This Pennsylvania fort town dared a president to show up. And he did, with an army.

Bedford’s roots run to 1758

You can drive the Pennsylvania Turnpike from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh and blow right past Bedford without a second thought. That would be a mistake.

This borough of about 2,865 people sits in the Allegheny Mountains of south-central Pennsylvania, roughly 100 miles west of Harrisburg and 107 miles east of Pittsburgh.

The town traces its history to a British fort built during the French and Indian War, and from there, the layers just keep stacking.

Covered bridges, a presidential summer White House, roadside oddities, and fossils older than the dinosaurs all fit inside one county.

A fort, a rebellion and a president on horseback

British troops under Colonel Henry Bouquet built Fort Bedford in 1758 as a supply depot during their campaign against the French at Fort Duquesne.

The fort anchored a chain of fortifications running from Carlisle all the way to the Ohio Valley. Then, in 1794, President George Washington marched roughly 13,000 troops to Bedford to crush the Whiskey Rebellion.

He set up his headquarters at the Espy House in downtown Bedford. No other sitting president in American history has personally led troops in the field. Washington did it here.

The museum built to look like the fort

The Fort Bedford Museum sits near the original fort’s location in downtown Bedford.

It went up in 1958 to mark the fort’s 200th anniversary, and the building itself looks like one of the fort’s original blockhouses.

Inside, you’ll find thousands of artifacts and exhibits covering the people and events that shaped Bedford County. A detailed scale model shows what the original star-shaped fort probably looked like.

You can stand over it and trace the layout wall by wall.

Where presidents came for the spring water

Bedford Springs Resort goes back to 1806, built around natural mineral springs that Native Americans had long used for healing.

Dr. John Anderson bought the land in 1798 and started promoting the springs for their medicinal benefits. Thomas Jefferson visited in 1819, the first of nearly a dozen presidents to stay there.

James Buchanan made it his summer White House from 1857 to 1861.

In 1858, Buchanan received the first trans-Atlantic telegraph message from Queen Victoria while sitting at the resort.

Fourteen covered bridges still standing strong

Bedford County holds 14 covered bridges, and most of them went up in the 1880’s and 1890’s. Craftsmen built them almost entirely by hand.

Twelve of the 14 use a Burr Truss design, which combines trusses with an arch for extra strength. The longest is the 136-foot Herline Bridge near Manns Choice.

If you want to see a good stretch of them in one trip, the Bedford County Visitors Bureau puts out a self-guided driving tour that hits nine bridges across about 40 miles.

The 18-foot coffee pot on the highway

In 1927, David Berton Koontz built a giant brick coffee pot to lure travelers off the Lincoln Highway and into his gas station. The thing stands 18 feet tall and 22 feet wide.

It started as a small luncheonette, later turned into a bar, and at one point even served as a bus stop. The Coffee Pot closed in the late 1980’s and nearly got demolished.

Preservationists stepped in, saved it in 2003, and moved it to the Bedford County Fairgrounds entrance in 2004.

An art deco gas station still pumping fuel

The Lincoln Highway, America’s first coast-to-coast road, runs through Bedford as Route 30. Dunkle’s Gulf Station went up along the highway in 1933, and you can still pull in and fill your tank today.

That makes it a rare survivor from the early days of American car culture.

The Lincoln Highway era of the early 1900’s gave rise to novelty roadside buildings all over the country, and Bedford’s stretch of Route 30 keeps some of the best remaining examples in Pennsylvania.

A lake, a lodge and 16 miles of trail

Shawnee State Park covers 3,983 acres about 10 miles west of Bedford along Route 30. At its center sits the 451-acre Shawnee Lake, where you can fish, kayak, or put in an electric-motor boat.

The park runs 16 miles of trails, including the popular 3.4-mile Lake Shore Loop. A beach and swimming area open from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

If you want to stay the night, you can grab one of 293 campsites or book a lodge that sits on an island in the lake.

Fossils from an ancient sea under your feet

Coral Caverns sits in Manns Choice, less than 15 minutes from downtown Bedford. Inside, you’ll see fossilized coral more than 420 million years old pressed into the rock walls.

That coral formed in an ancient inland sea off the coast of what is now Virginia and drifted to Pennsylvania through plate tectonics over millions of years.

Guided tours run about 30 to 40 minutes and go by appointment. The family who runs it also keeps a small museum packed with fossils and artifacts.

Your car rolls uphill here, sort of

Gravity Hill sits on a rural road near New Paris in Bedford County.

You put your car in neutral, take your foot off the brake, and watch yourself appear to roll uphill. Spray-painted lines on the road mark the start and finish.

It costs nothing to try, and it sits near several of the county’s covered bridges, so you can work it into a loop.

Bedford County is full of these kinds of quirky, only-in-America roadside stops that you won’t find on any interstate.

Step into the 1800’s at Old Bedford Village

Old Bedford Village is a living history museum just north of downtown Bedford. More than three dozen structures from the 18th and 19th centuries fill the grounds.

Reenactors in period clothing show you trades and crafts from colonial times through the Civil War. You cross the Claycomb Covered Bridge to get in, a real one built in 1880.

The museum opens seasonally from Memorial Day weekend through the end of October, so plan your visit between late May and early fall.

70,000 people show up for the leaves

The Bedford Fall Foliage Festival runs the first two full weekends of October every year. It started more than 60 years ago as a simple autumn car tour of local historical sites.

Now, more than 400 vendors line the streets of historic downtown Bedford, and roughly 70,000 visitors pack the town over those two weekends. Oprah recognized it as one of the top 22 harvest festivals in the country.

If you’re anywhere near Pennsylvania in early October, this is the draw.

Visit Bedford in Pennsylvania

You can reach Bedford from Exit 146 of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Pittsburgh is about two hours west, Washington, D.C. , sits roughly two and a half hours south, and Philadelphia is about three and a half hours east.

The Bedford County Visitors Bureau at 131 South Juliana St. is a solid starting point for planning your trip.

Downtown Bedford is compact and walkable, with shops, restaurants and museums all within a few blocks of each other. Check the official website for current hours and seasonal schedules.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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