Fort Machault (, ) was a fort built by the

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

in 1754 near the confluence of French Creek with the

Allegheny River The Allegheny River ( ; ; ) is a tributary of the Ohio River that is located in western Pennsylvania and New York (state), New York in the United States. It runs from its headwaters just below the middle of Pennsylvania's northern border, nor ...

, in northwest Pennsylvania. (Present-day

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People and characters * Franklin (given name), including list of people and characters with the name * Franklin (surname), including list of people and characters with the name * Franklin (class), a member of a historic ...

developed here later.) The fort helped the French control these waterways, part of what was known as the

Venango Path Venango Path was a Native American trail between the Forks of the Ohio (present day Pittsburgh) and Presque Isle, Pennsylvania, United States of America. The latter was located at Lake Erie. The trail, a portage between these important water rou ...

from

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

to the

Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...

. It was one of four forts designed to protect French access to the

Ohio Country The Ohio Country (Ohio Territory, Ohio Valley) was a name used for a loosely defined region of colonial North America west of the Appalachian Mountains and south of Lake Erie. Control of the territory and the region's fur trade was disputed i ...

and connections between its northern and southern colonies. From north to south the forts were

Fort Presque Isle Fort Presque Isle (also Fort de la Presqu'île) was a fort built by French soldiers in summer 1753 along Presque Isle Bay in present-day Erie, Pennsylvania, to protect the northern terminus of the Venango Path. It was the first of the French po ...

(at

Fort Le Boeuf Fort Le Bœuf (often referred to as Fort de la Rivière au Bœuf) was a fort established by the French during 1753 on a fork of French Creek (in the drainage area of the River Ohio), in present-day Waterford, in northwest Pennsylvania. The fort ...

(at the south end of the portage leading to the head of French Creek), Fort Machault (at the confluence noted), and

Fort Duquesne Fort Duquesne ( , ; originally called ''Fort Du Quesne'') was a fort established by the French in 1754, at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers. It was later taken over by the British, and later the Americans, and developed ...

. In January 1759 the British launched an expedition to attack Fort Machault, but had to turn back after encountering resistance from French-Allied Native Americans. The fort was abandoned by the French in August 1759, and burned so that the British could not use it. It was replaced by the British in 1760 with

Fort Venango Fort Venango was a small British fort built in 1760 near the present-day site of Franklin, Pennsylvania. It replaced Fort Machault, a French fort built at the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny River. In August 1759, near the end of the ...

Description

Fort Machault was built on a hill, 60 yards west of the Allegheny River. The fort was in the form of a parallelogram, about 75 by . The

curtain A curtain is a piece of cloth or other material intended to block or obscure light, air drafts, or (in the case of a shower curtain) water. Curtains are often hung on the inside of a building's windows to block the passage of light. For instan ...

was made of hewed timber, stacked lengthwise. The four corners had

bastion A bastion is a structure projecting outward from the curtain wall of a fortification, most commonly angular in shape and positioned at the corners of the fort. The fully developed bastion consists of two faces and two flanks, with fire from the ...

s in the form of

polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure made up of line segments connected to form a closed polygonal chain. The segments of a closed polygonal chain are called its '' edges'' or ''sides''. The points where two edges meet are the polygon ...

s. The bastions were built of saplings, thick, and in height. The gate fronted the river. Inside the fort were a

gunpowder magazine A gunpowder magazine is a magazine (building) designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications re ...

and several officer's barracks, built in two stories with stone chimneys. The soldiers' barracks consisted of 45 buildings outside the fort.George Dallas Albert, ''Report of the Commission to Locate the Site of the Frontier Forts of Pennsylvania,'' Vol. 1, State Printer of Pennsylvania, 1896
/ref>

History

Establishment

In 1753, Governor General

Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville, Marquis Duquesne (c. 1700 17 September 1778) was a French Governor General of New France. He was born in Toulon, France. Duquesne served from 1752 to 1755. Best known for his role in the French and Indian Wa ...

