Christopher Gist

Christopher Gist (1706–1759) was a colonial British explorer, surveyor and frontiersman. He was one of the first European explorers of the Ohio Country (the present-day states of Ohio, eastern Indiana, western Pennsylvania, and northwestern West Virginia, USA). He is credited with providing the first detailed description of the Ohio Country to Great Britain's colonists. At the beginning of the French and Indian War (1754), Gist accompanied Colonel George Washington on missions into this wilderness and saved Washington's life on two separate occasions.