By HOWARD E. ROHLIN, B.A., M.A.
_Field Museum Curator for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum
Commission_
The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission administers three
properties in the area covered by this guide. Each one is, in its own
way, unique. Cornwall Furnace is a fascinating relic of the earliest
days of American industry. The Pennsylvania Farm Museum of Landis Valley
recalls the days when horses provided transportation, coal oil provided
light and the majority of our citizens lived and worked on farms. The
Ephrata Cloister is a monument to the freedom of conscience which since
the days of William Penn has been a precious part of the laws of the
Commonwealth. The three present a lively and varying picture of the
colorful past in old Pennsylvania.
Cornwall Furnace is a monument to the great colonial iron industry which
flourished in the Furnace Hills of Lebanon and Lancaster Counties. In
the region ore was abundant and so was the timber necessary for the
charcoal so voraciously consumed by the old blast methods. Cornwall and
the area surrounding constituted one of the most important munition
centers of the Revolutionary era.
[Illustration: CORNWALL FURNACE]
The Cornwall Ore Banks was the largest open pit iron mining operation in
the United States, until the opening of the Mesabi. During its active
operation more than twenty million tons of ore were removed. Begun in
1739 by Peter Grubb, the Furnace now stands essentially as it was after
renovations of 1845-56, when the water-powered force draft system was
replaced by steam. The early machinery is still in place and the plans
for restoration include its reactivation.
The village of Cornwall is one of the finest examples of a “company
town” in the state; laid out, built and maintained by the corporations
which have operated the furnace and mine. The furnace, mine and village
are an outstanding memorial to the better side of the paternalistic
system so common in nineteenth century industry.
The Pennsylvania Farm Museum of Landis Valley could well be called the
Commonwealth’s attic. Begun as a private collection by the brothers
George and Henry Landis it has now become one of the country’s richest
and most varied collections of materials dealing with rural Americana.
If you have ever wondered what happened to this or that gadget that you
vaguely remember on grandfather’s farm; stop wondering. It is probably
at the Farm Museum.
The Museum has everything from dead fall mouse traps to steam powered
tractors. Its collection of early Pennsylvania farm implements and craft
tools is outstanding. Its collection of early pistols, rifles and guns
is excellent. In its country store and in the restored Landis House the
feeling of the gay nineties and the turn of the century Pennsylvania
have been recaptured.
[Illustration: PENNSYLVANIA FARM MUSEUM OF LANDIS VALLEY]
The annual Craft Days at the Museum have proven immensely popular.
During this two-day event all of the ancient crafts represented in the
museum collections flourish again—hand weaving, spinning, potting,
furniture and tin painting, candle-making, printing, quilting, braiding,
etc. All are demonstrated in appropriate settings. The Conestoga Wagon
is again hitched up and steam tractors, charged up, haul wagon-loads of
children through the nearby fields.
So extensive are the collections that some part of the display is sure
to be of great interest to the visitor.
Today the museum includes many types of structure typical of small rural
Pennsylvania communities of the past ... residential and commercial
buildings which provide an authentic background for the demonstration of
rural arts, crafts and cottage industries.
Ephrata Cloister is the oldest of the properties in this area
administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.
Erected between the years 1730 and 1750 it is a unique monument to a
holy experiment that failed.
[Illustration: This outstanding choral group was founded in
February, 1959, for the express purpose of performing the music of
the Cloister, as recreated by the Director and Founder of the
Chorus, Mr. Russell P. Getz. During the summer season, a series of
public recitals are given on the Cloister grounds. For information
regarding dates, contact The Cloisters, Ephrata, Pennsylvania.]
Here on the banks of the Cocalico, under the leadership of Conrad
Beissel, a protestant monastic community was established and for a time
flourished. In buildings of a medieval style, reminiscent of their
German homeland, the Seventh Day Baptists worked and lived and sought to
withdraw themselves from a sinful world. The Saron or Sister House
recalls the harsh and primitive conditions under which the nuns of the
order lived. The almonry was the center from which the hospitality of
the order was extended to all travelers. The printing press of the
order, one of Pennsylvania’s oldest, was used in the preparation of the
great Mennonite work, the _Martyr’s Mirror_, the preparation of which
was the biggest printing job done in colonial America.
Short lived as the community was, it was in its day famed throughout
Europe and America. It was too much the personal creation of Beissel to
long outlast his death and under his successor, Peter Miller, a period
of slow and mellow decline began. The community made its contribution to
the American Revolution in caring for the wounded brought to Ephrata
from the battlefield at Brandywine; many of the Brothers of Zion joined
the dying as victims of the camp fever brought to the Cloister by their
patients. The community was forced to burn its great buildings on Zion
Hill in order to wipe out the infection.
Since 1941 when the Commonwealth acquired the property a very complete
and meticulous restoration has been in progress. The attempt to
duplicate in our day the workmanship of the eighteenth century and to
capture the other-worldly spirit of the original builders has been a
difficult task, but any visitor to the Cloister will be convinced that
the result has justified the efforts.
Two additional properties in Lancaster County are being developed and
will be administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum
Commission:
The Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania at Strasburg is now under
construction on property adjacent to and joining the Strasburg Rail
Road.
Robert Fulton birthplace near Wakefield, in Little Britain Township.
This is an authentic restoration of the original farmhouse where Robert
Fulton was born November 14, 1765.
The Susquehannock State Park, administered by the Dept. of Forests and
Waters, is located on a high observation site on the mighty Susquehanna
River. Opened in 1965 primarily for picnickers, sightseers and nature
lovers, it affords a magnificent view both up and down the river. The
Park is near the huge Muddy Run Hydro Storage Electric Generating Plant.
In addition, several atomic power plants have been built or are being
built on the banks of the Susquehanna River in this area.