Unlike the more easterly settlements of Chambersburg and York, Bedford is located in mountainous country, and until communications improved toward the end of the eighteenth century, frontier life was the norm in Bedford County and others to the west. Sparsely settled, the region attracted a predominantly Scotch-Irish population not averse to the hardships of life in the wilderness-or to picking fights with the local Indians. The fort was established by British soldiers in their campaign to capture Fort Dusquesne (modern Pittsburgh), and the town of Bedford grew nearby. As with buildings later assembled to form Old Bedford Village, the fortification shows the importance of log constructions in early settlements.