End of the Road: Relocating and Preserving the Appalachian Trail in the Cumberland Valley

Posted by on Oct 21, 2024 in | Comments Off on End of the Road: Relocating and Preserving the Appalachian Trail in the Cumberland Valley Craig Dunn and Karen Lutz are two of my oldest friends. We go back to the late 1970s, decades before we had gray hair, artificial joints or any of the other hard-won infirmities the years have bestowed on us. We are sitting together in a restaurant, contemplating our lunch menus and catching up. Karen is a ball of energy and action, even now in her 70s — passionate, fiercely loyal, mischievous...
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Community Initiative Awards

Posted by on Sep 18, 2023 in | Comments Off on Community Initiative Awards Earlier this year, the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) announced the winners of its Community Initiative Awards acknowledging accomplishments made in 2022. PA SHPO started the awards program in 2016 to recognize the hard work and dedication of outstanding organizations, municipalities, agencies and individuals that advance and expand the definition of historic...
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Susquehannock Village at Lemoyne

Posted by on Aug 13, 2021 in | Comments Off on Susquehannock Village at Lemoyne Around 1610 a group of Susquehannocks, an Iroquoian-speaking Native American tribe, established a village perched on a bluff overlooking the Susquehanna River in what is today Lemoyne, Cumberland County. Fast forward to 2007 when archaeologists began excavating that site in advance of a proposed railroad connector project. There they uncovered evidence of the village, including a wooden...
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Melester Barn

Posted by on Nov 24, 2020 in | Comments Off on Melester Barn The Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office (PA SHPO) lists about 20 properties per year in the National Register of Historic Places. PA SHPO staff responds to nominations submitted by the public to recognize a particular building, site or district for its historic value and as a course to make it eligible for grants or tax credits to support the property’s restoration or rehabilitation....
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Pine Grove Furnace POW Interrogation Camp

Posted by on Oct 8, 2020 in | Comments Off on Pine Grove Furnace POW Interrogation Camp Located near Pine Grove Furnace within the state park of the same name in Cooke Township, Cumberland County, a 200-acre plot of land was the site of a unique sequence of historical events over the past 225 years. In the mid-18th century, iron ore was discovered along nearby Mountain Creek, which led to the development of Pine Grove Iron Works, a large-scale iron mining and pig iron production...
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Ringing Out for Women’s Suffrage: The 1915 Campaign to Win the Vote for Women in Pennsylvania

Posted by on Apr 15, 2020 in | Comments Off on Ringing Out for Women’s Suffrage: The 1915 Campaign to Win the Vote for Women in Pennsylvania   “The appearance in villages of this car with a “Votes for Women” apron in front, yellow pon-pons floating in the breeze and pennants flying, awakens interest in the most lethargic.” – The York Daily, October 25, 1915 On June 24, 1919, Pennsylvania became the seventh state to ratify the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. For Philadelphia suffragist...
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Backcast: Pennsylvania’s Legacy of Split Cane Fly Rods

Posted by on Feb 18, 2020 in | Comments Off on Backcast: Pennsylvania’s Legacy of Split Cane Fly Rods   It’s important not to rush this. A mistake will obliterate a month of work. I take care to make sure that my workbench is uncluttered, the lighting is adequate to the task, and the tools I’ll need are handy but not in the way. Before me is a tapered hexagonal shaft composed of Tonkin cane (Arundinaria amabilis McClure), a type of extraordinarily tough bamboo found mostly in southeastern...
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Shippensburg’s Locust Grove Cemetery

Posted by on Dec 31, 2019 in | Comments Off on Shippensburg’s Locust Grove Cemetery The town of Shippensburg, in the heart of the Cumberland Valley, was first settled in the 1730s. Some of the Europeans who moved into the area brought African American slaves with them. The exact number of slaves is unknown; it was not until after Pennsylvania’s 1780 Act for the Gradual Emancipation of Slavery that the numbers of slaves and slaveholders were recorded. Nevertheless, Shippensburg,...
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Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Spring 2017

Posted by on Mar 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation Newsletter – Spring 2017 Topics in the Spring 2017 Newsletter: PHF Board Meets at Pennsbury Manor The Giving Circle PHF Welcomes Three New Board Members Historical Marker Scavenger Hunt at Pennsylvania Farm Show Join the Pennsylvania Heritage Foundation   pennsylvania-heritage-foundation-newsletter-spring-2017...
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From the Executive Director

Posted by on Mar 13, 2017 in | Comments Off on From the Executive Director As a trained historian who has devoted his life to the preservation and teaching of American history, I am embarrassed to admit how little I knew about my own family’s history—only a few bits and pieces passed down from my parents. I was told that our family settled in the old Northwest Territory before Ohio became a state in 1803 and that some of my ancestors came from Pennsylvania. I...
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