Fort McDowell and the Frontier Road West

Before Fort Loudon was built to push Pennsylvania's frontier defenses westward, the settlement at McDowell's Mill served as the outer edge of British colonial reach in this part of the Cumberland Valley. John McDowell had built a mill here before seventeen fifty-four, and it was later stockaded as a fort. It was proposed as a supply point for forces moving deeper into the contested backcountry.

In seventeen fifty-five, Colonel James Burd is said to have supervised construction of a military road from this point connecting through to the Braddock Road, the main axis of British advance toward Fort Duquesne. Fort Loudon replaced McDowell's Mill as the primary forward post in seventeen fifty-six, but the earlier fort had already established the corridor that made later operations possible. The community of Markes sits near this site today, quiet evidence of a frontier that once ran directly through here.