Fort Le Boeuf Historical Museum
55 High St, Waterford, PA 16441, USA
Pennsylvania, USA
MUSEUM
TICKETED:
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PARKING:
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RESTROOMS:
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FORT
EST. 1753
FORTIFICATION
EST. 1753
1753–1763
Washington, George
HISTORIC PEOPLE WHO WERE HERE
1
HISTORIC PRESERVATION at Fort Le Boeuf Historical Museum.
The French and British forts no longer survive above ground. A local history museum and commemorative park occupy part of the Waterford site, displaying artifacts, models, exhibits, monuments, and interpretive markers while preserving the approximate location of the successive frontier fortifications.
About Fort Le Boeuf Historical Museum
The French constructed Fort Le Boeuf in 1753 to secure the route between Lake Erie and the Ohio Country. Later that year, twenty-one-year-old George Washington arrived as Virginia’s envoy and delivered a demand that the French withdraw. Their refusal helped precipitate the French and Indian War. Although the fort predates the Revolution, Washington’s mission provided formative diplomatic and frontier experience for the future Continental commander.
HISTORY HAPPENED HERE at Fort Le Boeuf Historical Museum
Robert Dinwiddie, the governor of Virginia, sent the 21-year-old George Washington, a major in the Virginia militia, to Fort Le Boeuf with seven escorts, in order to deliver a message to the French demanding that they leave the Ohio Country. Dinwiddie was responding to news of the French building forts in the Ohio Country. Washington took explorer Christopher Gist along as his guide; during the trip, Gist saved the young Washington's life on two occasions. Washington and Gist arrived at Fort Le Boeuf on 11 December 1753. Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre, commandant at Fort Le Boeuf, a tough veteran of the west, received Washington politely, but contemptuously rejected his blustering ultimatum.
During his stay, Washington noted that the fort had one hundred men, numerous officers, and birch canoes and 70 pine canoes, many unfinished. He described the fort as on a south or west fork of French Creek, near the water, and almost surrounded by it. Four houses composed the sides. The bastions were made of piles driven into the ground, standing more than 12 feet high, and sharpened at the top. Port holes for cannon and loop-holes for small-arms were cut into the bastions. Each bastion mounted eight six-pound cannon and one four-pound cannon guarded the gate. Inside the bastions stood a guard-house, chapel, doctor's lodging and the commander's private stores. Outside the fort were several log barracks, some covered with bark, others with boards. In addition, there were stables, a smithy and other buildings.
HISTORIC PLACES NEARBY
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MONUMENT
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EXTERNAL LINKS