Blennerhassett Island: Aaron Burr's Western Conspiracy

In the Ohio River near Parkersburg sits a narrow island that once hosted one of the most mysterious plots in early American history. Harman and Margaret Blennerhassett, wealthy Irish aristocrats, settled here in seventeen ninety-eight and built what was said to be the most elegant mansion on the western frontier. Then in eighteen oh five, Aaron Burr arrived.

Burr was the former Vice President who had killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel the year before, and he was now recruiting allies for an expedition into the Southwest. Historians still debate whether he meant to seize Mexican territory or break away western states to form a new nation. When the scheme collapsed and federal authorities moved in, the Blennerhassetts fled.

Their mansion burned to the ground in eighteen eleven. A detailed replica was built on the original foundations in the nineteen eighties and can still be toured today by sternwheeler from Parkersburg.