Fort McDowell
Peters Township, Franklin County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
John McDowell's mill, stockaded in 1755 by local settlers. Used by Provincial authorities until building of Ft. Loudon, 1756. Starting point of Col. Burd's road to the West, 1755.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
When war swept the frontier after 1755, John McDowell's gristmill was ringed with a stockade and pressed into service as a provincial strongpoint until the more substantial Fort Loudon rose the next year. The site also anchored one end of Colonel James Burd's road, cut in 1755 to carry troops and supplies westward toward the Ohio country. A working mill thus became both a fort and a gateway into the contested interior.
Why it matters
Fort McDowell shows how the French and Indian War militarized everyday frontier life, turning a settler's mill into a link in the military roads and defenses that opened the American West.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · John McDowell
- · James Burd
Related events
- · French and Indian War
- · Braddock's Expedition
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Fort McDowell - PLAQUE
Peters Township, PA · est. 1916
Fort McDowell grew up around a frontier gristmill before 1754, then became a supply base and munitions store as the French and Indian War closed in, holding that role until Fort Loudon was raised in 1756. From this point in 1755 Col. James Burd pushed a military road westward to link with Braddock's ill-fated route at Turkey Foot. Standing at the edge of settled country, the little fort saw its share of the war's frontier alarms.
Forbes Road - Raystown Path
Dublin Township, PA · est. 1952
The Raystown Path was one of the great Indian trails threading the Allegheny ridges of central Pennsylvania, and in 1758 it became a corridor of war. During the French and Indian War, General John Forbes cut a military road westward toward the French stronghold at the forks of the Ohio, throwing up a chain of forts to guard his slow, methodical advance. The towns strung along his line of march — Littleton, Bedford, Ligonier, and finally Pittsburgh — still carry the names of those wilderness garrisons.
Braddock Expedition
Shippensburg, PA · est. 1961
In 1755, as General Edward Braddock's army marched toward the French at Fort Duquesne, supplies for the expedition were stockpiled in Edward Shippen's stout stone house at Shippensburg. His son-in-law James Burd cut a road westward to move those provisions toward the front. After Braddock's crushing defeat, the goods that remained were handed out to settlers fleeing Indian raids along the exposed Pennsylvania frontier.
Forbes Road - Raystown Path
Southampton Township, PA · est. 1952
At Shippensburg the old Raystown Path split, and in 1758 General John Forbes had to choose his army's line of march west. One branch climbed directly over three steep mountains toward Burnt Cabins; Forbes instead took the southern fork around Parnells Knob to Fort Loudon, crossing the Tuscarora Mountain at Cowan Gap to avoid the punishing grades. The choice shaped where his military road—and later settlement—would run.