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Historian Robert Adamovich, of Hopwood, Fayette County, said it is the state of mind that defines the experience of Braddock's Road.

"It gives me goose bumps to be in the general area as these people. It's great just to know you are there," said Adamovich, a board member of the Braddock Road Preservation Association.

Today, 250 years after British and colonial American troops hacked through 122 miles of Maryland and Pennsylvania wilderness en route to defeat near Pittsburgh, their route is barely recognizable. Nevertheless, what remains is being celebrated.

Communities in Fayette, Westmoreland and Allegheny counties will mark the 250th anniversary of Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock's march this summer during the "Season of Braddock."

Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Farmington, Fayette County, will commemorate Braddock's campaign with "Guns at the Fort." The event, on July 16 and 17, will feature 18th century artillery demonstrations, a memorial program and an encampment of re-enactors portraying Braddock's adversaries, the French allied and American Indian forces.

Karen Hechler, president of the Connellsville Historical Society, said the organization will re-enact Braddock's journey at "Stewart's Crossing" in Connellsville. Members of the historical society and volunteers will cross the Youghiogheny River on June 25 and 26, retracing the route where Braddock's forces camped and crossed the river.

Hechler said she has been working the past few months with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Pittsburgh and the Connellsville Scuba Team to secure a safe and historically accurate location for the crossing.

"We have found a likely spot," she said. "It's a significant part of the journey. It's something I've been working on for several years."

Several events are being planned in Westmoreland and Allegheny counties.

Rich Snyder, president of the Mt. Pleasant Historical Society, said a commemorative marker for Main Street will be placed on July 2. The marker was paid for with a $1,300 donation from the Mt. Pleasant Rotary Club.

Jamie Falo, Mt. Pleasant Library director, said display tables in the library and period crafts are being planned for children at the marker's dedication. Snyder said a parade through Mt. Pleasant will help mark the occasion.

Christine Rizk, executive director of Stage Right School for the Performing Arts in Greensburg, is coordinating an event in Irwin on July 8. She plans to host craft vendors, re-enactments, horse-drawn buggy rides and lectures on the French and Indian War. Performers from Stage Right will present the musical "Rivers of Destiny." "We hope to have it as authentic as we can get it," Rizk said.

In Braddock, Allegheny County, a celebration of the Battle of the Monongahela, the conclusion of Braddock's expedition, will be held July 9. Debbie Corll, projects manager of French and Indian 250th commemoration events, said living history presentations and historical exhibits will be featured at the event.

The Pittsburgh event also will mark the end of a Lawrence Technological University student canoe trip from Detroit. According to the school's Web site, the trip was to follow the same primary trade route of the French and American Indians of the period. Corll said the students' boats will be on display at the Braddock celebration.

"This is heritage tourism at its best," Adamovich said of the events. He added that he doesn't think the commemoration celebrations have been commercialized.

Braddock's expedition introduced into history figures like George Washington and Daniel Boone, who were among the nearly 2,400 men led by the British general. Braddock's forces spent two months toiling along the Indian trail from Cumberland, Md., toward the forks of the Ohio River, with the goal of seizing Fort Duquesne from the French.

Subsisting on wild game and rattlesnake meat, they widened the path to 12 feet to accommodate 200 horse-drawn wagons hauling cannons that had been shipped from England to Virginia, and then pulled along roads to Fort Cumberland.

They left Cumberland May 1, 1755, averaging just two miles a day. The expedition ended seven miles short of Fort Duquesne on July 9, 1755, when the party was ambushed near what is now Pittsburgh and was defeated by a much smaller force of French soldiers and Indians.

With Braddock mortally wounded, his troops retreated.

The rough road became the main route west for settlers crossing the Eastern Continental Divide to reach the Ohio Valley. It was used for nearly 60 years before the National Pike, precursor to U.S. 40, was built to replace it.

Parts of the road are unrecognizable, but other sections have benefited from preservation efforts.

In Maryland, those who hike the publicly accessible 2.5 miles of Braddock's Road in Savage River State Forest can thank amateur archaeologist Robert L. Bantz, a retired mechanical engineer from the Cumberland area who spent the last 10 years charting the route.

Adamovich said Bantz had done more than anyone to save Braddock's Road.

"What he's done is an absolute national treasure," he said. "His effort to knowing the correct location is helping to preserve and raise awareness of the road. He's done the research. It's a lifetime achievement work, and that which all Americans can be proud of."

Adamovich said the road has been nearly obliterated in Pennsylvania by the logging industry and is"exceedingly deceiving." He added that some of the road still exists on private property.

"You'll probably find 100 maps," he said. "Everybody wants it to be in their own yard.

"It's always been a double-edged sword," he said. "It's nice to know you own a piece of history, but people do illegally trespass."

He added that some trespassers may be searching for the elusive Braddock's Gold, the missing payroll of the British after their defeat. But Adamovich said the wealth of the Braddock Road is not in finding a cache of gold.

"It's the understanding of finding our rich history," he said. "It's just to find the story."

Adamovich and the BRPA have created signage for Braddock's Road. The signs include the British flag, the words "Historic Braddock Road" and the year of Braddock's defeat in 1755.

The signs -- each paid for with a $125 contribution to the association -- mark portions of the road. Jayne Beatty, public relations coordinator at Jumonville, said there are currently eight sponsored signs erected on the trail through Jumonville's portion of Braddock's Road.

"We'd eventually like to mark the trail fully, and as the trail becomes visible, the markers will be put up," Beatty said.

Beatty added that the trail is being marked by volunteers, noting that the search for the road is ongoing, but not a "constant focus."

Charles Hall, of Augusta, W.Va., chairman of the Colonel Washington's Frontier Forts Association, said he wishes there were more interest in Braddock's Road and the French and Indian War because it was the start of freedom.

"Here we are trying to establish democracy around the world and little do we know what it took to establish it in America," he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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