ordered construction of a fortified trading post at the confluence of the Allegheny River and French Creek at Venango, a

Lenape The Lenape (, , ; ), also called the Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. The Lenape's historica ...

village. Originally,

Paul Marin de la Malgue Paul Marin de la Malgue ( bap. 19 March 1692 – 29 October 1753) was the eldest son of Charles-Paul Marin de la Malgue and Catherine Niquet. He was born in Montreal and, as many of the prominent historical figures of his time, had a military c ...

had planned to build a fortified

blockhouse A blockhouse is a small fortification, usually consisting of one or more rooms with loopholes, allowing its defenders to fire in various directions. It is usually an isolated fort in the form of a single building, serving as a defensive stro ...

and trading post named Fort D'Anjou, but Governor Duquesne put the plan on hold.Hunter, William Albert. ''Forts on the Pennsylvania Frontier: 1753–1758,'' (Classic Reprint). Fb&c Limited, 2018
/ref> In August 1753, Philippe-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire was sent up the Allegheny River by canoe to explore the area, and found activity by English traders with local Native American communities. The French felt that they would lose influence in the area and decided to build a chain of fortresses from Lake Erie south. Mauchault was the last of four forts intended to protect French access to waterways connecting the Great Lakes and Ohio River, and ultimately the Mississippi River. Prior to the arrival of the French in 1753, John Fraser, a Scots immigrant, blacksmith, and trader from Pennsylvania, had set up shop on this site. He supplied Native Americans in the region with trade goods and repaired their guns and other metal wares in exchange for furs. His business was an example of the western expansion of Pennsylvania's

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

that prompted the French to fortify the Ohio Country, for fear of losing their trade and influence among the Indians there.Fort Machault Historical Marker
/ref> In August 1753, the French decided to occupy Fraser's trading post, from which Fraser was absent at the time.George Washington, "Journey to the French Commandant: Narrative," Founders Online, National Archives. Original source: ''The Diaries of George Washington,'' vol. 1, 11 March 1748 – 13 November 1765, ed. Donald Jackson. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976, pp. 130–161.
/ref> The Lenape chief

Custaloga Custaloga (also known as Kustaloga, Tuscologas, Packanke, or Pakanke) was a Tribal chief, chief of the Lenape#Clans and kinship systems, Wolf Clan of the Delaware (Lenape) tribe in the mid-18th century. He initially supported the French at the beg ...

assisted the French by capturing and handing over two traders who had just arrived at the trading post.Charles Augustus Hanna, ''The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path, Volume 1 The Wilderness Trail: Or, The Ventures and Adventures of the Pennsylvania Traders on the Allegheny Path,'' Putnam's sons, 1911
/ref> Fraser and his employee William were forced to flee, and 75 French soldiers took over Fraser's cabin, allowing Custaloga to confiscate Fraser's trade goods. Fraser's cabin was occupied by Philippe-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire.

Visit by George Washington, 1753

In December 1753, Major

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

of the Virginia militia used the

to reach Fort Machault during his first expedition into the Ohio Country. Washington, with an escort of seven men, including

Christopher Gist Christopher Gist (1706–1759) was an explorer, surveyor, and frontiersman active in Colonial America. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country (the present-day states of Ohio, eastern Indiana, western Pennsylvania, and nort ...

Guyasuta Guyasuta (c. 1725–c. 1794; , "he stands up to the cross" or "he sets up the cross") was an important Native American leader of the Seneca (tribe), Seneca people in the second half of the eighteenth century, playing a central role in the di ...

and

Tanacharison Tanacharison (; c. 1700 – 4 October 1754), also called Tanaghrisson (), was a Native American leader who played a pivotal role in the beginning of the French and Indian War. He was known to European-Americans as the "Half-King", a title a ...

