The Real Story of Cherry's Fort

In 1773, Thomas Cherry II watched his world collapse. The British Credit Crisis destroyed his Virginia tobacco plantation, leaving a once-prosperous family facing financial ruin. With nothing left to lose, the Cherrys sold everything and fled west—through the Pennsylvania wilderness, following trails blazed by George Washington himself. They were chasing a dream of land ownership on the frontier, but they were also running from debt collectors and desperation.

By 1774, Thomas had claimed a hilltop overlooking Cherry Run Creek and built this fort—a triangular stockade with a massive 2.5-story blockhouse featuring an "overshot" design where the second floor jutted out with loopholes for defensive fire. Life here was brutal: fewer than 5,000 families in all of western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh a village of barely 400 souls. Wolves and bears prowled the clearing. Native American war parties tested the fort's defenses. Women dressed as men to deceive scouts and practiced shooting. Everyone lived on edge. Then tragedy struck—in June 1781, Thomas's son John was killed at age 23 trying to rescue a captive at Tomlinson Run. Soon after, Thomas himself was found dead with a gunshot to the head at the fort's spring. Murder? Suicide? No one knows.

Thomas's widow Mary held the fort and survived. Today, Fort Cherry High School stands just one mile from this site, named after the family that refused to give up. It is still a rural landscape, but today many people live where only a handful survived in the 1770s. But the fort itself? Nearly forgotten—until now.

Interactive experience:
Mary Cherry has held this fort for years since tragedy took her husband and son. Now, as the Whiskey Rebellion tears through Pennsylvania and dark forces stir in the wilderness, she needs a defender. The fort's spring is cursed. The stockade walls whisper at night. And the tax collectors are coming. You're standing in a place where real families fought, bled, and died for survival. This isn't just a game. This is history. Will you stand with Mary and the Cherry family and survive to tell your tale or will history get re-written?