Trailheads

Summer is the busiest season on the Pennsylvania Trails of History. Daytrippers enjoy a wealth of options for guided or free-range touring. Families find places to create lasting memories and help stave off the dreaded “learning loss” of summer. Outdoor enthusiasts break up their recreational time, or wait out bad weather, with a gallery visit or two.

Numerous summer camp offerings are available throughout the season ranging from one-day to weeklong camps. Most are designed for kids in elementary and middle school, but there are opportunities for family learning as well. Many camps sell out early, so it’s best to check with the sites for availability.

Most Trail of History sites are open on July 4, some with special programming. Remember to check to make sure your desired site is open before you go.

Commemorating the Reading Railroad

At the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Reading Railroad Days, June 30–July 7, commemorates the history of one of Pennsylvania’s iconic corporations (and a well-known stop on the Monopoly board).

The 101-year-old switching locomotive No. 1251 is one of the historic Reading Railroad pieces on exhibit at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania.
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, PHMC

Founded in 1833 as the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, the line transported anthracite coal throughout the Mid-Atlantic and grew into a complex and influential corporation by the 1870s. The museum’s collection includes important Reading pieces such as No. 800, an electric locomotive that powered commuter trains in suburban Philadelphia until 1980, and the 100-year-old No. 1251, a steam-powered industrial switching engine known as a “goat.”

Reading Railroad Days is presented in cooperation with the Reading Company Technical & Historical Society. Society members will set up and operate an enormous and highly detailed HO-scale model train layout of the Reading Railroad. In addition, visitors will get a sneak peek at new exhibits installed throughout Rolling Stock Hall (set for completion in the coming months). Reading Railroad Days is included in regular admission to the museum. Visit rrmuseumpa.org.

Independence Wood-Hick Style

A perennial favorite, the Bark Peelers’ Festival at the Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, now in its fifth decade, will be held on July 6–7.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, loggers and other woods workers (some also known as “woodhicks”) celebrated Independence Day with contests of skill and dexterity. Felling trees, removing their limbs and bark, and getting them out of the woods was strenuous, often dangerous work that required skill with axes, saws, bark spuds and peavys (used to move logs). These bark peelers “conventions,” as they were called, provided some fun and a chance for competition while celebrating the holiday.

The crosscut saw competition is one of the highlights of the Bark Peelers’ Festival.
Pennsylvania Lumber Museum Associates/Photo by Curt Weinhold

Since 1974 the museum has presented an event that incorporates these traditional skills, draws attention to the continued presence and role of Pennsylvania’s lumber industry, and emphasizes the importance of forest stewardship and the mixed use of the state’s forests for industry and recreation.

New this year, the big iron cookstove in the logging camp will be fired up to show the work of feeding a horde of hungry woodhicks. Workers relied on the cook and “cookees” (assistants) to provide them with the nutritional fuel (some 8,000 calories per day) to sustain their physically demanding work. Food vendors with a variety of wares will be on hand to take care of the rest of us. Admission is charged for the event; two-day passes are available. Visit lumbermuseum.org.

Experiencing the Battle of Bushy Run

For two days in August of 1763 a western Pennsylvania outpost was the setting for a global conflict. Pontiac’s Rebellion, following closely on the heels of the French and Indian War, pitted Native Americans against British and provincial troops. Sent to resupply Fort Pitt, which had been under siege by Native American forces since June, troops under the command of Col. Henry Bouquet were attacked near Bushy Run Station (about 25 miles west of Pittsburgh) by a contingent of Delaware, Mingoe, Shawnee and Wyandot warriors. The ensuing battle, August 5–6, involved a mix of British and Native American military tactics and maneuvers. Ultimately, Bouquet’s troops defeated the Native Americans and reached Pittsburgh with Fort Pitt’s much-needed supplies. Native hopes of negotiating limits on British expansion were at an end.

British troops present their muskets for safety inspection as part of the Reenactments of the Battle of Bushy Run.
Amanda Wilson Photography

The annual Reenactment of the Battle of Bushy Run at Bushy Run Battlefield will feature both Native American and British encampments, demonstrations of military drills and weapons, and a sutler trading area with reproduction trade goods and soldier accouterments (food vendors will also be on site). The first day of battle will be reenacted on Saturday, August 3, with the second day’s action presented on Sunday, August 4.

The mix of reenactors and encampments allows visitors to learn not just about the military engagement but also about the cultures of the opposing forces. Admission is charged; two-day passes are available. Visit bushyrunbattlefield.com.

Collections Highlight

The Pennsylvania Lumber Museum has been looking for ways to expand the reach of its collections to represent the diversity of Pennsylvania residents who have played a part in the commonwealth’s lumber and forest industries. According to museum curator Joshua Fox, “Women and children as well as African Americans are known to have been present at lumber camps from the industries’ heyday but are under-represented in the museum collection.”

Recently, the museum accepted from the Newell Family a donation of photographs that had belonged to Fred Newell, a farmer who lived in Tioga County and worked in local lumber camps. Little is known about the photos, but some depict women and children at late-19th-century lumber camps. One photo documents an African American man among a group of loggers. “As far as we can tell,” said Rachel Yerger, Collections Advancement Project curator, “it is the only image in the museum’s collection that shows an African American at a lumber camp of this period.”

This photo of a lumber camp community was possibly taken near Corbett, Potter County, circa 1890s.
Pennsylvania Lumber Museum, PHMC (LM 2019.4.1)

If you know of any history or items related to minority groups who worked in Pennsylvania’s lumber or forest industries, please contact the museum at palumbermuseum@gmail.com.

Amy Killpatrick Fox is a museum educator in PHMC’s Bureau of Historic Sites and Museums. She writes a weekly blog also called Trailheads at patrailheads.blogspot.com.