For UncoveringPA.com by Jim Cheney
Sitting high atop a hill on the banks of the Monongahela River is one of the most curious buildings in the Laurel Highlands: Nemacolin Castle.
Nemacolin Castle was built in the 1780s by Jacob Bowman. Bowman, a native of Hagerstown, Maryland, traveled Nemacolin’s Road, an old Native American path that was a popular route west at the time (and later would be closely followed by the National Road), to the banks of the Monongahela River.
Bowman set up a trading post in a two-room log cabin that also served as his family home. The trading posts location along the edge of the frontier made this a popular stop for supplies and the trading of goods.