, carried a letter from Governor

Robert Dinwiddie Robert Dinwiddie (1692 – 27 July 1770) was a Scottish colonial administrator who served as the lieutenant governor of Virginia from 1751 to 1758. Since the governors of Virginia remained in Great Britain, he served as the ''de facto'' head o ...

of Virginia, protesting the French invasion of lands claimed by Great Britain and demanding their immediate withdrawal.William John Eccles, ''France in America,'' Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside Ltd, 1972
/ref>O'Meara, Walter. ''Guns at the Forks.'' Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005.
/ref> Washington wrote: :"We found the French Colours hoisted at a House which they drove Mr. John Fraser, an English Subject, from; I immediately repaired to it, to know where the Commander resided: There were three Officers, one of whom, Capt. Joncaire, inform'd me, that he had the Command of

the Ohio The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its mouth on the Mississippi River in Cairo, ...

, But that there was a General Officer at the near Fort, which he advised me to for an Answer. He invited us to sup with them, and treated us with the greatest Complaisance." Joncaire provided Washington's men with wine and brandy, and when intoxicated, Washington's Native American companions declared their loyalty to the French. It took Washington three days to persuade them to move on to

, where they met the French commander

Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre (October 24, 1701 - September 8, 1755) was a Canadian colonial military commander and explorer who held posts throughout North America in the 18th century, just before and during the French and Indian War. Famil ...

. The French refused to withdraw, and Washington returned to

Williamsburg Williamsburg may refer to: Places *Colonial Williamsburg, a living-history museum and private foundation in Virginia *Williamsburg, Brooklyn, neighborhood in New York City *Williamsburg, former name of Kernville (former town), California *Williams ...

on January 16.

Construction

By the next year Fraser's cabin and his forge had been incorporated by the French into the new fort. Initially, Fraser's buildings were simply enclosed in a crude stockade during the early months of 1754, but the structure was improved over time, so that by April 1755 Governor General Vaudreuil described it as "a little stockaded fort at the mouth of the Rivière au Boeuf, merely to surround the storehouses which we are using as a supply post." Joncaire was replaced in 1754 by

Michel Maray de La Chauvignerie Michel Maray de La Chauvignerie (January 24, 1704August 10, 1778), also known as Michel Maray, sieur de la La Chauvignerie, was a French military officer in the Troupes de la Marine and interpreter of Iroquoian languages. Biography Michel Maray ...

as the officer in charge of constructing the fort, which eventually was named Fort Machault, in honor of prominent financier, Jean-Baptiste Machault d'Arnouville, the French Minister of the Marine at the time of its construction. It was also known as "Venango," from "Weningo," the name of the nearby Delaware (

) village. Captain

Pierre Pouchot Captain Pierre Pouchot (April 8, 1712 – 1769) was a French military engineer and officer in the French regular army. He was born at Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France w ...

, chief engineer of the forces in Canada, wrote: "At the mouth of Rivière Le Boeuf, called in English Venango, the French have a very poor, mean fort, called Fort Machault." The French intended to build a larger fort nearby, but La Chauvignerie's construction efforts were set back by shortages of manpower and wood, resulting in sporadic construction.

Attempted rebuilding

In 1755, plans were made to rebuild Fort Machault at another nearby location. An escaped prisoner, John Adam Long, reported that a number of square logs had been "got together at that place sufficient to build a large fort on a pretty, rising ground in the Forks of Ohio and French creek." Captain

Daniel Liénard de Beaujeu Daniel Hyacinthe Liénard de Beaujeu (9 or 19 August 1711 – 9 July 1755) was a French officer during King George's War and the French and Indian War. He participated in the Battle of Grand Pre (1747). He also organized the force that attacked ...

was assigned to supervise the construction, but a letter from another officer indicates that the work was interrupted by the

Braddock Expedition The Braddock Expedition, also known as Braddock's Campaign or Braddock's Defeat, was a British Empire, British military expedition which attempted to capture Fort Duquesne from the French colonial empire, French in 1755 during the French and Ind ...

