Existing comment:
Céloron Plate
Time Period
1623 to 1763
One of the most important artifacts to survive from Virginia’s colonial period, this lead plaque was placed at the junction of the Kanawha and Ohio Rivers in 1749 by Captain Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville. Five other plates were laid along other tributaries of the Ohio River to assert France's claims to all the lands watered by those rivers. Under its 1609 charter, Virginia claimed those lands, too. News of the lead plates reached Williamsburg, and a young Lt. Col. George Washington was sent west by the royal governor to confront the French. The battle Washington initiated in May 1754 resulted in an escalation of hostilities between France and Great Britain that erupted in the Seven Years’ War in Europe and the French and Indian War in North America. This is the only plaque that survives intact. |