History Lives! Reenactors Bring The Past To Life

Posted by on Nov 30, 2013 in | Comments Off on History Lives! Reenactors Bring The Past To Life The frontier fort on the bluff overlooking Loyalhanna Creek seems peaceful in the autumn sun. Smoke from a cooking fire floats lazily above the trees. A sentry in brilliant scarlet walks his post silently. Sudden­ly, the forest around the fort seems to erupt with the thunder and smoke of a hundred muskets. The sentry spots Indians moving quickly from tree to tree and a flash of blue from the...
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Transportation in Pennsylvania in 1776

Posted by on Nov 29, 2013 in | Comments Off on Transportation in Pennsylvania in 1776 During the Revolution, Pennsylvania was a central stage from the standpoint of geography, leadership, manpower, and supplies. Therefore, its transportation facilities were of special significance. The southeastern part of the State produced large quantities of the very materials needed by the Continental Army. A modest network of roads made possible the transporting of those materials to Valley...
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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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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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Bookshelf

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Bookshelf Coal and Coke in Pennsylvania by Carmen DiCiccio Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1996 (223 pages, paper, 16.95) Coal and Coke in Pennsylvania began in 1991 as a written guide for the nomination of soft coal operations and coke extractive facilities in western Pennsylvania to the National Register of Historic Places. During the project, diverse sources were consulted, including...
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Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: North America’s Forgotten Conflict at Bushy Run Battlefield

Posted by on Nov 26, 2013 in | Comments Off on Broken Promises, Broken Dreams: North America’s Forgotten Conflict at Bushy Run Battlefield It was small enough – a piece of land in the Allegheny Mountain range, enfolded by dense woods of large oaks and chestnuts, rolling hills, swamps, and small creek beds. There, on Chestnut Ridge near an outpost called Bushy Run, Colonel Henry Bouquet, leading a relief expedition to the British stronghold at Fort Pitt, was attacked by Delaware, Mingoe, Shawnee, and Wyandot Indians on August...
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Current and Coming

Posted by on Nov 25, 2013 in | Comments Off on Current and Coming Anniversary Activities The French and Indian War was £ought in south western Pennsylvania between 1754 and 1760 as France, Great Britain, and Native America battled for control of one of the most important pieces of real estate in North America. This highly coveted and hotly contested point of land, at the time called the Forks of the Ohio, is now the City of Pittsburgh. In the eighteenth...
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