Blue Mountain Forts
East Hanover Township, Lebanon County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
In 1763-64, from a line of six loghouse stations to the north, settlers were defended by the Paxton Rangers "“ volunteers paid by Pennsylvania's Provincial government. Fort Hunter was on the Susquehanna just north of Blue Mountain, and the other five stations were just south of the mountain "“ located at regular intervals over the 23 miles between the river and the Swatara Creek. A similar line of stations had existed, 1756-57.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
As frontier violence flared along the Blue Mountain in the 1750s and 1760s, Pennsylvania's colonial government paid volunteer companies to shield its exposed settlers. A chain of six fortified loghouse stations stretched roughly twenty-three miles from Fort Hunter on the Susquehanna to the Swatara Creek, garrisoned in 1763–64 by the Paxton Rangers, echoing an earlier defensive line held in 1756–57. These crude forts marked the raw, contested edge of British settlement during the French and Indian War and Pontiac's uprising.
Why it matters
This fortified frontier line shows how vulnerable colonial Pennsylvania was during the imperial and Indian wars, and how ordinary settlers were pressed into a violent struggle over the Appalachian borderland.
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Reed's Fort
East Hanover Township, PA · est. 1949
In 1755, as war raged along Pennsylvania's frontier, the home of Adam Reed just south of this point was fortified into a place of refuge. From here Reed and a company of Rangers drawn from Hanover Township stood guard over the surrounding countryside during a period of frequent raids. It was one link in the improvised chain of frontier defenses that ordinary settlers threw up when the empire's protection fell short.
Swatara Gap
Union Township, PA · est. 1947
Swatara Gap is a natural break in the Blue Mountain, and in the 1750s it became a dangerous doorway. During the French and Indian War, war parties allied with the French slipped through the gap to strike the scattered farms of the Pennsylvania frontier, and colonial authorities answered by raising Fort Swatara nearby to guard the pass. The steep, wooded notch that had long served as a travel route became a frontline in a brutal borderland conflict.
Barnett's Fort
Lower Paxton Township, PA · est. 1947
During the bloody frontier years of the French and Indian War, Joseph Barnett's fortified log house near the head of Beaver Creek became a refuge for settlers fleeing raids between 1756 and 1763. The war struck this family directly: Barnett's young son William was carried off in a 1756 raid and not returned until 1763, freed in the settlement that followed Colonel Henry Bouquet's campaigns. Such private strongholds were the thin line of defense along a violent borderland.
Patton's Fort
Lower Paxton Township, PA · est. 1947
Somewhere near this spot stood Patton's Fort, a base for the Paxton Rangers who patrolled the gaps of the Blue Mountains during the French and Indian War. From the Susquehanna River to Swatara Creek, these frontier militiamen guarded farmsteads and mountain passes against raids between 1756 and 1763. Theirs was a grinding, dangerous vigil along an unsettled border.