Visitors are being invited to celebrate the nation’s 246th birthday at a Revolutionary War-era fort right here in the region.
Located in the hills above the City of Altoona in Sinking Valley lies Fort Roberdeau.
Fort Roberdeau Executive Director Glenn Nelson shared with 6 News the important role the fort played in the war for independence:
“The operation at Fort Roberdeau was two-fold. One, it served to defend the lead mining operation here in Sinking Valley and it was also a regional garrison; for what was then all of Bedford County, which was a huge county during the Revolutionary War days. So, Fort Roberdeau also housed muskets, canons, and food for the region. We protected the folks settling this region, this frontier in Pennsylvania. Well, Fort Roberdeau was really important, and you could tell the importance because General Roberdeau corresponded with Commander in Chief, General Washington. And General Washington, himself, actually spent time trying to recruit a smelter for the lead operation; that’s how vital finding a domestic lead supply was to the continental army.”
“Well, the role of the smelter was to melt out the lead ore. Lead doesn’t come just right out of the ground; it’s contained in a mineral rock. And they would mine that rock and then crush it down. So, the first step in the process was to locate the mineral rock that had the lead ore in it; and they did some test pits to find it, you could also tell where it was close to the surface, because of lead being a heavy metal, plants wouldn’t grow, so that was another clue to where the lead ore may be in mineral rock. So the miners got the rock out of the ground, then they brought it to the fort for the smelter.”
“The job of the smelter was to get a furnace hot enough to melt out the lead ore. Lead has a really low melting point, so you could get a good fire going and then you could melt out the lead. And they would collect it in a trough and gather it there. And then, some of the lead would stay here for the men garrisoned in Fort Roberdeau and they would make their own rifle slugs and musket balls. And then the majority of it was transported from Fort Roberdeau, down through Water Street to the Juniata River in Huntingdon, and put on barges and taken down to Middletown where it was offloaded and made into musket balls to be distributed to the Continental Army.”
“Fort Roberdeau provides living history. We’re excited, every year, to host our Star Spangled Fourth event, always held on the fourth of July, Independence Day; and it’s a big open house to celebrate. And we have several of our volunteers here manning their education stations. We have volunteers that portray different folks, whether they be the smelters, the rangers, the frontier settlers; both men and women, and their roles in settling the frontier. And we were on the leading edge of the American Revolutionary War.”
Admission to the Star Spangled Fourth event is free and runs from 10 until 4.