Friendship Hill National Historic Site: Albert Gallatin's Home on the Monongahela

From the National Park Service's Geodiversity Atlas.

Friendship Hill National Historic Site lies on the Appalachian Plateau beside the Monongahela River, near Point Marion in Fayette County, southwestern Pennsylvania. Authorized as a national park unit on November 10, 1978, it covers about 273 hectares (675 acres).

The Monongahela River from Gallatin House. NPS.

Albert Gallatin

The site commemorates the home and the achievements of Albert Gallatin, a Swiss immigrant who served as Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Jefferson and Madison. He worked to cut the national debt, to purchase the vast Louisiana Territory, and to fund the Lewis and Clark expedition. The park preserves Gallatin House and its grounds.

Where three landscapes meet

The park also protects land near the meeting point of three sections of the Appalachian Plateau: the Waynesburg Hills, the Pittsburgh Low Plateau and the Allegheny Mountain section.

• To the west are the rolling hills and steep valleys of Monongahela and Dunkard townships, among them Durrs Knob, Rocky Hollow and Mundell Hollow.
• To the east, Hardin, Bartons and Victor Hollows climb steeply towards Chestnut Ridge.

The rocks

The bedrock is mostly sedimentary rock of the Pennsylvanian (about 320 to 300 million years ago), with Quaternary deposits (less than 2.58 million years old). The layers are generally flat-lying and undeformed:

• Rock types: sandstone, limestone, claystone, conglomerate, dolomite and shale.
• What they hold: fossils, coal of commercial quality, and some iron- and sulfide-rich minerals.

Region, maps and reports

The site belongs to the Appalachian Plateaus province and shares its geologic history with a region far beyond the park. The Geologic Resources Inventory has produced a geologic map and report for Friendship Hill.

The Geologic Resources Inventory's map of Friendship Hill. NPS.

Sources

• National Park Service, "NPS Geodiversity Atlas—Friendship Hill National Historic Site, Pennsylvania." https://www.nps.gov/articles/nps-geodiversity-atlas-friendship-hill-national-historic-site-pennsylvania.htm — which cites Anderson (2017) and Thornberry-Ehrlich (2008b).
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.