Occasionally someone will ask me where I get ideas for my column; I usually have a straightforward answer. This week’s column is an exception. I know where it started, but the path it took to get to this point is indeed convoluted.
I have commented several times on the way remote communication has improved in direct response to the pandemic, and on the potential it provides for linking tiny groups of people interested in niche topics. This week’s example began with an email I received from an unknown sender, Jack Cohen, inviting me to a “Washington Trail Webinar”.
My first reaction was that this was related to the off-and-on project to construct a hiking/biking trail up the Chartiers Valley. I searched the long list of invitees (nearly two hundred) without finding a single familiar name. Only after I had added the date and time to my calendar did I realize that Mr. Cohen’s email address was @visitbutlercounty.com.
A visit to that website yielded the information that the topic of the webinar was the route George Washington took when he left the Forks of the Ohio late in 1753, trekking north to Fort LeBoeuf to advise the French invasion force that they were trespassing on Virginian (British) soil. This, of course, explained my inclusion in their mailing list.
Mr. Cohen hosted the Webinar, announcing that it was jointly sponsored by the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau, and “Washington’s Trail -1753”. Upon investigation I have learned that “Washington’s Trail -1753” is a non-profit organization headquartered in Zelienople, dedicated to commemorating George Washington’s mission to Fort LeBouef.
Mr. Cohen introduced Rodney Gasch, President and CEO of Historic Harmony Inc., who served as monitor of the presentation. Mr. Gasch, in turn, introduced Marilyn Black, representing Washington’s Trail – 1753. She then introduced the speaker, Dr. Charles Williams. Incidentally Ms. Black and Messers. Cohen and Gasch are all Board members of Washington’s Trail – 1753.
Dr. Williams is an accomplished ecologist and archaeologist, located in Shippenville, Pa. He currently is proprietor of Williams Ecological LLC, offering consulting services in the conservation of plants, animals, land, and water resources. He is a full-time faculty member of Columbia Southern University, a leading on-line institution, where he teaches Ecology.
His presentation was entitled “The Venango Path – Then and Now”, certainly an appropriate topic for this audience. Today Washingtons Trail – 1753 supports an automobile tour along modern highways paralleling the Path; the speaker successfully presented a view of the artery as it probably existed nearly three centuries ago.
He began by describing the network of Indian trails in Pennsylvania during colonial times, paying proper homage to Paul W. Wallace and his classic “Indian Paths of Pennsylvania”. He highlighted their significance as trade routes by relating the finding of a rhyolite bead at “Fishbasket”, site of a Shawnee settlement on Redbank Creek and confirming it was identical to one found separately at Fort Loudon, at the other end of a prominent Indian trail.
Dr. Williams discussed the various tools used by archaeologists to evaluate archaic ecology – tools ranging from old documents and word-of-the-mouth recollections to leading edge technology like LIDAR (3-D laser scanning). He illustrated it with an example of his efforts to locate charcoal hearths in Clarion County.
An important characteristic of the Indian trails in pre-colonial times is the fact that they were not static; instead their specific location often varied from season to season. The Venango Trail connected Presque Isle on Lake Erie with the Forks of the Ohio, passing through LeBoeuf (Waterford), Cussewago (Meadville), and Venango (Franklin). Its precise route between those destinations is unknown. We leave determining it and the associated environment to the archaeologists.
Dr. Williams focused on the portion of the trail that follows French Creek, from Venango to LeBoeuf. He quoted verbatim from Washington’s Journal, “mires and swamps” and “very rich meadows”. Another source, Colonel Henry Bouquet, reported the presence of a large prairie-like meadow with grass “five foot eight inches high”.
Another prestigious source was Thomas Hutchins. In 1788 he published a remarkable map of Lake Erie and the Ohio country to accompany a comprehensive document describing the topography of the region. He too noted the meadows; on his map they are designated “Mingoe Meadows”.
What is this tiny bit of prairie doing in the endless forests of Pennsylvania? Charles Lee in 1759 and Jacob Everly in in 1792 reported that the area was populated by large numbers of Delaware Indians; did they fell trees and farm this area? Dr. Williams refuted that theory by citing a report that colonial-era Indians attributed the evidence of agriculture to an earlier, more civilized people.
He cited a 1997 paper by Carl Burkett and Richard Cunningham reporting on a dig in 1938 that discovered clear evidence of the presence of stockaded villages along French Creek in the Late Woodlands Era, perhaps one thousand years ago, at the same time strong agricultural communities existed in the Southwest (the Anasazi), at Cahokia (Mississippi people), and the upper Ohio Valley (Monongahela people).
Dr. Williams ended his discussion of this subject by noting that a study of phytoliths suggested that the French Creek meadows were evidence of extreme climate change thousands of years ago. Phytoliths are non-organic residue left in plants that decay and are important markers for archaeologists. This, of course, establishes the age of the meadow, but does nothing to explain its origin.
Similar meadows occur throughout Pennsylvania; Great Meadows, where Washington constructed Fort Necessity, is a perfect example. Their origin is a comparable mystery.
I apologize for the rambling nature of this column; its common thread is the power of today’s technology to unite tiny enclaves of people interested in niche topics.