May 2016

A visit to the Gettysburg National Military Park is not complete until you visit the Eisenhower Historic Site.  It can only be reached by bus from the Park Visitor Center,  In 1950 Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower purchased the farm next to the Gettysburg Park.

     In 1915 his West Point class toured the battlefield.  In 1918 he was the commander of Camp Colt in Gettysburg.

     The 189 acre farm was not far from Washington DC.  The 1840 house was remodeled and finished in 1955.  It became the weekend White House, as he was president from '53 to '61.  He would bring world leaders from DC to his farm by helicopter.  He and a friend bought 300 acres next to his farm and raised black angus cattle and bred them.

     They retired there and wintered in Palm Springs, California.  Eisenhower painted on canvas for relaxation and did over 200 paintings over 20 years until his death in 1969.  In 1967 the Eisenhowers willed the farm to the National Park Service.  The cattle are still grazing on the farm. 

May 2016

The Gettysburg National Military Park in Pennsylvania has a large museum that explains the events of the three day battle in detail.  After the battle the residents were left with having to help to bury the dead and help care for the wounded.  You can tour the battlefield in your car or bicycle. 

     Rangers give talks at various locations through the park during the day.  I went on a Ranger led hike from the Visitor Center to the Cemetery Ridge.  I also toured the battlefield on my bike.  There are four observation towers along the battlefield.  On Culp's Hill is a 95 step tower.  At Warfield Ridge where the confederates were, there is a 121 step tower.  When you look east you see Cemetery Ridge (Union Line).  When you look west you see President Eisenhower's home and barn.  There is a 40 step tower at Oak Ridge.

     The battlefield has hundreds of monuments honoring each regiment.  The largest monument is the Pennsylvania Monument honoring all Pennsylvania soldiers.  It has a 60 steps inside the monument you can climb to the top.  I climbed all the towers.

     Pennsylvania Monument

 

May 2016

In the late 1950s when my brother and I were Cub Scouts in Pennsylvania, we sold Hershey coconut crème eggs and peanut butter eggs at Easter time for 5 cents each.  With the money we earned, our pack got to go to Hershey Park.  In the morning we got a tour of the factory, then went to the amusement park near the factory.

    Today they have a Hershey Story Museum that covers how the chocolate is made and about the life of Milton Hershey.  Hershey, Pennsylvania is not a town, but is a section of Derry Township.  The Hershey section does have its own zipcode.

     Milton Hershey was born in the town in 1857 and grew up speaking the Pennsylvania Deutsche dialect.  When he was 14, his family lived in nearby Lancaster and he became an apprentice to a candy maker.  In 1876 he opened his own confectionery business in Philadelphia.  His mother and aunt worked for him.  Eventually he returned to Lancaster and started a carmel candy company with loans from a bank which turned out to be very successful.

     In 1898 Hershey married his wife, Kitty.  In 1903 Hershey built a chocolate factory in Derry Township in what would become known as Hershey.  Caramels gave Hershey his first million, but he felt chocolate had a better future.  In 1900 he sold his Lancaster Caramel Company for $1million and concentrated on chocolate.  He selected Derry Township because of all the dairy farmers.  He wanted fresh milk for producing the chocolate.  The chocolate is made with milk that was milked that morning.  Derry Township also had a railroad through the town that he needed for his factory.  The factory used specialized machinery to mass produce the chocolate to keep prices down so a chocolate bar could sell for 5 cents.  The cocoa beans come from South America and West Africa.  He produced his own sugar in Cuba.

     With the success of his business, Hershey spent his money on developing the town, for as the business grew, he needed more workers and therefore more housing was needed.

     Hershey started a school for orphan boys in 1909.  His wife died in 1915 from a neurological disease at age 42.  They had no children.  In 1918 Hershey gifted his entire fortune to a trust fund for the Hershey School he and his wife had started.  The value of the trust fund at the time was $60million.  He built the Hershey Hotel, Hershey Theatre, the high school, and a sports arena during the depression so  unemployed would have work.  Hershey died in 1945 at the age of 88.

 

       

May 2016

Longwood Gardens, outside of Philadelphia, has the best conservatory I have ever seen, with four acres under glass in 20 rooms.  Gibbs

Gardens in Georgia has the best outdoor gardens and Bellingsgrath Gardens in Alabama has the best Japanese gardens. 

     Pierre DuPont bought the 400 acres in 1906 to develop the Longwood Gardens and build a home.  Acreage was added through the years.  In the outdoor garden there is a dancing fountains area, a large section of flowering plants, and the DuPont home contains a museum.

 

May 2016

A few miles west of Washington Crossing Park is the town of Doylestown  where Henry Mercer built a museum in 1916.  Mercer owned a tile works where handmade decorative tiles and mosaics were made.  The museum houses his vast collection of early American everyday objects.  More than 60 crafts and trades are represented, including woodworking, metalworking, agricultural tools, textile, and transportation tools.  Displayed are furnishings, and implements of early America 1700 to 1850, including a whaling boat, horse drawn carriages, and an antique fire engine.

May 2016

At the sight of Washington's Crossing of the Delaware River with the Continental Army, December 25, 1776,

are two state parks on each side of  the Delaware River.  On the Pennsylvania side is a visitor center and several houses from 1776.  In a barn is several of the type boats that were used in the crossing.  2400 troops crossed the Delaware nine miles north of Trenton including cannons, horses, and supplies, then through the night marched to Trenton to attach, in blowing snow, the unaware Hessians in their barracks.  The Americans captured 900 Hessians.

     Also on the Pennsylvania side is a tower on a hill overlooking the Delaware River Valley.  It has 124 steps and is 125 ft tall and was completed in 1931.  On the New Jersey side there is a visitor center, trails, and nature center.

 

    

 

 

  

May 2016

Historic Jamestown National Park is an archeology dig of the 1607 settlement.  Two museums show items dug up from the sight.  You can walk around the grounds where the excavated foundations of the former structures are, as well as a partial replica of a structure.

  

May 2016

The Yorktown Battlefield National Park in Virginia has a museum and film explaining the battle.  you can tour the battlefield in your car or bicycle.  You can walk from the National Park to Main St of the town where some houses and buildings from the 1700s still stand.  On the west end of town is the Virginia Yorktown Victory Center where a Revolutionary Army Camp and a 1700s farm are set up with period costumed interpreters explaining items like the tools army surgeons used. 

     In August 1781 British General Cornwallis moved his troops to Yorktown to establish a naval base there.  When a French Fleet heads there from the West Indies, it blocks a British fleet from landing at Yorktown.  The Continental Army and the French Army surround the British Army on land as the French Fleet blockade the harbor at sea.  After nine days of artillery bombardment British General Cornwallis surrendered in October.