Braddock's Trail - West from Fort Cumberland Traditional Cache

“Near this point on June 10, 1755, after nearly a month's delay at Fort Cumberland, Braddock's troops started toward Fort Duquesne to wrest it from the French. On July 9, 1755, he met his terrible death at the Monongahela.”

In 1755, during the French & Indian War, British General Edward Braddock of the Coldstream Guards led a 2,100-man army from the Washington DC area to what was then Fort Cumberland. The troops intended to dislodge the French from Fort Dusquesne on the “Forks of the Ohio” (now Pittsburgh) roughly 100 miles away.

Braddock had received important assistance from Benjamin Franklin, who helped procure wagons and supplies for the expedition. Setting out from Fort Cumberland on May 29, 1755, the expedition faced an enormous logistical challenge: moving a large body of men with equipment, provisions, and (most importantly for the task ahead) heavy cannon, across the densely wooded Allegheny Mountains and into western Pennsylvania.

Braddock’s aide, Captain Robert Orme, duly recorded the army’s 30 wagons, 400 horses, siege artillery and tons of supplies. Braddock built a road over Wills Mountain, across the Cumberland Narrows, continuing over Haystack Mountain through (what was not yet) the Dingle, close to Nemacolin’s path, and ending ultimately in Great Meadow, near Union Town, PA.

Today realtors tout the Dingle neighborhood west of Cumberland, for its charming Craftsman houses of the early 20th century. But this placid upscale neighborhood was a fierce wilderness when Nemacolin, a Delaware chief, and Thomas Cresap, a Maryland frontiersman, first blazed a trail through here in 1749 or 1750.

The trail ran between the Potomac and the Monongahela rivers, traversing the land beneath this Cumberland neighborhood and leading on to the mouth of Redstone Creek, near Brownsville, PA.

why, exactly, was it named ‘The Dingle’?“After a beautiful private estate on the outskirts of Liverpool, England,” said Lowndes in a 1926 letter. “The Dingle lies between two roads (McMullen Highway and Braddock Road), and means a ‘Hollow between the Hills’ which is very appropriate”.

Located along The National Road (called The Cumberland Road) you’ll find the “Braddock’s Road ” road sign and this Micro Cache. Parking is provided across the street at the Service station but Caution must be used when crossing the street and with passing traffic.

History is Great but this sign is close to the roadway and cachers with kids need to use Caution and know there whereabouts at ALL times.

Only a Log Sheet and Stash note so BYOP