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  Company K-1 Reunion in Pennsylvania…Part 4

   

 

Friday, 20 May

 

Car pool convoy to Valley Forge Park, movie at visitors' center, park tour in autos guided by audio disks in each car. 

 

Optional lunch arrangements and afternoon activities including the Barnes Foundation.

 

Optional dinner on your own.

 

  

 

 

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1928 Commemorative Stamp honoring George Washington @Valley Forge on 150th Anniversary…

 

 

Valley Forge National Historical Park

 

Valley Forge National Historical Park

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

U.S. National Historic Landmark District

U.S. National Historical Park

War Memorial At Valley Forge PA.JPG

United States National Memorial Arch

Valley Forge National Historical Park is located in Pennsylvania

Valley Forge National Historical Park

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Location

Montgomery County and Chester County, Pennsylvania, USA

Nearest city

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

Coordinates

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/WMA_button2b.png/17px-WMA_button2b.png40°05′49″N75°26′20″WCoordinates https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/WMA_button2b.png/17px-WMA_button2b.png40°05′49″N 75°26′20″W

Area

3,466 acres (1,403 ha)

Visitation

1,303,047 (2011)[1]

Website

Valley Forge National Historical Park

NRHP reference #

66000657

Significant dates

Added to NRHP

October 15, 1966

Designated NHLD

January 20, 1961

Designated NHP

State Park: 1893
National Historical Park: July 4, 1976

    

Valley Forge National Historical Park is the site of the third winter encampment of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, taking place from December 19, 1777 to June 19, 1778. The National Historical Park preserves the site and interprets the history of the Valley Forge encampment. Originally Valley Forge State Park, it became a national historical park in 1976. The Park contains historical buildings, recreated encampment structures, memorials, museums, and recreation facilities.

 

The park encompasses 3,500 acres (1,400 ha) and is visited by over 1.2 million people each year. Visitors can see restored historic structures, reconstructed structures such as the iconic log huts, and monuments erected by the states from which the Continental soldiers came. Visitor facilities include a visitor center and museum featuring original artifacts, providing a concise introduction to the American Revolution and the Valley Forge encampment. Ranger programs, tours (walking and trolley), and activities are available seasonally. The park also provides 26 miles (42 km) of hiking and biking trails, which are connected to a robust regional trails system. Wildlife watching, fishing, and boating on the nearby Schuylkill River also are popular.

Historical encampment

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/Washington_and_Lafayette.jpg/220px-Washington_and_Lafayette.jpg

                                                                                                 Washington and Lafayette

 

From December 19, 1777 to June 19, 1778, the main body of the Continental Army (approximately 12,000 troops) was encamped at Valley Forge. The site was chosen because it was between the seat of the Second Continental Congress in York, supply depots in Reading, and British forces in Philadelphia 18 miles (29 km) away, which fell after the Battle of Brandywine. This was a time of great suffering for the army, but it was also a time of retraining and rejuvenation. The shared hardship of the officers and soldiers of the army, combined with Baron Friedrich von Steuben's professional military training program, are considered key to the subsequent success of the Continental Army and marks a turning point in the Revolutionary War.

 

Park history

Valley Forge was established as the first state park of Pennsylvania in 1893 by the Valley Forge Park Commission (VFPC) "to preserve, improve, and maintain as a public park the site on which General George Washington's army encamped at Valley Forge." The area around Washington's Headquarters was chosen as the park site. In 1923, the VFPC was brought under the Department of Forests and Waters and later incorporated into the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1971.

 

The park served as the location of the National Scout Jamboree in 1950, 1957, and 1964.

 

Valley Forge was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1961 and was listed in the initial National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The area covered by these listings goes outside what was the Valley Forge State Park boundaries to include four historic houses where the Marquis de Lafayette and other officers were quartered.

In 1976, Pennsylvania gave the park as a gift to the nation for the Bicentennial. The U.S. Congress passed a law, signed by President Gerald Ford on July 4, 1976, authorizing the addition of Valley Forge National Historical Park as the 283rd Unit of the National Park System.

 

Features and facilities

 

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                                                             Ranger in Continental Army uniform explaining Revolutionary War artillery.

