Relics of Monongahela
By the 1740s, the western edge of the Northern Colonies of Great Britain extended into what is now western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Populated by native people, traders, missionaries, adventurers, and a few white settlers, this was essentially “Indian country.” The sparsely populated area centered around the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers with the Ohio River (modern day Pittsburgh). The British, French, and private interests all had designs on the area — a source of tension that would eventually lead to the French Indian Wars.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
Meanwhile, back in Virginia, 17-year-old George Washington was appointed to be the official surveyor of Culpepper County, Virginia. His new position gave him the opportunity to begin purchasing land in Virginia.
In 1753, Lt. Governor Robert Dinwiddie dispatched then Major of the Virginia Militia Washington to travel beyond the Allegheny Mountains to the “Ohio Country” claimed by Virginia and