: :"He continued on his way to...Camp Machaut, at the mouth of this river, where...he had orders to have a fort constructed, which they were not able to do; having learned that the English were marching on Fort Duquesne, they were content to leave carpenters to prepare the necessary wood and went on to the aid of that place." However, in June, La Chauvignerie reported being unable to locate trees large enough for the construction: "Beginning tomorrow, Sir, I am going to send all my men to search the surrounding woods for places where we can find an abundance of construction wood for the above-mentioned fort." By mid-July, he had not succeeded, writing, "I searched carefully through all the surrounding woods and I found almost no wood suitable for constructing the fort according to the plan which was set up and the kind of wood that was to be used. This will force us perhaps to go about it differently or to decide to obtain wood from a great distance." He eventually managed to find trees, but did not have enough men or horses, and the project was again delayed. La Chauvignerie then requested that Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry, an engineer, take over the construction, but de Léry found that tools and other supplies were insufficient, and felt that the location selected for the fort was "disadvantageous." Although the land had been cleared and a large quantity of wood cut and transported to the site, the new fort was never built. Renovations continued on the existing fort. As late as March, 1758, a French deserter reported in Philadelphia that "they are now working at Fort Machaull in great numbers & propose to make it as strong as Fort Duquesne." In November 1758, La Chauvignerie was replaced by

François-Marie Le Marchand de Lignery François-Marie Le Marchand de Lignery (24 August 1703 – 29 July 1759) was a colonial military leader in the French province of Canada. Active in the defense of New France during the Seven Years' War (also known as the French and Indian War), h ...

Capture of Michel Joseph Maray de La Chauvignerie

On October 12, 1757, a French officer appeared at Fort Henry asking to surrender. Under questioning, he identified himself as '' Enseigne en second'' Michel Joseph Maray de La Chauvignerie, 15-year-old son of

, commander of Fort Machault. He had left the fort on October 1 with a raiding party of Native American warriors, had become separated from them after five days, and had lost his way. He wandered in the forest for a week before reaching Fort Henry. In reference to Fort Machault, he reported: "the Fort there is very strong, pallisadoed round, has a

Glacis A glacis (, ) in military engineering is an artificial slope as part of a medieval castle or in early modern fortresses. They may be constructed of earth as a temporary structure or of stone in more permanent structure. More generally, a glaci ...

with a dry Ditch three Foot deep." He described the fort as "A Fort of wood, filled up with earth. It has Bastions and 6 Wall-Pieces, or

Swivel Guns A swivel gun (or simply swivel) is a small cannon mounted on a swiveling stand or fork which allows a very wide arc of movement. Another type of firearm referred to as a swivel gun was an early flintlock combination gun with two barrels that ro ...

; and the whole Works take up about 2 Acres of Grounds. he garrison consists ofFifty regulars & forty Canadians."Samuel Hazard, ed. ''Pennsylvania Archives,'' vol II, May 1748-September 1756; Philadelphia: Joseph Severns & Co, 1853
/ref> He was detained in Philadelphia and released in a

prisoner exchange A prisoner exchange or prisoner swap is a deal between opposing sides in a conflict to release prisoners: prisoner of war, prisoners of war, spy, spies, hostages, etc. Sometimes, cadaver, dead bodies are involved in an exchange. Geneva Conven ...

in April 1759.

