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Fort Laurens

Bolivar · Tuscarawas County · Eastern Ohio

Ohio's only Revolutionary War fort

Only Revolutionary War fort in OhioNational Register of Historic Places

Visiting information you can trust

Check before driving — this site is seasonal, approximate, privately run, or otherwise uncertain. Confirm hours and access with the official source above.

Content last reviewed: September 2026 — this is when Field Notes Ohio's content was last checked, not a live status.
Primary official source: Official page
Location confidence: Verified entrance or visitor center
Fort Laurens Museum, 11067 Fort Laurens Rd NW, Bolivar
Seasonal access: Museum: May, Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday noon to 4 p.m.; June to August, Wednesday to Saturday 11 to 4 and Sunday noon to 4; September to October, Friday and Saturday 11 to 4 and Sunday noon to 4. Grounds are open in daylight all year.
Check current conditions: Official conditions or closures
Reservations or tickets: Tickets or admission info

Prices, hours, closures, campsite availability and trail conditions shown elsewhere on this page are not live — always confirm with the official source before you go.

The only fort in Ohio built during the American Revolution, beside the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail.

Built: November 1778 by Brigadier General Lachlan McIntosh's force from Pittsburgh
Named for: Henry Laurens, president of the Continental Congress
Goal: A base for attacking the British at Detroit
Siege: About four weeks, in the winter of 1779
Abandoned: August 1779
On site: A small museum and the Tomb of the Unknown Patriot

The story

In October 1778 a force of about 1,200 soldiers and militia under General Lachlan McIntosh left Pittsburgh to attack the Wyandot towns on the Sandusky River and eventually take Fort Detroit. The march also passed through country where Christian Delaware lived in Moravian mission towns, and part of the fort's purpose was to protect those neutral Delaware. By November the army had reached the Tuscarawas River, and McIntosh ordered a fort built on its west bank. He named it for Henry Laurens, the president of the Continental Congress, and left a garrison of about 150 men when the army turned back.

Supplying a wilderness outpost was its downfall. In the winter of 1779 a British-led force under Captain Henry Bird besieged the fort for about four weeks, and the starving garrison held out until reinforcements arrived. Fort Laurens was ordered abandoned in August 1779. The mission Delaware were not spared: in 1782 Pennsylvania militia killed 96 of them at Gnadenhutten, about twenty miles south. Nothing of the fort stands above ground, but the outline is marked, a small museum tells the soldiers' story, and the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail runs through the site.

Related sites

The Fort Where They Ate Their Moccasins

The Continental Army came to Ohio once. It built a fort, ran short of food and spent a winter starving in it. The garrison is said to have boiled its own moccasins to eat, and when the British and their Native allies laid siege in January 1779, they held on for a month.

Then the army abandoned the fort, and the men buried on the ground stayed. One of them is now honored in the Tomb of the Unknown Patriot.

Behind the legend

The moccasin detail comes from the Ohio Historical Society's description of the site. Death totals differ by source: 21 in one account and 30 in another, with 15 killed in the 1779 attack by one count. The siege lasting about four weeks, the August 1779 abandonment and the only-Revolutionary-War-fort claim are consistent across the sources.

If you go

Walk the marked outline of the bastions, see the Tomb of the Unknown Patriot and combine it with Zoar Village a few miles away.

Visiting

Status

Museum open May to October; grounds open daily

Managed by

Ohio History Connection

Hours

Museum: May, Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday noon to 4 p.m.; June to August, Wednesday to Saturday 11 to 4 and Sunday noon to 4; September to October, Friday and Saturday 11 to 4 and Sunday noon to 4. Grounds are open in daylight all year.

Admission

Adults $6, children 5 to 17 $3. A combination ticket with Zoar Village is $10 for adults and $5 for youth.

Phone

330-874-2059

Please note

Confirm the season, since the museum is closed November to April.

Address

11067 Fort Laurens Rd NW, Bolivar, OH 44612

Official information →Directions Find trails nearby on AllTrails →

Hours and prices change. Confirm with the site before you go.