Fort Roberdeau and the Lead Mines of Sinking Valley

Hidden in a quiet Pennsylvania valley northeast of Altoona lie the remains of a Revolutionary War fort built not to guard a town but to protect a mine. In seventeen seventy-eight, General Daniel Roberdeau took leave from the Continental Congress to establish, at his own expense, a fortified lead-mining operation here in Sinking Valley. Lead was desperately scarce, and without it the Continental Army could not produce bullets.

Roberdeau's men extracted ore from local deposits, smelted it on site, and shipped the lead to ammunition makers supporting George Washington's campaigns. The fort also served as a frontier refuge for settlers threatened by Loyalist and Iroquois raids during the war's turbulent middle years. The stockade was only in use for a couple of years before the lead supply proved insufficient to sustain full operations, but in that time it contributed meaningfully to keeping the Revolution armed.