Forts at the Forks: Frontier History Comes to Life at the Fort Pitt Museum

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Forts at the Forks: Frontier History Comes to Life at the Fort Pitt Museum As the French moved south from Canada in the mid-eighteenth century, seeking new settlements in the vast Ohio Valley, Great Britain began to resist encroachment into regions its leaders long claimed. Taking action in 1753, Virginia Governor Robert Dinwiddie placed a letter into the hands of his young surveyor, George Washington, telling him to deliver it to the commander of Fort LeBoeuf (in...
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Archaeology in Black and White: Digging Somerset County’s Past During the Great Depression

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Archaeology in Black and White: Digging Somerset County’s Past During the Great Depression In 1994, a small team of archaeologists drove south from temporary lodgings in Somerset, in southwestern Pennsylvania, on State Route (S.R.) 219, to a point just north of Meyersdale, turned left into Indian Dig Road, and then left again onto Pony Farm Road. The archaeologists traveled a short distance up hill along this unpaved dirt road, before pulling their battered – and much maligned...
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The Value of Pennsylvania History

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Value of Pennsylvania History George W. Bush won the presidential election of 2000 because the fifty states cast more electoral votes for him, even though more people actually voted for his opponent, Albert A. Gore Jr. The election reminded Americans about a curious institution called the Electoral College, and an equally peculiar system known as federalism in which each state conducts elections according to distinct laws...
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Fishing on the Yough River

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on Fishing on the Yough River The Youghiogheny (pronounced yock-ah-gay-nee) River – known to locals, anglers, and kayakers as “The Yough” – is a 134-mile long tributary of the Monongahela River which rises in northern West Virginia, flows through Maryland, and enters southwestern Pennsylvania on the border between Fayette and Somerset Counties. It joins the Monongahela from the southeast at...
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