Circa 1750, Cresap received instructions to improve the Native American path across the Appalachian Mountains through the Cumberland Narrows. He hired Nemacolin and his two sons, among others, to complete the task between Will's Creek (a trading post on a tributary of the Potomac River later the site of Fort Cumberland) and the mouth of Redstone Creek on the Monongahela River (a tributary of the Ohio River) which later became Redstone Old Fort and even later Brownsville, Pennsylvania. A side trail led to the residence of Christopher Gist. Gist led George Washington along Nemacolin's Path in 1753 and 1754. It was later improved to permit supply wagons for General Edward Braddock's army, and the General ultimately died on the route in 1755 after the disastrous Battle of Fort Necessity which began the French and Indian War. About 1759, as the war ended, Nemocolin reblazed the path to the residence of James Burd which became Fort Burd and later renamed Redstone Old Fort. Another branch went to Uniontown, Pennsylvania