The ancient trail that passed near this site, also known as the Tuscarawas Path, was the major overland route into the Ohio Country from the east through the 1700s and was used by Native Americans, European explorers, fur traders, missionaries, military expeditions, land agents, and settlers after Ohio became a state. In January 1761, during the French and Indian War, Major Robert Rogers and thirty-eight rangers passed this way en route to Fort Pitt after taking Fort Detroit from the French. In 1764, during Pontiac's Conspiracy, Colonel Henry Bouquet crossed here with an army of 1,500 men on his way to Goshachgunk (Coshocton), where he treated with the Delaware and freed captives. During the American Revolution, the Ohio wilderness became important in American, British, and Native American strategy. In 1778, General George Washington ordered General Lachlan McIntosh to establish a new fort in Ohio as a base for a spring campaign against British-held Fort Detroit and allied tribes. That fall McIntosh left Fort Pitt with over 1,200 troops, camped here for two days on the nights of November 13 and 14, 1778, then joined friendly Delawares and proceeded west to the Tuscarawas River, where his expedition established Fort Laurens at present-day Bolivar, the only Continental Army fort built in Ohio during the Revolution.