Fort Necessity and the Flight 93 Memorial

As Kori has indicated in previous entries, our family enjoys American history.  One of the benefits of living in southern Maryland is the close proximity we have to so many historical places.  One such place is Fort Necessity.  I have wanted to visit for a while so I was very excited to finally get out there. The drive out took about four hours and the kids all did very well.   It still amazes me how good of a traveler Luke is.  When they were Luke’s age, the other kids (Kara especially) did not like being in the car for an extended period of time.  And for Kara, an extended period of time was anything longer than five minutes.  We are very fortunate that Luke (so far) has taken to traveling so well.  Anyway, getting back to the trip, we arrived at the Fort Necessity National Battlefield Visitors' Center at 1:19pm. Thanks to Kara's detailed record keeping, we know when we arrived and departed from all of our stops. Kara has been reading the Magic Tree House books, and so she decided to keep a journal during our trip, just like the characters in those books.  That was very cool. 

The first thing we did at the visitor’s center was watch a short (about 15 minutes) movie on the French and Indian War.  Everyone agreed that it was really good and were excited to get out and explore.  Following a quick tour through a small display area, we headed outside.  They had a play area for the kids, complete with a small “Fort Necessity” to play in.  Although I was eager to head out to Great Meadows (the site of the actual battle) the kids needed to work off some energy after the long car ride, so we let them play for a little while.   The weather was perfect and spirits were high.  Little did we know of the chaos and tragedy that would soon hit our family.

Just kidding-nothing bad happened.  It just seemed like the blog needed some drama.   So, once the kids had enough of the play area (or should I say, once the parents had enough of it), we headed down the trail to the reconstructed fort.  We were walking through a heavily wooded area that suddenly opened up into a very large and lush clearing.  In fact, one might describe it as a great meadow.   

Jack and Luke in the play area.

I have seen many pictures of it but seeing the fort in person I was struck by how small it was.  I had always envisioned a fort large enough to accommodate the 400 men George Washington had under his command but I can’t imagine getting more than 100 in there.  I guess the fort wasn’t made to accommodate the soldiers, but rather the supplies, ammunition, and livestock. It seemed rather strange since the fort was in the middle of this large meadow, surrounded by forest.  One would think the fort would be used to help defend the soldiers since they were otherwise sitting targets to any approaching enemy.  The French and their Native American allies agreed—they soon surrounded the fort from the protection of the forest and opened fire with Washington’s surrender soon following. 

We spent a little bit of time in the fort (not too long because, again, it was really small) and surveyed the area.  Jack manned the cannon and picked off a few imaginary French soldiers who dared to leave the protection of their trees.

At the entrance to the fort.

In 1754 George Washington stood here and thought--"wow, that wide open field would be a great place to make a defensive stand."  Fortunately for all future Americans, Washington learned from his mistakes.

We then followed the trail up to the Mount Washington Tavern.  It was a bit of a hike up a really steep hill, but everyone agreed it was worth the extra effort.  It was an original building from 1839.  How did we know it was built in 1839?  Well, because the sign and the brochure all said it.  But that’s not the cool part.  During a recent renovation, wallpaper was removed and underneath it was the original walls with “graffiti” (their signatures and the date-July 1839) left by the men who built the structure.  It was really awesome to see those signatures and imagine the men writing them. What would they say if they knew that people would be standing in their building, reading their handwriting 176 years after they left it?

The rest of the building was also interesting.  It had served as a tavern along the national road.  People traveling out west to the Ohio valley would stop off and have a meal or if they could afford it they’d actually stay the night, although most people apparently just continued on their journey, sleeping under the stars.  A couple of facts the kids found interesting—although it was a “restaurant” there was not menu from which to choose the food.  Patrons just sat at the table and the host brought out whatever meal they were making in the kitchen that day.  Talk about a bad business model!  The other thing the kids were fascinated by were the sleeping arrangements.  Men and women were not allowed to sleep in the same room, even if they were married.  So all the men would sleep together in one room and all the women in another.   They also shared the same bed.  So if you stayed the night, you most likely found yourself sharing a bed with total strangers. It’s not hard to see why these types of “accommodations” went the way of the dodo bird. 

From there we headed back to the car and drove to Braddock’s grave.  General Edward Braddock was Commander-in-Chief of military forces in America in 1755 and led the expedition to take Fort Duquesne. Unfortunately for poor General Braddock, they were ambushed by the French and Native Americans.  Routed by their enemy, with General Braddock mortally wounded, young George Washington took over and led the British on an organized retreat thereby saving the day for the British army.  Once again, in defeat, Washington’s legacy grew.  He was recognized throughout the colonies and mother England as the man who saved the day during the Battle of the Monongahela.

Following our brief stop at the grave, we drove the 8 miles to Jumonville Glen, finishing the Fort Necessity National Park trifecta.  Jumonville Glen was the site of the skirmish that actually started the French and Indian war and was George Washington’s first exposure to warfare. The amazing thing about Jumonville Glen was how preserved the entire area is.  We all talked about how if George Washington were somehow transported there in present day, he would find that it looked nearly identical to how it was that fateful morning in 1754. I don’t imagine there are many places you can say that about.  It was very cool.

When finally checked into our cabin at Jellystone, Kori was looking through the book at local attractions and noticed that the Flight 93 memorial was fairly close by.  We decided to head out there on our way home on Sunday.  I’m glad we did, because it was an amazing experience.  The memorial is seemingly in the middle of nowhere so it’s generally not something that one will simply stumble upon, so it made us feel good to see so many cars in the parking lot.  Clearly the impact of the 9/11 attacks still resonates with people.

 

Parts of the memorial were still under construction, with the main visitors’ center and the walking trail are scheduled to be finished by the end of the year.  Even without those areas being open yet, the memorial was really nice.  There’s no doubt it’s a sad place to visit.  It was so horrific to read all of the accounts of the hijacking and the subsequent crash (along with everything that occurred between those events).  But I also found it very inspiring.  These were people who refused to accept their fate.  They fought back and very nearly overcame the odds.  And although they were not successful in taking back the plane, their efforts unquestionably saved the lives of hundreds of other (would-be) innocent victims.  They refused to give up, and kept fighting until the very end.  Their actions were truly inspiring.  I know that I will think of those brave souls the next time I am faced with seemingly impossible odds.  When the easy road would be to simply give in, I’m going to stand up, look that challenge directly in the face and say, “let’s roll!”  

Jack and Anna reading the names on the memorial wall.  The dark ground they are walking on represents the flight pattern the plane took.  It crashed on the other side of the gate. 

Another view of the memorial wall.