Located approximately 40 miles south of Pittsburgh in Fayette County, along the Monongahela River, Brownsville's location is generally believed to have been a hunting ground for the Five Nations of the Iroquois. The first European outpost was a fort built in 1759 to command the river's crossing point. It known as Redstone Old Fort or Fort Burd (after Colonel James Burd, who established it), and it became a prominent outfitting destination for anyone traveling west. The town of Brownsville was formally founded in 1785 by land speculator Thomas Brown, who it is named after. In 1789 a trading post was built by Jacob Bowman, whose original log cabin was later incorporated by his ancestors into Nemacolin Castle and stands to this day.
