History Day Trip to Hanna’s Town (Sat., 7/5/25)

Hanna’s Hot Little Town

Three years before America’s revolutionaries signed the Declaration of Independence, the only “royal” courthouse west of the Allegheny Mountains was established in Hanna’s Town. Like most early settlements, Hanna’s Town was a small village of log cabins, farm fields, and a stockade defense to ward off attacks by Native Americans. Which is just what happened on July 13, 1782. The pioneers of Hanna’s Town were harvesting Michael Huffnagle’s fields when marauding Senecas attacked the town, burning all but the stockade and the single courthouse. Only settled nine years earlier, Hanna’s Town was never rebuilt.

But, today, the Westmoreland Historical Society invites you to an amazing visitor’s center that offers deep appreciation for how our earliest homesteaders survived in the wilderness that was then Pennsylvania. (Or was it Virginia?) Hanna’s Town features a modern visitor’s center, a rotating gallery of artifacts, a library and gift shop, while outside on more than 180 acres are a reconstructed tavern, a basic fort, historic log cabins, and a Conestoga wagon. Volunteers are eager to engage the curious, answering questions about primitive survival techniques, what foods were available, how natives and settlers traded openly—even how to throw spears with an atlatl. Hanna’s Town makes for a perfect day trip into America’s past, and it’s less than an hour from Pittsburgh. Admission is $10 for adults with several other groups eligible for discounted or free entrance. Open Wednesday through Sunday. Take Route 22 east from Monroeville, or enter “809 Forbes Trail Road, Greensburg,” into your GPS.

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