Garrison

John Adam Long, who had escaped from French captivity in April 1756, reported that, at "Venango...resided an officer in a small stockade fort with a command of forty men."Bell, Herbert Charles. ''History of Venango County, Pennsylvania: Its Past and Present,'' Brown, Runk & Company, 1890.
/ref> In 1756, William Johnson, a deserter from Fort Cumberland whose real name was William Marshall, had escaped from captivity among Native Americans and reported that there was "at Venango a Captain's command of about 50 men; the Fort of Stockades, very weak, and scarce of provisions..." He described Fort Machault as "a small fort made of logs and stockades...mounted with nine cannon of a pretty large bore, and was generally garrisoned with a company of sixty soldiers, besides Indians, who to the number of about two hundred are lodged in cabins that have been built for them near the fort...The Garrison...hath been for some time employed in Collecting and preparing Materials for building a Strong Fort there next Spring." Jacob Hochstetler, who was captured by Lenape warriors in September 1757, was brought to Fort Machault and then sold to a

Seneca Seneca may refer to: People, fictional characters and language * Seneca (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname : :* Seneca the Elder (c. 54 BC – c. AD 39), a Roman rhetorician, writer and father ...

family in a nearby community. He escaped in 1758 and made his way to

Fort Augusta Fort Augusta was a stronghold in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, in the upper Susquehanna Valley from the time of the French and Indian War to the close of the American Revolution. At the time, it was the largest British fort in Pennsylvan ...

, where he reported that the garrison at Fort Machault was only 25 men."Examination of (Jacob) Hochstattler," in Richard MacMaster, Samuel Horst and Robert Ulle, ''Conscience in Crisis: Mennonite and Other Peace Churches in America, 1739-1789, Interpretation and Documents.'' Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2001; pp 125-26
/ref>

Christian Frederick Post Christian Frederick Post (an anglicanization of Christian Friedrich Post) (1710 Polish Prussia29 April 1785 Germantown, Pennsylvania) was a missionary of the Moravian Church to the indigenous peoples of the Americas who played a brief but signific ...

visited the fort in August 1758 with several Lenape guides, including the Lenape leader

Pisquetomen Pisquetomen (died 1762) After abandoning Fort Duquesne in November 1758, the French fell back to Fort Machault. The British expected them to launch a counterattack from there in the following campaign season. In 1758, Colonel

Hugh Mercer Hugh Mercer (January 16, 1726 – January 12, 1777) was a Scottish brigadier general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He fought in the New York and New Jersey campaign and was mortally wounded at the Battle of Pri ...

stated that there were about 100 soldiers at Fort Machault, where the French had 11

flat-bottomed boat A flat-bottomed boat is a boat with a shallow draft, two-chined hull, which allows it to be used in shallow bodies of water, such as rivers, because it is less likely to ground. The flat hull also makes the boat more stable in calm water, wh ...

s called ''

batteaux A bateau or batteau is a shallow-draft, flat-bottomed boat which was used extensively across North America, especially in the colonial period and in the fur trade. It was traditionally pointed at both ends but came in a wide variety of sizes. T ...

'', "and one great gun of the size of a quart pot which they fire off by a train of powder." In March 1759, Mercer reported that a Native American spy named Bull had entered the fort and observed that the garrison consisted of two officers and forty men.

Assault on Fort Machault

Once the British took Fort Duquesne, Fort Machault became the primary French stronghold on the frontier with British territory. In January 1759, Colonel Hugh Mercer wrote this description of Fort Machault, which the French were strengthening in anticipation of an assault: :"The Soldiers reemployed in Repairing the Fort. It is a Square with four Bastions. The Barracks form three of the Curtains and tall Stockades enclose the Bastions. No Ditch and but one Swivel pointing down the River. The fort stands about 200 Yds from the Ohio, a little below the Junction of French Creek. The Curtain opposite the Gate which fronts the River is taken down And New Loggs prepared and the Trench dug for planting them." Governor Vaudreuil, however, felt that the fort was neither strong enough nor properly positioned to withstand an assault. He wrote in January 1759: :"The Machault post is, to be exact, only a supply post. At most, it can only be put in shape to resist musketry-fire. It is too weak to be able to sustain a siege; cannon would quickly demolish it. It is, moreover, so poorly located that from the top of the mountains, which are very near, everything happening inside can be seen." On March 25, 1759, Colonel Hugh Mercer, the British commander at Fort Pitt (which was still under construction), launched an assault on Fort Machault. Two hundred men marched on land while fifty men escorted ten bateaux of supplies on the river. The troops were slowed by heavy rains and a river swollen with snowmelt, however, and by March 28 they had advanced only twenty miles when Shawnee and

warriors attacked them, killing the men in one boat and causing the other men on the river to turn back. The troops on land also retreated, and the assault was abandoned.

