A key figure in American history narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in western Pennsylvania, but it wasn’t former President Donald J. Trump.
George Washington, who was only 21 years old at the time of the incident, was a major in the British Army.
The year was 1753.
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The United States of America did not yet exist, and young Washington traveled from Virginia to western Pennsylvania.
His goal? To prevent war.
A monument in Evans City, Pennsylvania, tells the story of the attempted assassination of George Washington in December 1753. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
Jack Cohen, Butler County tourism director and 1753 George Washington Trail board member, said in a phone interview with Fox News Digital this week that Washington “was on his way to Fort Le Boeuf near Erie.”
There he plans to meet with French troops “to see if we can stop the French and Indian War,” Cohen said.
Washington was tasked with delivering a letter from Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie urging the French to leave the area.
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However, the French balked at the idea of withdrawing from the area, and full-scale war began about six months after Washington’s visit to Fort Le Boeuf.
But earlier, on December 27, 1753, Washington and his guide, a surveyor named Christopher Gist, followed the Venango Indian Trail on their way back to Virginia, stopping overnight at Connocnessing Creek in Pennsylvania, Cohen reports.
The Washington assassination attempt is commemorated in a painting called “First Bullet,” painted in 2007 by artist Dieck Monn, which hangs in the Butler County Courthouse. (Deak Mong)
George Washington, depicted in this portrait painted by Constable Hamilton in 1794, served as President of the United States from 1789 to 1797. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
There they became acquainted with an “Indian guide” who offered to help them through the wilderness.
As it turned out, the “Indian Guides” were allies of the French and were not pleased to see Washington there.
The man “loaded a musket and fired at Washington, but missed him by just a hair.”
“The man loaded a musket and fired at Washington, missing him by a hair,” Cohen said of the horrific attempted murder.
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“They were going to chase him, but Gist said, ‘Let him go,’ so they let him go, and the next morning they left.”
Nearly 300 years after the assassination attempt on Washington, it is memorialized by two monuments in what is now Evans City, Pennsylvania, near the Butler Farm Show where Trump recently nearly lost his life.
Evans City, where Founding Father George Washington was nearly killed, is about six miles from Butler Farm Show, where former President Donald Trump was nearly killed on July 13, 2024. (Deak Mon, Google Earth, AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
According to the sign, the man who plotted to assassinate Washington was “within 15 steps of him” when the gunman opened fire.
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Cohen and other committee members are currently trying to get Washington’s historic route recognized by the National Park Service as a National Historic Trail.
Many people are working together to get Washington’s 1753 route through Pennsylvania recognized as a National Historic Trail by the National Park Service. Above is a portion of the trail. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
“This should be a national trail, considering George Washington could have been killed here,” he told Fox News Digital.
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“And it happened right here in Butler County.”
A panoramic view of the trail where Founding Father George Washington escaped an assassination attempt in what is now Evans City, Pennsylvania, on Friday, July 26, 2024. The shooting scene is about six miles from Butler Farm Show, where President Trump survived the assassination attempt. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
On President’s Day in Evans City, Pennsylvania, George Washington, who would later become the first president of the United States, escaped an assassination attempt at age 21. The shooting scene is about six miles from Butler Farm Show. The photo above was taken on July 26, 2024. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
On July 13, 2024, more than 270 years after Washington escaped an assassination attempt just six miles from his Butler County campsite, former President Trump also survived a bullet grazed his right ear.
Cohen did not fail to notice the similarities between the two incidents.
Former President Donald Trump was shot in the right ear by an attempted assassin on July 13, 2024 in Butler, Pennsylvania. (Alex Brandon)
The assassination attempt on Washington was “pretty much the same as what just happened,” he told Fox News Digital, referring to what happened to Trump.
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“Isn’t that strange?” Cohen said.
