Daniel Boone Homestead In 1730 Squire Boone purchased 250 acres of land and built a log cabin with a spring cellar on this property. Today that property is adjacent to a major four-lane highway. A son, Daniel Boone, was born there four year later. This is the same Daniel Boone that is famous in American history and folklore. He tended cattle and scouted the local woodlands for the next sixteen years. The cabin was later incorporated into a brick mansion that still stands today on a state historical site. The homestead is intended to actually tell the story of three families who have lived on the property and to give insights into the early history of this region of Pennsylvania. Squire Boone was a blacksmith and weaver. During the summers Daniel occupied a small cabin at the edge of the pasture in order to better tend the cattle and to protect them from the many predators. In 1750 the Boone family had a falling out with the local Quaker community and decided to move to North Carolina. Daniel moved further south and west with the family and later continued moving west. The site has a large visitor's center with exhibits and a gift shop. Brochures outline a self-guided tour and a guided tour is also available. Of course, the mansion, with the log cabin built in, is the central attraction. It is furnished to facilitate interpretation of the Boone family and to illustrate everyday life of the early settlers. The guide is often in period costume. A well-developed trail system leads to a smokehouse, sawmill, barns, blacksmith shop, and the central house. Give yourself at least a few hours to visit this site.
Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania Railroad enthusiasts won't want to miss the huge museum on 18 acres with 100,000 square feet of exhibit space (50 pieces indoors) with a total of 100 locomotives and cars. Many pieces are open to the public.The collection dates back to the 1939-1940 New York World Fair when the Pennsylvania Railroad assembled an assortment of vintage locomotives and rolling stock. The "Pennsy" prepared for the fair by gathering together and refurbishing historic equipment and relics from early railroading. This included a wooden Cumberland Valley Railroad Combination Coach originally built in 1855, six late 19th Century wooden passenger cars, and a class H3 freight steam locomotive built in 1887. Also, two full-sized replicas, one of the "John Stevens," originally built in 1825, and a replica of the "John Bull," a Camden and Amboy locomotive, originally built in 1831. Both replicas were built in Altoona in 1939/1940 to be used in the "Parade of Locomotives," a daily attraction at the fair.
Exhibits celebrating
the early history of railroading in Pennsylvania fill the side aisles
and platforms, with displays featuring railroad employees in other areas
of the main exhibit hall. Outside, a number of additional locomotives
and rolling stock occupy a five and a half acre yard, centered around an
operational 1928 Reading Railroad turntable. While the Museum is known
as the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, it is not the Pennsylvania
Railroad Museum. It celebrates all railroads and railroad-related
industries that contributed to the history of the Commonwealth. The
collection has grown impressively and includes locomotives and rolling
stock from at least 18 different Pennsylvania railroads and 22 different
builders overall. In addition, the museum displays an extensive
collection of railroad objects, including lanterns, china, tools and
accessories, clocks, watches, and minutia that accumulates around
railroads and rail yards.
Across the road
from the museum are the Strasburg Rail Road and the National Toy Train
Museum. Even if you are not interested in toy trains, the Toy Train
Museum has five large train layouts and is quite interesting. The
Strasburg Rail Road was founded in 1832. Its East Strasburg Station
offers a chance to view engines and rail cars up close. The highlight is
a 45 minute round-trip rail ride to Paradise, PA on a coal-burning
stream train. The scenery is Amish and Pennsylvania Dutch farm country.
The train has a number of authentically-restored passenger cars,
including a dining car with food service. There are amusements nearby
for the children, including a miniature steam train ride. The switch
tower built in 1885 and a classic example of Pennsylvania Rail Road
signal tower design can also be viewed by the public.
How to Get There Both are in Amish
Country of Pennsylvania. The railroad and museum are about 25 minutes
southeast of Lancaster. The Daniel Boone Homestead is on US 422 about 20
minutes east of Reading near Birdsboro. The ideal way to see both is to
make them part of longer visit to Pennsylvania Amish Country For more info: Daniel Boone Homestead http://whttp://www.rrmuseumpa.org Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania http://www.rrmuseumpa.org Strasburg Railroad http://www.strasburgrailroad.com National Toy Train Museum http://www.nttmuseum.org Author: Thomas J. Straka is a forestry professor at Clemson University in South Carolina.
| |
Main Street
/ Inn Roads / Fork in
the Road /
Corts Crossroads /
Art Trails
/ Pot Luck /
Vagabond Traveler
�AmericanRoads.net, all |
reserved | website by ci-Interactive