Burke’s Garden was named for James Burke, who surveyed the region with James Patton by 1750. According to tradition, Burke buried some potato peelings in the region’s fertile soil during a survey expedition. Sometime later, another group camped at the same site and discovered the potatoes, and the area became known as Burke’s Garden. Burke built a cabin nearby and lived there from about 1753 until 1756, when hostilities began during the French and Indian War. Burke’s Garden is a topographically rare elongated basin rimmed entirely by the Garden Mountain.