The Magical History Tour

Long before the the night spots of Pittsburgh’s Strip District and Lower Lawrenceville, even before the English or French arrived at the Forks of the Ohio, there was a Lenni Lenape’ (Delaware) Village along the Allegheny known as Shannopin Town. The town was believed to be occupied by around 20 Lenni Lanape families. The village…

October 30th, 1735 John Adams was born on a farm in Braintree, Massachusetts. John Adams was the son of Puritan colonists who have immediate lineage to those that arrived here on the Mayflower. While growing up, he would often skip school to hunt and fish and had a great love for the outdoors. While he…

I have been working at the Meadowcroft Museum in Avella, Pennsylvania. The museum is approximately 35 miles Southwest of Pittsburgh. Albert Miller who owned the property was dedicated to the preservation of the history of rural Washington County, he and his brother Delvin began to gather items of historical significance to the area. The Miller’s…

On August 23, 1923 the Ku Klux Klan chose to have a march and rally in Carnegie Pennsylvania, a town that borders the Western side of the City of Pittsburgh. The new imperial wizard of the KKK, Hiram Wesley Evans had come from Texas for the rally and march. The Klan members gathered on a…

In 1778, General George Washington had concerns in the West. The British Army still held a fort at Detroit. Washington needed a strong defense, and he wanted it in the Ohio Country. Washington and the Continental Congress decided to send General Lachlan McIntosh to Fort Pitt, the fort was in control of the Continental Army…

In 1982 some vintage car enthusiasts wanted a chance to race their beautiful and historic cars. Art McGovern thought that Pittsburgh’s Oldest Park would be a beautiful and challenging setting for the drivers, he and Mary Beth Gmiter began to plan, and soon those plans gathered a following that was meeting in driver Alan Patterson’s…

Growing up in Pittsburgh, I always had an understanding that the French built Fort Duquesne and when the French found out that a large British Army Contingent was on their way to take the fort, the French destroyed it. What I never learned in school was that when the French arrived at the forks of…

As a group of nearly 1500 British and Colonial Militia soldiers make their way through the thick forest of what is now Southwestern Pennsylvania, the group met an ambush just after crossing the Monongahela river roughly 10 miles upstream from the forks of the Ohio, where Fort Duquesne sat. The ambush was the work of…

Continuing the series of historic sites to visit for free or inexpensively, this week, we go to Ohio. The sites listed below are free to visit unless otherwise noted. The descriptions below are a mix of my words and the words of the sites. Allen County Museum and History Center – Lima OH – The…

This is part of a continuing series of articles detailing free or inexpensive historic sites for you to visit. The reason for this series is from an article I posted on my Facebook page about attendance at historic sites on the decline, several friends with children and others stated that it was prohibitively expensive to…