Travels in Southeast Pennsylvania

I was fortunate enough to be able to spend some time in Southeast Pennsylvania this past weekend. I took a sidetrip to Mongomery Cemetery and a bigger trip to Valley Forge park. I want to talk about Valley Forge a bit....but its a Revolutionary War park....what's it got to do with the Civil War???? Well, there is quite a bit of Civil War history that can be taken from Valley Forge. Let me explain....

First, I want to tell a bit about heading to Montgomery Cemetery. This is the cemetery where Civil War generals Winfield Scott Hancock, Samuel K. Zook, and John F. Hartranft are buried. I visited all three of them. I took my 9 year old brother with me and I got to give him a lesson on the Civil War. It was very exciting (for me, anyway). The cemetery has added a large kiosk full of pictures and paragraphs about the history of the cemetery. Both sides of this board is just full of pictures. That was really cool. And it talked about all the "famous" people buried there. Most are of local lore, but there are a few that those of us familiar with the Civil War would recognize. The cemetery is being taken care of....evidently someone had recently mowed (not an easy task considering its 70+ acres) and the grass is growing in places I hadn't seen grass in recently. I was happy with what I saw there.

Then we moved on to Valley Forge. Now, one of the houses on the field is the house where Samuel K. Zook grew up. He was born Samuel Kurtz Zook but changed his middle name to Kosciuszko in memory of Thaddeus Kosciuszko who was a general at the Valley Forge encampment. Samuel Zook was killed in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg on July 2, 1963.

But the one thing that I really liked about my time at Valley Forge was something that I think more parks should do. They have these "storytelling" stations throughout the park. I think there were five of them. It had a circular bench that everyone could sit on (I think it only sat about 8 people) and a person who would stand and tell stories. Now, when I first saw it, I thought...."oh brother, what is this?" But my little brother wanted to hear a story....so we sat and listened. The man who told us the story checked the ages of the kids and then told a story based on their ages. He actually gave us a choice of 3 stories and took a vote. So we heard a story about the tallest man in the Continental Army. It was only a few minutes long. I don't think we were there for more than 10 minutes, but he told us this story about a man named Peter. The kids LOVED it. I liked it, too. This is something that could really get the kids attention at any park....Revolutionary War, Civil War, or whatever. This is a tool that could really reel the kids into history. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to the other stations due to time constraints. But I really like this idea.

The park has also changed tremendously. They have taken away some of the roads, taken away parking lots and reconfigured other roads. I was sort of impressed. I understand getting rid of some of the roads and parking lots....they weren't used much and it adds to the history of the park by not having them there....but it really confused me. I knew that park like the back of my hand and now, I'm not so sure where I was or what I was doing.

The deer population at Valley Forge is horrible. You can drive that park at any time of the day and see hundreds of deer. Gettysburg is taking steps to control the deer population. I like how I've lived here for 4 years and have only seen 6 deer in the park....EVER. We don't have to worry about driving for fear of hitting Bambi.

There are parallels between National Parks....be it historic or natural or whatever. In some ways, the parks can learn from each other. There are lessons that Valley Forge can learn from Gettysburg and lessons that Gettysburg can learn from Valley Forge. But each park is different...with a different goal....and different lessons to be learned. I for one enjoy traveling to the different parks to see what I can glean from each one.....because learning helps me become a better me.