Amid the dangers of the French and Indian War, Col. George Washington wrote Virginia Gov. Dinwiddie in April 1756 that desolation and murder still increased and that the Blue Ridge was now the frontier. Bacon Fort, just east, was a small dwelling, likely stockaded as a fort. At the first Loudoun County Court session on 12 July 1757, Bacon Fort was mentioned twice as a landmark for a highway surveyor. In 1759, landowner Wm. West converted the fort back into a house, and in March 1760 established a licensed ordinary, or tavern, operated by Wm. Owsley. In June 1788, Washington recorded in his diary that he halted at a small tavern, Bacon Fort. It survived into the 19th century, but nothing remains today.