killed along with about a dozen of his men, some of whom were reportedly scalped. The French would later protest that their party was on a diplomatic mission. Washington insisted they were spies. About a month later, a much large force of regular French soldiers, Canadians, and Native Americans defeated the colonial militia at the Battle of Great Meadows and secured Fort Necessity.

The site of the Battle of Jumonville Glen is now preserved as part of the Fort Necessity National Battlefield. 

Notes:

1. The site includes a seep where green false hellebore (Veratrum viride) grows in abundance. I really adore this deeply-pleated and highly toxic beauty.

2. The place is kind of creepy in the late afternoon. I’m not one given to supernatural inclinations, but I was tempted more than once to imagine the spirits of Jumonville and his men flitting through the glen’s secretive recesses. Probably just birds . . . 

[vandaliatraveler]

Icons of the National Road, Part 1. The National Road was the first improved highway funded and constructed by the federal government.  Built between 1811 and 1837 along the former path of the Braddock Road, it became the key transportation route from the eastern seaboard to the western settlements for thousands of settlers in search of land, prosperity, and improved lives. Today, US Route 40 parallels the original route of the National Road over the Allegheny Mountains and Plateau from Cumberland, Maryland to Wheeling, West Virginia. A number of landmark buildings from the heyday of the road yet stand, including several wayside inns and taverns that catered to the traveling throngs. One of them - the Stone House Restaurant and Country Inn in Farmington, Pennsylvania - was opened in 1822 as the Fayette Springs Hotel and continues to operate to this day.

[vandaliatraveler]

Icons of the National Road, Part 3. The arrival of the B&O Railroad to the Allegheny Mountains in the mid-1800s unlocked the region’s timber and mineral wealth and created droves of millionaires virtually overnight. While much of Central Appalachia was deforested, scorched, and scarred beyond recognition by their greed, the newly-minted wealthy built grand “porch hotels” near mineral springs and railroad towns to celebrate their rising fortunes and rub elbows with other prominent entrepreneurs, such as Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone, who traveled in on trains from points far and wide. With their sweeping verandas and hoity-toity appointments, these porch hotels thrived from the late 1800s into the early 1900s, when train travel declined following the widespread availability of automobiles and paved highways. A century later, very few of the original porch hotels remain standing. One of them, the Summit Inn, is open for business and well worth a visit. The sprawling hotel nestles into a gentle nook on the summit of Chestnut Ridge overlooking Uniontown, Pennsylvania. On a clear day, you can see all the way to Pittsburgh fifty miles to the north.