Digging Out

The March program page has info on events coming up this weekend and beyond. REMINDER: The State Museum of PA is closed this weekend, March 18-19, for electrical upgrade work.

Eckley Main Street, March 14, 2017 (more photos on Facebook)

Most sites on the Trails of History were affected by Winter Storm Stella (insert "Streetcar Named Desire" reference here), but perhaps none as much as the sites in the anthracite region. Eckley Miners' Village (above) saw up to 30" of snow. Everyone is getting back to normal, so regular schedules are in force. (Update: Lancaster Online posted a satellite map from NOAA that shows all of PA covered in snow.)

The weather was cold last Sunday for Charter Day, but more than 6,500 visitors (not counting State Museum) took advantage of free admission to help us celebrate Pennsylvania's birthday. Several sites have posted photos on Facebook - Anthracite Heritage, Ephrata Cloister, and State Museum of PA. And a couple of photographers have posted their own photos from Trails of History sites - Christopher Malone posted his photos of Landis Valley Village and Farm Museum on The Daily Antiquarian page and Ryan Patches, of Patches Photography, posted photos of Conrad Weiser Homestead's Charter Day activities. Thanks to Ryan and Chris for sharing!

In other news...
PennLive posted an article about the Last Raft, a reenactment of the log rafting that was a crucial part of the lumber industry in the first half of the 19th century. Leaving Clearfield County on March 14, 1938, the raft reached Fort Hunter, just north of Harrisburg, on March 25. En route, the raft hit a bridge pier near Muncy on March 20, throwing many passengers into the water, killing 7. You can learn more about the lumber industry and Pennsylvania's forests at the PA Lumber Museum. Tomorrow, March 18, the museum will host an event featuring Wood Hicks and Bark Peelers, a book of lumber region photos by William T. Clarke. Authors Ronald Ostman and Harry Littell are scheduled to be on hand to sign copies of the book, accompanied by Linda Ries, retired photo archivist for the Pennsylvania State Archives.

Susan Holloway Scott of the Two Nerdy History Girls blog wrote about a recent visit to Brandywine Battlefield Park, where she toured the Gideon Gilpin House.

Military uniform and items from Pennsbury's temporary exhibit (from Facebook)

Pennsbury Manor, connecting the site's Quaker heritage to the PHMC's current #PAatWar initiative, has opened a small temporary exhibit about Pennsylvania conscientious objectors. The exhibit runs through July and includes material from the Pennsylvania State Archives and private collectors. In a related story, the PA Trails of History Facebook page posted photos (below) of curator Rachel Yerger cataloguing a World War II flight suit for the PA Military Museum; the flight suit belonged to Sgt. John Thomas Strine.



As part of Drake Well Museum and Park's Petroleum Program series, site administrator Melissa Mann gave a talk on March 9 about Women's Activism in the Oil Region. She discussed the museum's ongoing research efforts to document women's history related to the oil industry and to the communities that were part of the region. You can read more about her talk in an article from the Titusville Herald. If you'd like to support this effort and other programs of the museum, you can donate March 20-24 through the Bridge Builders Community Foundations' Week of Giving online campaign (more info).