In 1755, British General Edward Braddock led a 2,100-man army through this wild country toward the “Forks of the Ohio” nearly 100 miles away, seeking to dislodge the French as the troops cut a new trail that became known as Braddock’s Road. As they crossed Big Savage Mountain about a mile south of here, Braddock’s aide, Captain Robert Orme, recorded a rocky ascent of more than two miles, with extremely steep places and a descent so rugged and almost perpendicular that three wagons were demolished and several more shattered. After listing the passage of 2100 soldiers, 30 wagons, 400 horses, siege artillery, and tons of supplies, Orme's account was followed by Braddock’s decision, on the advice of a young George Washington, to form a “flying column” by shedding most of the cumbersome equipment and moving more quickly toward his objective. More than 150 years later, after Braddock’s march ended in disastrous defeat, Harvard professor John Kennedy Lacock led an expedition to retrace the original route, and the old twelve-foot-wide road was still clearly visible near the summit of Big Savage Mountain.