Settlement forts along the Susquehanna River in the Wyoming Valley
                                A. Fort Durkee
                                B. Fort Wyoming
                                C. Fort Ogden
                                D. Village of Kingston
                                E. Forty Fort
                                F. Battle of Wyoming
                                G. Wintermoot Fort
                                H. Fort Jenkins
                                I. Monocasy
                                J. Three Pittston Stockades

Settlement forts along the Susquehanna River in the Wyoming Valley

A. Fort Durkee

B. Fort Wyoming

C. Fort Ogden

D. Village of Kingston

E. Forty Fort

F. Battle of Wyoming

G. Wintermoot Fort

H. Fort Jenkins

I. Monocasy

J. Three Pittston Stockades

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<p>An artist rendition of Forty Fort</p>

An artist rendition of Forty Fort

<p>A rendition of Lazarous Stewart’s blockhouse that was located near today’s Solomon Creek on Sans Souci Parkway, Hanover Township. Solomon Creek was formerly called Moses Creek.</p>

A rendition of Lazarous Stewart’s blockhouse that was located near today’s Solomon Creek on Sans Souci Parkway, Hanover Township. Solomon Creek was formerly called Moses Creek.

Imagine living in the Wyoming Valley in the late 1760s through the 1780s.

Most likely, you’ll be living in frontier forts or block houses built by competing Connecticut Yankees or the Pennamites who fought against each other for ownership of the virgin valley.

Probably the most documented and well-known is that of Forty Fort, which begun in 1770 in the area of today’s Wyoming Avenue and River Street in Forty Fort along the Susquehanna River. Forty Fort was named after the first 40 settlers from Connecticut through the Susquehanna Company who arrived in the Wyoming Valley in 1769.

Those first 40 Yankee settlers built Fort Durkee in 1769 in the area of River and south Streets in Wilkes-Barre.

About 1,000 feet away from the Yankee Fort Durkee stood Fort Wyoming, built by the competing Pennamites in 1771, near today’s South River and West Northampton streets in Wilkes-Barre.

Fort Wyoming was seized during the Pennamite-Yankee War and rebuilt in 1778, and used as a mobilization post for Gen. John Sullivan’s Continental Army with 3,000 men in 1779 in their revenge pursuit of the Iroquois Indians for the July 3, 1778 Wyoming Massacre.

Pittston Fort was said to be three stockades in the area of today’s North Main and Parsonage streets in Pittston. Erection of the Pittston Fort, also known as Fort Blanchard, begun in 1772 by Yankee settlers.

Fort Wintermoot was built along today’s Susquehanna Avenue in Exeter and was controlled by Tories supporting the British during the Revolutionary War.

Wilkes-Barre Fort was completed in 1778 near today’s Public Square and enclosed the courthouse of what was then Westmoreland County.

And then there was Fort Ogden, named after Amos Ogden, a Pennamite, built along Mill Creek near today’s Wilkes-Barre General Hospital in the early 1770s. Single blockhouses called Shawnee in Plymouth, Stewart’s near Solomon Creek in Hanover Township and others were constructed along the river or tributories.

A historical column by Amos Stroh published in the Wilkes-Barre Record on Feb. 15, 1895, included information about several of the frontier forts along the Susquehanna River. An interesting item in Stroh’s column mentions Fort Durkee stood near a small stream known as Fish Eddy that flowed into the Susquehanna River below South Street in Wilkes-Barre.

“Nearly all of the village of Wilkesbarre at the time and subsequent to the massacre was located below Public Square, mostly on Northampton Street, also that the forts on the river bank were mostly built for use in the Pennamite wars and that Forty Fort was the most important of all as it was nearest the centre of the valley and intended for the final resort of all in the valley,” Stroh wrote in his column.

A Times Leader Bicentennial Anniversary Edition, published June 5, 1976, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence list the history of several of the valley’s frontier forts built in defense against Indian invasion and against each other during the second Pennamite-Yankee War.

Forts were seized, destroyed, rebuilt and renamed after battles.

“All of these forts were repaired and strengthened in 1778 and were surrendered by the settlers when Forty Fort capitulated after the Battle of Wyoming,” the Bicentennial edition reported.

Several frontier forts were awarded historical markers by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission.