Fort Necessity National Battlefield: Washington's First Battle in the Alleghenies

From the National Park Service's Geodiversity Atlas.

Fort Necessity National Battlefield lies in the Allegheny Mountains section of the Appalachian Plateau, in Fayette County, southwestern Pennsylvania. Authorized as a national battlefield site on March 4, 1931, it covers about 365 hectares (903 acres).

The battle

The park protects the site of the battle that began the French and Indian War and set the stage for the American Revolution. The fight at Fort Necessity on July 3, 1754, was the first test of military leadership for a 22-year-old Colonel George Washington, and ended in the only surrender of his career. The land offered excellent forage for his horses, and sixteen years after the battle he bought it.

Visitors today find interactive exhibits, talks, tours, historic weapons demonstrations, hiking trails and cross-country skiing.

The rocks

• Bedrock: mostly flat-lying, little-deformed rocks of the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian, about 360 to 300 million years old.
• Ancient settings: the rocks and their fossils record tropical seas, river plains and coastal swamps.
• East of the park: the rolling hills and steep valleys of the Allegheny Mountains, including Laurel Hill, Sugarloaf Knob and Tharp Knob.
• West of the park: valleys and hollows climb steeply to Chestnut Ridge, capped by Pennsylvanian sandstone — a strategic high point during the battle.

A trail at Fort Necessity National Battlefield. NPS.

Protected resources

Fossils in national parks are protected under the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act of 2009, and caves under the Federal Cave Resources Protection Act of 1988.

Region, maps and reports

The battlefield is part of the Appalachian Plateaus province and shares its geology with a wide region. The Geologic Resources Inventory has produced a geologic map and report for the park.

The Geologic Resources Inventory's map of Fort Necessity. NPS.

Sources

• National Park Service, "NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Fort Necessity National Battlefield, Pennsylvania." https://www.nps.gov/articles/nps-geodiversity-atlas-fort-necessity-national-battlefield-pennsylvania.htm — which cites Anderson (2017), Koch and Santucci (2004) and Thornberry-Ehrlich (2009).
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.