Tucked away in the Allegheny Mountains of western Pennsylvania is a small patch of land where the first shots of the French and Indian War were fired and George Washington suffered his only military surrender.
Today the site, which is owned by the National Park Service, is known as Fort Necessity National Battlefield and a new effort is under way to restore the park to its 1754 historic scene. Heading that effort is the National Park Service. Peggy Johnson, associate professor of civil engineering, will lead the portion of the project that involves restoration of the stream that runs through the park.
"Over the last 200 years there have been a lot of changes made to that piece of land," Johnson said. "The National Park Service wants the battlefield to appear more or less like it did in Washington's time."
John Karish, chief scientist with the National Park Service's Philadelphia Support Office, said that since the battle was fought in 1754, the land has been a farm, the stream was dredged and straightened and some land was drained.
Johnson said that site was originally a natural meadow fed by a winding stream. When the land was turned into a farm, the stream was straightened and drain tiles were installed to dry out the marshy stream.
Johnson's yearlong mission will be to assess the park's current conditions and make recommendations to the park service on how best to restore the meadow.
The battle at Fort Necessity occurred on July 3, 1754, marking the beginning of the French and Indian War where the English and French empires battled for control of the North American continent. The war ended with the French expulsion from North America in 1763.
"Washington originally chose that site because it was one of the few areas where he could build a fort and see the area around him," Karish said. The site, also known as the Great Meadows, was described by Washington as "a charming field for an encounter."
The fight marked Washington's first major military engagement as well as the only time he ever surrendered to an enemy.