New and Noteworthy

Reminders: our “This is My History” photo campaign is still going; if you want your photos to be considered for inclusion in the Statewide Preservation Plan, they must be submitted by Oct. 31. The deadline for receipt of nomination materials for PHMC Historical Markers is Dec. 1.



Well, it’s here. PHMC’s new mobile website launched earlier this month. Accessing the site is easy—if you visit www.patrailsofhistory.com using a smartphone you will be magically connected to a website optimized for mobile devices (which you already know if you use a smartphone—can you guess that I don’t, yet?). As we print new Trails of History brochures, they will include QR codes to make finding visitor info on the fly even quicker (your download times may vary).

To mark this new venture, sites on the Trails of History are offering a $2 discount on adult general admission tickets between now and the end of October. You must show the person at the front desk the website on your mobile device to take advantage of this; the discount is not valid for special events and can’t be combined with other discounts (we do, after all, need to pay the bills).

CCC Veterans Andrew Majorsky, George Pryslak, Austin Carr, Bill Roberts and James Franklin, Sr., with Mike Wennin, Lumber Heritage Region Executive Director, at CCC Worker Statue Dedication [photo by Amanda Jones, Bradford Era]

On Sept. 25, as part of the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum Associates (PALMA), about 100 people gathered to unveil a statue honoring the Civilian Conservation Corps (1933-42). The Lumber Museum exhibits include a cabin built in Potter County in 1936 by CCC enrollees and moved to the museum grounds in the 1990s as a memorial to the thousands of young men from Pennsylvania who served their communities in “the Cs.” The statue adds a human figure to the scene and is part of a project by the National CCC Legacy Association to erect statues in all 50 states.

On the same day, the museum also showcased a new birch still, which was built by staff and volunteers of the state Bureau of Forestry. Birch stills are used to distill oil from birch bark; birch oil has had various uses, including as an ingredient in Bengay ointment (according to an article in the Wellsboro Gazette on Sept. 21). The museum will demonstrate the still several times during the year (it takes two days to produce a quart of birch oil), including the ever-popular Bark Peelers Convention in July. (Many thanks to Amanda Jones of the Bradford Era, Mike Wennin of the Pennsylvania Lumber Heritage Region, and David Brooks of the Potter County Visitors Assn. for sharing info and photos for this post.)

Watch the full episode. See more The War of 1812.

Way back in 2009, we had a post about the filming of a documentary for public television. The producers spent a couple of days onboard Niagara, with the ship’s crew and the Erie Maritime Museum "Ship’s Company" interpreters cast as their historical counterparts. Two years later, The War of 1812 will premiere on PBS stations across the country on Oct. 10. You can preview it online (the clip above includes Niagara) or wait for the larger screen (I’m presuming). Anyway, it’s great to see a project like this come to fruition. (Thanks to Linda Bolla at Erie Maritime for the info and for including a link to the Trailheads post in the Flagship Niagara League e-newsletter.)