Venango Path. A major Indian path from the Forks of the Ohio (Pittsburgh) to Venango (Franklin) was located just west of here. George Washington used it in traveling north to Fort Le Boeuf in 1753. Capt. Jonathan Hart widened the path in 1787 on his way to build Fort Franklin. Here at Mayes Forks, the house on the NW corner was a major hotel--and a mail and stagecoach stop--during the early nineteenth century.