The Mount Davis Natural Area on the Mountain is located within the Forbes State Forest and many trails take hikers throughout this alpine landscape.

A member of his force, a free black man, was killed in the battle in a manner described by Cresap's published account in the Pennsylvania Gazette of June 17, 1756.

[3] While many of the later, 19th century, histories contain embellishments that contemporary accounts cannot confirm, it is known that Cresap set forth on his incursion in May, 1756 accompanied by a band of frontiersman and woodsmen he had gathered, plus elements of the 1st Virginia Regiment, 17th company 'Rangers', under the command of Lt.

Tom,3 & Sixteen Volunteers Straight to it, and about a Quarter of a mile above the Spring on the Top of the mountains fell in with a party of the Enemy.

The party was attacked by Native Americans and during the ensuing skirmish, an African-American servant of Friend was gravely wounded and died the following morning on the mountain.

Yet another version, this time from local family lore, tells of: John Hyatt, one of the early settlers, [who] was a native of Maryland.

The Maryland Gazette had already described the same expedition on June 10, 1756, mentioning that a "free Negro" had been killed in action during the fighting.

It may be additionally noted that Andrew Friend and Thomas Cresap each drew pay, in 1766, from Captain Chapline's company of the Maryland Militia for frontier services.

[9] There are yet other sources that claim the mountain was named because of the black shadow it casts at certain times of the day, as observed from adjacent ridges.

In July 2007, Pennsylvania State Representative Rosita C. Youngblood (D., Philadelphia’s 198th District) called for the renaming of Negro Mountain.

378 [16] resolving that the governor "form a commission …to study the naming of Negro Mountain and Mount Davis …[to] adopt names that accurately reflect the history of the region and the heroism displayed by the African American in the Negro Mountain conflict of 1756" and accordingly to alter "brochures, plaques and signs [to] accurately reflect the facts of this heroic historical event" (the 1921 naming of Mount Davis is now also considered controversial because it honors the white settler who once owned the land, rather than the colonial African-American).

[18] In April 2019, the Maryland State Highway Administration removed road signs for Negro Mountain, citing concerns over racial sensitivity.