Fort Pitt: Deluge at the Point: Fort Pitt's Food Supply During the Flood of 1762

Abstract

In April 1762, two missionaries stopped at Fort Pitt in search of flour to make bread for their journey. What they found, however, "to [their] great disappointment," was that Fort Pitt's "magazine had been overflowed by a tremendous inundation, and no flour was to be had. Neither could any be procured from the surrounding country, as there were no farms within hundreds of miles."1 After Fort Pitt's completion late in 1761, the Point flooded twice in just over a year: once in January 1762, and again in March 1763.2 The British, in their quest for land and economic power, had occupied the Forks of the Ohio River since 1758. Though strategic, Fort Pitt's location—on a narrow, low-lying plain at the confluence of three rivers—came with dire consequences.