Summer 2018, Day 3: Fort Necessity NB, Friendship Hill NHS

Trish and I went for a ride this morning:

Not a bad spot for the Northeast:

With M and I driving the motorcycles, and B riding with me, we visited a local iron furnace. The furnace was similar to the one at Saugus Iron Works National Historic Site:

After loading up the motorcycles, we visited nearby Fort Necessity National Battlefield:

It was here that then-Colonel George Washington was defeated and surrendered his fort after starting the French and Indian War at Jumonville Glen a month earlier:

Looking embarrassed:

We walked down to the fort:

The fort was hastily built, so there’s not much to it:

We saw this fancy fellow on the sidewalk:

The visitor center placed the battle of Fort Necessity in its historical context:

During the war, Washington built a road through the area for moving troops and supplies. 50 years later, Albert Gallatin would use Washington’s road as a portion of the National Road. It was an interesting tie-in to our next stop, Friendship Hill National Historic Site, the home of Albert Gallatin:

Gallatin was a Congressman, Secretary of the Treasury, and US Ambassador to Great Britian and France, among many other accomplishments.

The house was burned by arson before becoming a National Park Service site. The new roof line shows the location of the old roof lines of the various additions to the home:

We continued south to a dispersed camping location at the foot of the Summersville Lake dam, but it turned out to be more like a homeless camp, so we continued south, but first stopped at an overlook for the lake: