Lancaster County: Diversity of People, Ideas and Economy

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on Lancaster County: Diversity of People, Ideas and Economy When Lancaster County was established on May 10, 1729, it became the proto­type for the sixty-three counties to follow. The original three counties­Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester – were created as copies of typical English shires. The frontier conditions of Ches­ter County’s backwoods, from which Lancaster was formed, presented knot­ty problems to the civilized English­men....
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Cameron County: Where Legends are Legion

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Cameron County: Where Legends are Legion Tucked high away in Pennsylvania’s once foreboding northern tier, the little county called Cameron was a segment of the vast wilderness known for many years as the Com­monwealth’s last frontier. In fact, the county was not for­mally established until 1860, the sixty-sixth of the sixty­-seven counties apportioned and organized by the state legislature. Actual settlement of Ca­meron...
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Pike County: A Peak of Natural Perfection

Posted by on Nov 28, 2013 in | Comments Off on Pike County: A Peak of Natural Perfection “I went through a constant succession of scenery that would have been famous had it existed anywhere in Europe.” – Washington Irving   Shaped roughly like a diamond, Pike County is situated in Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier, bordering the Delaware River on the cast across from the states of New York and New Jersey. The northwestern side of the diamond lies in Lake...
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Westmoreland County: Welcome to the Western Frontier

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Westmoreland County: Welcome to the Western Frontier Westmoreland County, estab­lished by the Provincial As­sembly with an act signed on February 26, 1773, by Lieut. Gov. Richard Penn, was the eleventh – and last – county created by the proprietary government. Taken from part of Bedford County and named for a remote county in En­gland, it has played many significant roles in the origin and development of both the Commonwealth and the...
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Cumberland Valley Mornings: George Gibson and the Dawn of American Spring Creek Fishing

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Cumberland Valley Mornings: George Gibson and the Dawn of American Spring Creek Fishing At first glance, southeastern Pennsylvania’s Letort Spring Run may seem smaller than imagined. A visiting fly fisherman might object that surely the stream that inspired works by some of America’s most thoughtful and innova­tive fly-fishing writers must be bigger than this. Many fishermen probably think of the Letort as a river, rather than take its name, “spring run,” at...
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Burnt Cabins

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Burnt Cabins On July 18, 1749, Seneca representatives complained to the Provincial government that white settlers were violating a treaty by building houses on land belonging to the Six Nations. In response, Lieutenant Governor James Hamilton issued a proclamation. “I … do hereby, in His Majesty’s Name,” Hamilton ordered, “strictly charge, command, and enjoin all & every the...
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Out and About

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Out and About Shooting Modernism Luke Swank (1890-1944) was one of the pioneers of Modernism in photography. He was born in Johnstown, Cambria County, just eight months after the Flood of 1889 roared down South Creek Fork to the Little Cone­maugh River. The thundering wall of water, which reached a height of forty feet, destroyed everything in its path, including the Swank family’s hardware store. The...
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Digging Fort Hunter’s History

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Digging Fort Hunter’s History Over the past five years, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC) archaeologists conducted investigations at Fort Hunter, the site of a French and Indian War fortification located six miles north of Harrisburg. Hundreds of fort period (1756-1763) artifacts have been recovered along with the identification of a water well, bake oven, and the remains of a road or defensive ditch. In...
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