The Wissahickon Valley: To a Wilderness Returned

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on The Wissahickon Valley: To a Wilderness Returned The rural Wissahickon Valley, near center-city Philadelphia, typifies the rugged landscape which greeted the first white settlers. Today, its huge hem­locks and towering sycamores contrast markedly with the busy factories and row houses only a mile away. But this valley of contrasts has always been different from the sur­rounding region. A century ago, when most of America was rural or wild, the...
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In Search of the Elusive Basketmaster

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on In Search of the Elusive Basketmaster Four years ago, when our project of tape record­ing oral traditions in the Union County area began, we became aware that several area families had been making baskets for generations. Particularly in the “tight end” of our county, where the Shivelys were, and the Forest Hill area, where the Diehls had lived, these skills and attitudes were passed down and practiced much longer than...
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A River Runs Through Penn’s Woods: Tracing the Mighty Schuylkill

Posted by on Nov 20, 2013 in | Comments Off on A River Runs Through Penn’s Woods: Tracing the Mighty Schuylkill Congress designates a National Heritage Area as “where a diversity of resources exist that combine to form a cohesive distinctive landscape.” The Schuylkill River National and State Heritage Area was so named in 2000. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania announced the entire Schuylkill River watershed of two thousand square miles comprising the counties of Schuylkill, Berks, Chester,...
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