Our Vision
Friends of Fort Harmar is a charitable, nonprofit organization dedicated to utilizing the educational, historical, and community potential of the important role Fort Harmar played as the United States was founded and expanded into the Northwest Territory as directed by Congress. We seek to create a premier Marietta city park to honor the soldiers who served at Fort Harmar.
History of Fort Harmar
The U.S. Army built Fort Harmar in 1785 to protect the Native Americans and the
surveyors who were mapping the frontier for future settlements, as well as remove
squatters living illegally in this territory. During the fort’s tenure, important treaties were
concluded as the First American Regiment attempted to bring order to an increasingly
intense convergence of cultures: American revolutionaries, Native Americans, French
immigrants, and African Americans.
By the early 1790s, the Army’s frontier activities had mostly moved north and west;
most of the troops at Fort Harmar followed and the fort ceased operation. At Marietta’s
founding, city leaders designated Harmar Square as a “public commons” — the same
designation they gave today’s East Muskingum Park.
Learn more about The First American Regiment