Some excellent detective work by Plum historians Gary Rogers and Tom Whanger has paid off, allowing them to put their finger—and the public’s—on a unique piece of history almost lost for 250 years. But the story, in a sense, has a preface that begins in 1909, in England.

The American stranger is hopelessly lost in the London fog. He makes his way to a street lamp to figure out where he is. Out of the mist steps a boy who offers to help him find his way. The American gives him the address. The boy takes him there. He politely refuses the American stranger’s tip; he is a Scout, just doing “a good turn.” The American businessman doesn’t know what that is. The Scout fills him in and introduces him to Scout Leaders.

Within one year, the BSA—Boy Scouts of America—is born, brought back and birthed by the American stranger who was lost in the fog.

And Now for the Rest of the Story, I Mean the Beginning Part

Gary Rogers, Tom Whanger and Jeff Garrett in the middle of the mystery

Flash back nearly 150 years before that. It is November 1758 in Western PA. Welcome to the French-Indian War. The French have kicked the British and the American colonists out of the area. The Indians attack unmercifully anyone remaining. A few years earlier, the father of our country, George Washington, was convinced a fort where two rivers meet, forming a third (where Pittsburgh’s Point is today) would cease the War and hospitalities. The country controlling this strategic point would control the gateway to the West and the Mississippi. He took a force to build the fort. But he found the French had already built Ft. Duquesne there. Washington was soon outnumbered, forced to surrender, released and expelled out of the area by the French. He reluctantly went home to take care of his Virginia farm.

But there is always this idea he and the British have in the back of their heads: the Virginia border extends westward to the Allegheny River and northward to the Kiski River. The French are on their land.

So there they are now in November 1758 and British General Forbes (where we get Forbes Avenue) marches a force of 4,000 to respond to the French. Forbes’ Army hacks their way through the thick Pennsylvania woodlands, ridges and ravines, following old Indian trails. Their goal is to take the French Ft. Duquesne. They get closer, but it is slow. Camped very close to where Murrysville is today, they send three brigades out on November 22: the first brigade basically hatchets their way through the brush, the second one follows close behind and opens the road up, and the third one leaves an hour behind and brings the baggage, heavy gear, supplies and 100 men. This is George Washington’s brigade.

The going is rough. The first brigade makes it to its goal, camp at the Sewickley Old Towne Path [which went from near today’s New Kensington to near today’s Greensburg –ed.] But the terrain is so rough, and cutting out the road so slow, that it is 4pm—dark already for a Pennsylvania November day. Washington’s brigade pitches an unscheduled camp and stays the night of November 22 right there. Unknown to them, they make camp in an old deserted Indian village. (Thirty years later, buying the land is William McJunkin, one of the earliest settlers in today’s Plum Borough.) It is the first stop after crossing Turtle Creek, so the camp’s name, of course, becomes “Camp Cross Turtle Creek). It is a good idea; by seven o’clock that evening there are still soldiers who have not arrived.

Tom Whanger

The next day, November 23rd, Washington, Forbes and their men pull out and meet up with Bouquet and the first brigade. They all prepare for an all-out attack on the French fort shortly thereafter, only to find Fort Duquesne burnt and abandoned. The French have fled. Washington and Forbes build the new defensive position on the rivers that will one day give its name to the city that grows around it: Fort Pitt.

The raw Forbes road trail is used for roughly a year, then as a rough peace begins to settle, the original road is abandoned. Other nearby routes are created that are more direct, shorter and more level.

Now we jump from the 1700s to 1963.

And Now, Really, for the Rest of the Story, Almost

Gary Rogers

Allegheny County planners come up with a great idea in the late 1950s: ring Pittsburgh with large, undeveloped blocks of land for use by the public. Seven areas are chosen to be regional parks. The first of them to be dedicated is named after someone who grew up in the area where the park is. He is the hero from the earlier part of our story. Remember the unnamed American stranger in London who brought Boy Scouts to America? His name: William Boyce. The public land in Plum located near Monroeville and dedicated in 1963: Boyce Park.

One more hop and skip into the future, to the New Millennium, to today.

The Rest of the Story, For Real, This Time

Gary Rogers and Tom Whanger, from our story’s beginning, are deeply involved with the Allegheny Foothills Historical Society in Plum. They are a wealth of knowledge about the area and have been kind enough to let me pick their brains from time to time (including the great proposal for this article.) During the past few years, they have scoured clues and old maps and documents in search of where this good path by George cut through the Alle-Kiski region. It was obvious from journals and books of the day that it snaked through Plum, and so they traced several possible routes and utilized technology alien to researchers a few decades ago.

Washington's Road today looks similar to a gully

With the help of GPS technology and Computer Mapping Software, they have taken those clues they put together, including old maps, and melded them with the new technology to come up with what is, with a high degree of certainty, the exact route the original Forbes/Washington Road took. They even have found “road scars” from it still remaining. And guess what? The only part of this earliest road in Western PA that remains undeveloped land today is in—get ready for it, it’s the payoff where these all come together, wait, wait, waaaaaaaaaiiiitttt—Boyce Park!

Did you guess it? A section of Boyce Park just happens to contain the remnants of this route! I could find no evidence that park planners in the 50s knew it was there nor used it as a reason to put the park there, though they may have suspected it.

Who woulda thunk it?

Gary and Tom, that’s who. Plans are already being considered by the interested organizations to put in markers, trails, and perhaps even camping facilities. Just so we could all enjoy the story of a nice road by George (or whatever I named this column.)

We hope to take you there to see part of it with Gary Rogers and Tom Whanger. Watch for an upcoming video on alle-kiskitoday.com at: www.allekiskitoday.com/webcasts/archive/78

Check out progress on Gary and Tom’s project on George’s road at: www.plumhistory.org