My spouse and I visited the Fort Necessity National
Battlefield on a Monday morning in mid-August 2018. Entrance to the battlefield
property is permitted daily from sunrise to sunset; however, the museum
operates from 9:00 am until 5:00 pm only. The separate Mount Washington Tavern (a
museum, not a bar/restaurant) is open from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm. Entrance to
the National Park Service (NPS) site is complimentary at this time; however, additional
enrichment activities might incur a nominal fee. We visited the battlefield
when we stayed at nearby Nemacolin Woodlands resort, which was a quick 5-minute
drive from the property.
The Fort Necessity site offers more to see than we expected;
the brief hour that we had set aside was too short to fully explore the
national park. (Two hours would have been more sufficient.) The visitor’s center/museum
shows a short film on the battle, but regrettably, we did not have enough time
to watch it, nor were we able to drive to the adjacent tavern to go inside.
(Apparently, you can walk from the battlefield to the tavern; however, the
access path was under construction when we visited.) Note that the Mount
Washington Tavern doesn’t actually provide food or lodging anymore; instead, it
is a museum site that illustrates what a typical inn along the National Road (the
country’s first federally funded highway) was like. Guests can also visit the
grave of British
General Edward Braddock, killed in 1755, and the site of the Battle of
Jumonville Glen.
The museum building houses restrooms and a small gift shop
with quality souvenirs. The museum uses multimedia displays, life-size
dioramas, life-like figures, video, art, and artifacts to explain the battle
that occurred on July 3, 1754 as a precursor to the French and Indian War. In
the Battle of Fort Necessity (or Fort of Necessity), British forces led by Colonel
George Washington surrendered to French forces led by Louis Coulon de Villiers.
Guests to this national park can walk a paved path to the great meadow to see a
restored fort of the same size, shape, and position as the original; today, guests
can see the storehouse (for gunpowder, flour, and rum) surrounded by a high
round fence. Guided tours are available that allow visitors to walk inside the
small building, but you can peek in through the slatted walls if you choose to
see it on your own.
We enjoyed our visit to Fort Necessity, but we wish that we
had allotted more time to fully investigate this national park site.
