Fort Laurens had brief, significant role in US history

July 4, 2026, 5:50 a.m. ET - Gary Brown- Special to The Canton Repository

BOLIVAR – Why would a Revolutionary War fort exist in Ohio?

The state didn't exist as a political entity until after the turn of the 18th Century. And construction on the fort itself wasn't even begun on the banks of the Tuscarawas River near Bolivar until autumn of 1778, more than two years after the July 4, 1776, birth of the independent United States of America.