Fort Laurens, on the Tuscarawas River near present-day Bolivar, was the only fort built within what is now Ohio during the American Revolutionary War. Constructed in late 1778 as part of Brigadier General Lachlan McIntosh’s westward campaign, it was intended as a base for operations against Wyandot settlements and eventually Fort Detroit. Isolated and undersupplied, the post soon faced a siege by British and Indigenous forces in February 1779 that left 17 Americans dead and the garrison near starvation. Deemed untenable, it was abandoned that August. Archaeology later identified the fort and cemetery, and the site remains preserved as a historic park and museum.