Trivia

Here are some interesting tidbits about the area.

Young George Washington learned some very valuable lessons in this area.

• In 1753 Washington (then 21) on behalf of the British passed through the area, including present day Ohiopyle on the Youghiogheny River, to deliver a message to the French at Fort LeBouef (north of present-day Pittsburgh) asking them to vacate the Ohio Valley. The French refused.
• Under his command in 1754, his troops improved an Indian trail that some decades later would become part of the National Road through the mountains east of Uniontown.
• In his first military encounter, one that would ignite the French and Indian War in America and the Seven Years War in Europe, young Washington and a band of his men attacked a small French contingent, killing their leader and ambassador, Col. Jumonville in the mountains above present-day Uniontown (half a mile from the Cross at Jumonville.)
• A month later, Washington would be defeated by the French at Washington's hastily established Fort Necessity (east of Uniontown), where Washington suffered the only surrender of his military career. He was forced to vacate the region, agreeing not to return.
• A year later in 1755, Washington would pass through the region as second in command to British Gen. Edward Braddock on a military campaign to to evict the French from Fort Duquesne (at present-day Pittsburgh). However, they were ambushed several miles short of the Fort Duquesne by French and Indian forces where the British suffered a devastating defeat. The badly beaten British retreated to a location a mile from Fort Necessity where Braddock succumbed to wounds (in Washington's presence) from the battle and was buried in the road.
• Washington acquired quite a bit of land in the area, including the site of Fort Necessity, and property in the Perryopolis area. Washington commissioned the building of a grist mill, which was a commercial flop.
• Washington returned to the area twice more, in 1770 and 1786, in connection with his holdings.

The National Road, the county's first interstate highway of the early 19th century, now U.S. Route 40, passes through the village of Hopwood, Uniontown, and Brownsville on its way westward. Several structures from the era still survive including Addison Tollhouse, Washington's Tavern, Searight Tollhouse, Nemacolin Castle and several stone buildings in Hopwood.

Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury under Thomas Jefferson, was instrumental in enabling the national Road to be built. His former estate, Friendship Hill, is now part of the National Park Service and is open to the public.

The first bank wast of the Alleghenies was built in Perryopolis in 1814. The structure is now a local museum.

America's first cast iron bridge was dedicated on July 4, 1839 in Brownsville, PA. Amazingly, it is still in use today with no weight restrictions!

This area was once famous for its reserves of easily obtained high grade coal that ultimately fueled the iron and steel industry of Pittsburgh. The coal was mined, then transformed into coke in thousands of beehive coke ovens in scores of small mining communities throughout the region, commonly known as the Connellsville Coke Region. The coal and coke industry was the source of many fortunes during the boom times at the turn of the 20th century. Alas, the coal is now gone and the industry and fortunes with it.

Uniontown is the birthplace and boyhood home of Gen. George C. Marshall, the former Secretary of State and General of the Army who won the Nobel Peace Prize for engineering the Marshall Plan which helped restore western Europe following W.W.II.

Fayette County is host to two homes by noted architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Fallingwater is world renowned as Wright's masterpiece and one of the finest examples of modern architecture in the world. Kentuck Knob was built for the I.N. Hagan family in the 1950's. Both are now open to the public.

The Big Mac was invented by James Delligati in 1967 at the Uniontown McDonalds at its former Morgantown St. location.

At 19 cents, you can buy the cheapest hamburger in America at Pechin's Shopping Village.