President Dwight D. Eisenhower visited Ligonier on September 26, 1958, where a crowd of 30,000 saw him climax his visit with a public address on this site. He sealed the open Bicentennial Link into the Century Chain using an ax from the fort’s artifacts, then signed a scroll commemorating the occasion. The Century Chain’s lines are similar to, but slightly larger than, those of the Great Chain that spanned the Hudson River at West Point during the American Revolution. The Century Chain includes iron smelted at one of the old iron furnaces in Ligonier Valley.