Abandonment, 1759

In July 1759, the French began a campaign to capture

Mercer's Fort Mercer's Fort was a temporary fort built by Colonel Hugh Mercer during the winter of 1758–1759, to secure the "forks of the Ohio," at the confluence of the Monongahela River and the Allegheny River, where Mercer was preparing to build Fort Pitt ...

, a temporary fort at the construction site where Fort Pitt was being built. Nearly a thousand French and

Canadiens French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French colonists first arriving in France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of French Canadians live in the provi ...

and a thousand Native Americans mustered at Fort Machault. The British, however, began a siege of the French Fort Niagara, forcing the French to abandon their assault on Fort Pitt as all available forces were sent to attempt to relieve Fort Niagara.Stotz, Charles Morse. ''Drums in the Forest: Decision at the Forks, Defense in the Wilderness.'' University of Pittsburgh Pre, 2005.
/ref> On July 25, 1759, following their defeat, the French surrendered Fort Niagara. De Lignery and La Chauvignerie were both captured, and it is unclear who was in command at Fort Machault. In August 1759, Governor Vaudreuil, expecting a British military assault, ordered his troops to "fall back successively upon Forts Le Boeuf and Presqu' Isle, and so completely destroy the works as to leave nothing behind that would be available to the enemy." Trade goods were given away to Native Americans, other goods and property were loaded onto wagons, and the fort's swivel guns were spiked and buried. On August 6, before retreating to Canada, the French burned Fort Machault to the ground to prevent its use by the British. Two British officers arrived at the site of the fort on October 9, 1759, and reported: "Venango furnished us with nothing but the Remains of a Reduced Fort, and about 44 Houses, with one Swivel and a Quantity of Broken Gun Barrels and Old Iron." Colonel Henry Bouquet later reported that "The stockadoe Fort here is burnt to the ground, and the few Huts round it pulled down." In 1760, the British built

near the site of former Fort Machault. The present-day city of

Franklin, Pennsylvania Franklin is a city in and the county seat of Venango County, Pennsylvania, United States, located at the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny River. The population was 6,097 in the 2020 census. Franklin is part of the Oil City microp ...

developed here.

Archaeological investigations

In 2007, an archaeological survey was conducted to locate Fort Machault and to determine the potential for a full excavation. A bucket auger survey was implemented, and samples revealed cultural features and possible

French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...

-era artifacts on the west side of Elk Street and south of an old stream channel. Residents of Franklin have found both English and French coins dating to the 18th century, as well as a cannon, which was refurbished and used to fire blank charges on the Fourth of July.

Memorialization

A historical marker was placed in

in 1969 by the

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) is the governmental agency of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, responsible for the collection, conservation, and interpretation of Pennsylvania's heritage. The commission cares for hist ...

. A site marker at 616 Elk Street in Franklin indicates where the fort stood.John Stanton, "Fort Machault," 15 Aug 2012
/ref>

References

Sources

Description of the fort, pp. 585–590. Location of the fort, p. 586, "On the present plan of the city of Franklin, Elk street passes through the site of the fort, whilst its southern side reaches nearly to Sixth street.
Google Earth
indicates that this position is at 41.386117 -79.821679

External links

"Fort Machault," Washington's Trail, video

An artist's rendition of Fort Machault and the barracks erected nearby.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Machault Forts in Pennsylvania Colonial forts in Pennsylvania French and Indian War forts Portages in the United States Buildings and structures in Venango County, Pennsylvania French forts in the United States 1753 establishments in Pennsylvania Pre-statehood history of Pennsylvania