The fort helped the French control these waterways, part of what was known as the Venango Path from Lake Erie to the Ohio River.

In January 1759 the British launched an expedition to attack Fort Machault, but had to turn back after encountering resistance from French-Allied Native Americans.

[3][1]: 49 In 1753, Governor General Michel-Ange Duquesne de Menneville ordered construction of a fortified trading post at the confluence of the Allegheny River and French Creek at Venango, a Lenape village.

[5]: 34, 140  In August 1753, Philippe-Thomas Chabert de Joncaire was sent up the Allegheny River by canoe to explore the area, and found activity by English traders with local Native American communities.

The French felt that they would lose influence in the area and decided to build a chain of fortresses from Lake Erie south.

[5]: 62 Prior to the arrival of the French in 1753, John Fraser, a Scots immigrant, blacksmith, and trader from Pennsylvania, had set up shop on this site.

He supplied Native Americans in the region with trade goods and repaired their guns and other metal wares in exchange for furs.

[6] In December 1753, Major George Washington of the Virginia militia used the Venango Path to reach Fort Machault during his first expedition into the Ohio Country.

[8] Washington, with an escort of seven men, including Christopher Gist, Guyasuta and Tanacharison, carried a letter from Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia, protesting the French invasion of lands claimed by Great Britain and demanding their immediate withdrawal.

It took Washington three days to persuade them to move on to Fort Le Boeuf, where they met the French commander Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre.

An escaped prisoner, John Adam Long, reported that a number of square logs had been "got together at that place sufficient to build a large fort on a pretty, rising ground in the Forks of Ohio and French creek.

[5]: 325 John Adam Long, who had escaped from French captivity in April 1756, reported that, at "Venango...resided an officer in a small stockade fort with a command of forty men.

"[3][1]: 53 [5]: 151  Jacob Hochstetler, who was captured by Lenape warriors in September 1757, was brought to Fort Machault and then sold to a Seneca family in a nearby community.

In 1758, Colonel Hugh Mercer stated that there were about 100 soldiers at Fort Machault, where the French had 11 flat-bottomed boats called batteaux, "and one great gun of the size of a quart pot which they fire off by a train of powder.

"[3][1]: 53  In March 1759, Mercer reported that a Native American spy named Bull had entered the fort and observed that the garrison consisted of two officers and forty men.

[17] In August 1759, Governor Vaudreuil, expecting a British military assault, ordered his troops to "fall back successively upon Forts Le Boeuf and Presqu' Isle, and so completely destroy the works as to leave nothing behind that would be available to the enemy."

A bucket auger survey was implemented, and samples revealed cultural features and possible French and Indian War-era artifacts on the west side of Elk Street and south of an old stream channel.

[19] Residents of Franklin have found both English and French coins dating to the 18th century, as well as a cannon, which was refurbished and used to fire blank charges on the fourth of July.