David Dixon's office at Slippery Rock University is only a few miles from the likely route that 21-year-old George Washington traveled 252 years ago.

Washington had been sent in 1753 by Virginia's Colonial governor on a diplomatic mission into the Ohio Country wilderness. His assignment was to persuade the French, who were building a series of forts, to leave what is now Western Pennsylvania.

Dr. Dixon, a professor of history at Slippery Rock, has given Washington a fictional companion for his winter trip. "Embedded journalist" Phineus Cobb will provide eight on-the-scene dispatches describing that trek and other major events during the French and Indian War. Re-creating the style of 18th century writers, Dr. Dixon will have Mr. Cobb file stories from multiple locations, ranging from the banks of the Monongahela River to the Plains of Abraham in Quebec.

Mr. Cobb was created by French and Indian War 250 Inc. and the Pipitone Group, a Pittsburgh advertising agency. French and Indian War 250 is the organization coordinating the national commemoration of what also is called the Seven Years' War. Its activities have included creation of a Web site devoted to the war and production of a four-hour TV program, and accompanying book, both called "The War that Made America." They represent elements of a multiyear effort to build public interest in the lesser-known conflict and to encourage tourists to visit historical sites connected with the war.

Mr. Cobb's reports, prepared by Dr. Dixon and based on diaries, journals and field dispatches written by participants in the events described, are available free online. A Butler County native, Dr. Dixon has taught at Slippery Rock since 1989. He received his bachelor's degree there before earning master's and doctoral degrees from Kent State University. He lives in Worth.

He is the author of "Never Come to Peace Again," a book about the Pan-Indian uprising that followed the French and Indian War. He has been a regular speaker at commemorative events marking the 250th anniversary of the conflict.

All eight of Mr. Cobb's reports are factually accurate, Dr. Dixon said. While Mr. Cobb is an imaginary character, his "biography," available on the French and Indian War 250 Web site, reflects the backgrounds and experiences of many people living in the 18th century.

Like any good reporter, Mr. Cobb tries to keep himself in the background of his reports, Dr. Dixon said. He lets the real historical figures, including Washington, trader Christopher Gist and British Gens. Edward Braddock and James Wolfe tell their own stories.

In addition to the report on Washington's failed diplomatic mission -- the French dismissed his request and may have sent an Indian warrior to take a shot at him -- other dispatches will deal with topics such as Gen. Braddock's defeat in 1754 near the town that bears his name and the capture and adoption by American Indians of white settlers like Mary Jemison.

One story will deal with the British attempt to try an early form of biological warfare. Mr. Cobb describes the efforts by the commander of a besieged Fort Pitt, Simeon Ecuyer, to distribute blankets used by smallpox victims among to American Indians in 1763. His plan was to spread the deadly disease among them.

The final story, dated 1765, deals with the aftermath of the long and bloody war. In it, Mr. Cobb describes the conflict's heavy financial and human costs and the efforts by the British government to tax colonists to help pay for it via the wildly unpopular Stamp Act.

Funding for the "embedded journalist" program came from a state tourism grant. What is the connection to tourism? Special efforts are being made to build interest in those historic events among students and teachers, according to Debbie Corll, project manager of French and Indian War 250. Her group hopes that after people read about world-changing events at places like Jumonville and Fort Necessity, they will be eager to see them.

Mr. Cobb's stories are being e-mailed one per week over the next two months. That is good timing in terms of tourism, according to the Pipitone Group's Paul O'Rouke. People who have signed up for the dispatches will receive the final one in mid-March. That would be just in time to plan a spring or summer visit to many of the places Mr. Cobb is writing about, he said.

People interested in receiving the reports should visit the Web site at frenchandindianwar250.org and click on the "embedded journalist" icon.