With the help of about $70,000 in state funds, a group of local historians plans to mark the Butler County trail George Washington traveled nearly 250 years ago. If all goes well, a handful of signs, including some with stories about Washington’s visit to the county, will be erected next year on the anniversary of Washington’s historic 1753 trip along the trail, or at least what remains of it. “It’s important for people to learn (about Washington’s exploits),” said Bob Tait, state coordinator for the North Country National Scenic Trail Association and a member of the county’s Washington Commemorative Trail Committee. Marking the trail also is good for tourism, said Dave Johnston, director of the Butler County Planning Department and a member of the trail committee. Historic tourism is popular statewide, according to state tourism officials. “But I think more than that, people are just more and more becoming interested and aware of the past and how that has affected their lives,” Johnston said. Some larger signs being considered by the committee would detail Washington’s adventures in the county, including his near-death experience outside Harmony when an American Indian shot at him and missed, Johnston said. Those signs are planned along parts of the trail that still exist, including a Moraine State Park section that is part of the still incomplete North Country National Scenic Trail, Tait said. The North Country National Scenic Trail is planned to extend south from New York state through the Allegheny National Forest, across Warren, McKean, Forest, Clarion, Armstrong, Butler, Lawrence and Beaver counties and into Ohio. When completed, the National Scenic Trail will connect New York state with North Dakota. Tait said he envisions people hiking portions of the same historic trail that Washington traveled. Other signs, which he called scenic driving signs, will be placed along roads that replaced the footpath used by Washington, he said. When Virginia Lt. Gov. Robert Dinwiddie sought volunteers to inform the French they were encroaching on British territory, Washington, then 21, was the first to come forward, according to historians, and wound up traveling to Fort LeBeouf in what is now Waterford, Erie County. Washington, already a retired land surveyor, made his way from Virginia up to the Potomac River, over to Pittsburgh, through Harmony along Lake Arthur’s north shore, across Slippery Rock Creek and on to Fort LeBeouf, historians said. He was accompanied by fellow Virginian Christopher Gist. At Fort LeBeouf, Washington told French officials they were not permitted to build fortifications along a stretch beginning in Erie and extending to Fort Duquesne. Washington left Fort LeBeouf in December 1753 with a written response from the French claiming the disputed land was rightfully theirs — setting the stage for the French and Indian War, which pitted the British against the French and their allies. In Butler County, Washington and Gist met an American Indian who joined them on their journey. A short time after joining them, the Indian turned and fired an errant shot at Washington, according to historians. The Indian, whom Gist wanted killed, eventually was released by Washington, historians said. A couple of days later, while attempting to cross the Allegheny River near Etna, Washington fell off a raft and nearly drowned. He and Gist crossed the ice-covered river on foot the next day. In accordance with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation grant requirements, a consultant will be hired by the trail committee to detail how grant money will be spent and help develop signs for the trail, Tait said. Tait said there is no way to know exactly where Washington traveled on his way through the county. But based on historic accounts, including journals written by Washington and Gist, he said the committee is satisfied the route it plans to identify is very close to the one used by Washington. Tait said he also hopes to persuade the National Park Service to erect additional signs in Butler County along the National Scenic Trail, where historians believe Washington traveled. Johnston said he hopes a large sign in Moraine State Park will provide more extensive details about Washington’s journey through the county, including its historic importance. He said the committee also is talking to other county representatives about commemorating an even longer stretch of the trail used by Washington. “We would like to see something established not only through Butler County, but all the way to Fort LeBeouf,” Johnston said.

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