Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Wilma at the "Three Rivers" Point: Heinz Stadium is on the
Allegheny River to Wilma's right; to the left is the Ohio River
and to Wilma's left is the Monongahela River.

We visited Fort Pitt (the point where Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers form the Ohio) in Point State Park, Pittsburgh, PA and walked the grounds of the 1754 French Fort Duquesne and in 1748 the English Fort Pitt. We toured their very good Museum. 

The Fort Pitt Blockhouse, (1764) is the only original building still standing on site. We tried to find the Historical Marker where Lewis left on the keel boat down the Ohio River (see boat and historical plaque pictures), but I gave Wil wrong directions. 

Fort Pitt model inside the Museum

We picked up the trailer from the campground and then drove through Wheeling, WV (where Corps member Patrick Gass is buried (Wellsburg, WV), to camp at Wolfies Campground, Zanesville, OH. 

Lewis left Pittsburgh, PA on August 31, 1803 in very low water and met William Clark in Louisville, KY/Clarksville, IN a few weeks later. They eventually floated almost 1,000 miles to the Mississippi River near Cairo, IL where the Corps poled up to St. Louis, MO.

Tomorrow we plan to drive to the Falls of the Ohio to view George Rogers Clark's home (where William lived waiting for Meriwether Lewis.

Blockhouse plaques read "Historic Landmark - Fort
Pitt Block House, constructed 1764; only surviving structure
of Fort Pitt. Pittsburgh's oldest architectural landmark." AND
"A National Historic Landmark, possessing national significance
in commemorating the history of the United States of America."

The plaque reads, "Flag Bastion. From this bastion of Fort Pitt
(built 1759-61) flew the Union Jack of Great Britain proclaiming
victory over the forces of New France and establishing ownership
of the Ohio Valley and the land west of the mountains."

This commemorative marker stands in the middle of the original Fort
Pitt and reads, "This marks the exact site of Fort Duquesne built by
the French in 1754. The Fort was destroyed by the French on the approach
of the English Army in 1758. "