 

 

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                                                                                           Visitors Center

 

The park features a visitor center, which acts as orientation for visitors to the site. The features of the center include a museum with artifacts found during excavations of the park, an interactive muster roll of Continental soldiers encamped at Valley Forge, ranger-led gallery programs and walks, a storytelling program, a photo gallery, a visitor information desk staffed by Park Rangers, Representatives from the Valley Forge Tourism and Convention Board, & Park Volunteers, and the Encampment Store for books and souvenirs. 90-minute Trolley tours of the park and bike rentals are available seasonally from this location. A short 18-minute film, "Valley Forge: A Winter Encampment" is shown in the park's theater next door.

 

 

Headquarters buildings

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/Washington%27s_Quarters_HDR.jpg/220px-Washington%27s_Quarters_HDR.jpg

                                                                                       Washington's Quarters, April 2012

 

 

A key attraction of the park is the restored colonial home used by General George Washington as his headquarters during the encampment. Rehabilitation of the headquarters area was completed in summer 2009, and included the restoration of the old Valley Forge train station into an information center, new guided tours, new exhibits throughout the landscape, and the elimination of several acres of modern paving and restoration of the historic landscape. Quarters of other Continental Army generals are also in the park, including those of Huntington, VarnumLord Stirling, Lafayette, and Knox. Varnum's quarters is open on weekends during the summer.

 

 

Reconstructed works and buildings

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a3/Valley_Forge_cabin.jpg/220px-Valley_Forge_cabin.jpg

                                                                Recreation of a cabin in which soldiers would have lived at Valley Forge

 

Throughout the park there are reconstructed log cabins of the type thought to be used during the encampment. Earthworks, for the never needed defense of the encampment, are visible, including four redoubts, the ditch for the Inner Line Defenses, and a reconstructed abatis. The original redoubts and several redans on Route 23, Outer Line Drive, and Inner Line Drive were covered with sod to preserve them, but they are currently in need of further restoration. The original forges, located on Valley Creek, were burned by the British three months prior to Washington's occupation of the park area. However, neither the Upper Forge site nor the Lower Forge site have been reconstructed. There are also several historical buildings that have not been made open to the public because of reasons such as their current state of disrepair. These include: Lord Stirling's Quarters, Knox's Quarters, and the Von Steuben Memorial. Other historical buildings include the P.C. Knox Estate, Kennedy-Supplee Mansion and Potts' Barn.

 

Washington Memorial Chapel

The Washington Memorial Chapel and National Patriots Bell Tower carillon sit atop a hill at the center of the present park. The chapel is the legacy of Rev. Dr. W. Herbert Burk. Inspired by Burk's 1903 sermon on Washington's birthday, the chapel is a functioning Episcopal Church, built as a tribute to Washington. Burk was also instrumental in the development of the park itself, including obtaining Washington's campaign tent and banner, which used to be on display in the Visitor Center, but now in the collection to be showcased in the new Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia, starting in 2017. The chapel and attached bell tower are not technically part of the park, but serve the spiritual needs of the park and the community that surround it. The bell tower houses the DAR Patriot Rolls, listing those that served in the Revolutionary War, and the chapel grounds hosted the World of Scouting Museum.

 

Memorial markers

     https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Valley_forge_revolutionary_war_memorial_bs.jpg/220px-Valley_forge_revolutionary_war_memorial_bs.jpg

                                                                                      The National Memorial Arch

 

Sitting atop a hill at the intersection of the Outer Line of Defense with the Gulph Road, the National Memorial Arch dominates the southern portion of the park. It is dedicated "to the officers and private soldiers of the Continental Army December 19, 1777 – June 19, 1778." The arch was commissioned by an act of the 61st Congress in 1910 and completed in 1917. It is inscribed with George Washington's tribute to the perseverance and endurance of his army:

               

     

             “We cannot enough admire the Incomparable Patience and Fidelity of the Soldiery Naked and Starving as they are…George Washington

     

Visitors leaving the Visitor Center proceed along Outer Line Drive toward the arch. The drive is lined with large (~2 m high) memorial stones for each of the brigades, or "lines", that encamped there. Crossing Gulph Road at the arch, the drive proceeds through the Pennsylvania Columns and past the hilltop statue of Anthony Wayne on horse. More brigade stones line Port Kennedy Road.

            

                                                                                                                 

 

 

 

 

 

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Commemorative stamp honoring General Von Steuben on the 200th anniversary of his birth…

 

 

 

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Inside, we peruse the posters referencing the Valley Forge encampment before departing for dinner…

 

 

 

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…..continued in Part 5

 

 

 

                                                                                  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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