This week we have a guest blogger, Judy Hawthorn. Judy is a
retired technology and engineering teacher from Cedar Cliff High School and she
volunteered several times this week at our Farm Show exhibit. Below are her
thoughts on the event.
young visitor peering into the exhibit case of Valley Forge artifacts
It has been a wonderful week of meeting people who have
enthusiastically embraced ‘The Archaeology
of a Troubled Nation -1775-1865’ exhibit at the Pennsylvania Farm Show this
year. The State Museum of Pennsylvania, Section of Archaeology
staff and volunteers spent the week answering questions about archaeology in
Pennsylvania, new exhibits at the State Museum and generally discussing the period
of the Revolutionary War through the Civil War.
Natural curiosity about what people were like in years gone by drew
people to the exhibit and of course, the chance to sit in the ‘dug-out’ canoe was
an opportunity that many never pass up. By
Friday, the exhibit drew over 40,000 people, down slightly from last year
probably due to extremely cold weather.
But those who came were excited and inquisitive.
left to right: State Museum of PA Director David Dunn; Management Services Bureau Director Tom Leonard; PHMC Marketing Director Howard Pollman; PHMC Executive Director Jim Vaughan
The ‘dug-out’ was made in 2005 by the staff of the State
Museum as part of their experimental archaeology program. Archaeologists wanted to see how well the
stone adzes would work and how long it would take the typical Native American
group to construct a dugout using these tools.
The canoe has been a favorite at the Farm Show ever since. Sitting in the “dug-out”, children imagine
they are paddling up or down the Susquehanna River thousands of years ago,
looking for deer along the banks or checking the eel weirs for fish in the
river. Some children marvel at the
thought that the canoe was once a tree, hollowed by using stone tools and then
floated in the river and lakes of Pennsylvania.
Others simply like sitting in something that is so much larger than they
are. The reactions from children
were…priceless. Many parents commented
that they come each year to take pictures of their children sitting in the
canoe. Some teenagers said they were
elementary school children when their parents first plopped them down in the
canoe for a picture. They have been back
each year since and now bring their friends for a group picture. Of course, as a volunteer and retired
teacher, I am thrilled to help children understand the history of people living
thousands of years ago in the same place where we now live. They all listen intently and the ‘wheels’
turn, imagining how they would have paddled this large canoe with their friends
or family.
family from Berks County area
The dugout on display is the third successful canoe made and
it is a copy of an 800 year-old canoe that is on display at the museum that was
retrieved from Mud Pond in Luzerne County many years ago.
young students from New Holland, PA
Another area of interest was the Cheval de frise excavated from the Delaware River in 2012. The cheval
de frise was an implement of war used by the Continental forces to prevent
ships from sailing up river during the attack on Philadelphia in 1777. In
another exhibit, young people peered in the showcase that housed lead shot with
tooth imprints. Looking closer, they
learned what the colloquial saying “bite the bullet” truly meant.
students from Bloomsburg University
From the Revolutionary War to the Civil War, items on display
were of interest to all who stopped by.
students from Susquehanna High School
young visitors from Willow Street, PA
For more information, visit PAarchaeology.state.pa.us or the Hall of Anthropology and Archaeology at The State Museum of Pennsylvania .
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