The Venango County Historical Society’s continuing Speaker’s Forum will host a presentation on the early history of the Venango County area on Saturday at the Oil City Library.

Bill Black will present a PowerPoint program titled “Trails, Traders, Forts: Venango” at 9 a.m. in the library’s community room. The program is free and the public is welcome.
Between A.D. 1700 and A.D. 1800, Venango was a hub of activity that involved four separate competing nations. Native American communities utilized the confluence of French Creek and the Allegheny River for millennia.

Both the French and British nations sought to control the area for trade and settlement. After the conclusion of both the French and Indian, and Revolutionary Wars, the influx of British, and then American, settlers caused a significant change in the region’s social landscape.

Black has studied these changes through a lens of archaeology and history within the region. He has directed the Venango Archaeology Chapter in several excavations locally, including the French Fort Machault in Franklin and a Native American village site near Cooperstown.
Black and his wife, Lynn, live south of Franklin .