Laurel Highlands: Wright Houses, Fort Necessity & Ohiopyle

The Laurel Highlands southeast of Pittsburgh contain more significant American history per square mile than anywhere else in Pennsylvania. Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob together represent the greatest concentration of Frank Lloyd Wright residential architecture accessible on a day trip from any American city. Fort Necessity National Battlefield, 15 miles south of Fallingwater, is the site of George Washington's first military engagement — the 1754 skirmish that ignited the French and Indian War and, through its escalation to Europe, the Seven Years' War. Ohiopyle State Park, on the Youghiogheny River gorge, protects the most dramatic whitewater river in the mid-Atlantic and the landscape Washington crossed on his retreat from Fort Necessity.