There’s no doubt: This is one tough redoubt
By Dave Hurst
© 2014 Hurst Media Works
At first glance, it’s not an impressive site: just a 60-foot-square of narrow, rounded
mounds of earth that are fronted by shallow depressions. There isn’t more than three feet
of elevation difference from the bottom of the depression to the top of the mound.
In the middle, though, is an old stone historical marker that identifies this as Fort Dewart
and hints at its true strength. For this humble little fortification has held back the
relentless forces of time and development for 256 years.
Consider that there are no other original fortifications remaining from General John
Forbes’ campaign to chase the French from the Forks of the Ohio (now Pittsburgh) in
1758. Also consider that Fort Dewart sits in the midst of a several-thousand-acre property
development with 229 property owners and more than 100 permanent homes.
Yet Fort Dewart is arguably safer today than it was generations ago because the 25-acre
site – which also includes about two miles of the original Forbes Road – is protected by
the Folmont Property Owners Association and held in common by its members. And Fort
Dewart arguably stands taller today than it ever did thanks to recent international
recognition.
Not bad for a temporary fortification that was just meant to protect and facilitate the
advance of Forbes’ men and materials over the feared Allegheny Front. It wasn’t really a
fort but rather a hastily dug redoubt – piles of earth and stone – that Captain Allan
Maclean and his men erected under the orders of Colonel Henry Bouquet, Forbes’ second
in command.
The fortification’s purpose was to provide a more-secure resting place for men and
animals, following their arduous climb up the rugged Allegheny Front. Here they could
rest a bit before having to face the “Shades of Death” – an expanse of soggy woodlands
that began three miles to the west.
The “Shades” are the Glades today – a pretty, relatively treeless section of fertile
farmland on either side of U.S. Route 30 in eastern Somerset County. But back in 1758,
this was a place feared by hardened soldiers, who were grateful for the relative security of
“Maclean’s Encampment.”
Maclean, who was in the 77th Highlanders, was the 22nd chief of Clan Maclean and
named the fort in honor of his clan’s ancestral home, Castle Duart, in Scotland. By the
time Sir Lachlan MacLean, Clan MacLean’s 28th clan chief, visited the historic site last
fall, the fort’s name had evolved into “Dewart,” and the MacLean Clan’s name has
changed slightly as well.
Clan MacLean, which is an international organization, is combining its resources with
those of the Folmont group to raise about $4,000 to cover the costs of getting the historic
site and the Forbes Road traces listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission already has determined that the site is
eligible.
Backers and historians have collaborated with an artist to create a painting of Captain
Maclean building the redoubt. Proceeds from the sale of the prints will go toward the
costs of the National Register listing.
Not only is the site’s historic documentation unmistakable, but it has not been disturbed
by man – despite clear-cut logging in the area a century ago and the residential
development of the past 40 years.
“It may be the oldest undisturbed structure in all of Western Pennsylvania,” Peter Folen
told me. An architect involved with the National Register-listing project and member of
Folmont’s Board of Directors, he will be making a presentation on Fort Dewart at the
January 25 meeting of the Bedford County Historical Society.
He’ll be talking about a fort that’s clearly much tougher – and more impressive – than it
looks.
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For more information on Peter Folen’s talk or the art print, e-mail pfolen@verizon.net.