I ran a little over 20 miles this morning before breakfast. After that, I went to pick Exile #4 up from her friend's house where she'd had a sleep-over and after that I collapsed for a little sleep.
It was, therefore, just before lunch by the time we'd decided to visit the village of Schoharie and so we made our way directly to the Bluestar Cafe for a very nice diner lunch - very friendly, basic food cooked well and some much needed coffee.
Refuelled, we headed a couple of minutes down the road to the Old Stone Fort Museum.
The old stone fort of the name is a church that was fortified during the Revolutionary War and attacked by British forces. This British invasion was less dramatic - only involving a small exchange of currency (a little less than $20 for a family of five with a AAA discount).
The museum spans several buildings towards the end of a dead-end street in the village. Here are a few of the things we saw:
From top: the old stone fort itself with a remarkable monument with a stone stars-and-stripes "draped" over it - amazing stone-craft! The final building on our tour a pre-Revolutionary war barn - relocated to this site and filled with farming related historical artifacts. Inside the upper floor of the "fort": a museum within the museum featuring an eclectic collection including - this "Albany Ales & Steamed Clams - Oysters in Every Style" lantern, and some very scary looking dolls. The bottom two pictures are from the other buildings - a room filled with historical TV and radio exhibits and Schoharie's first car - a chain driven vehicle from the early 20th century that was driven from New York City after being purchased for $750.
Most of the museum is a do not touch kind of place, but the exceptions were popular - as ever. A table of toys and other historical items and a one-room schoolhouse with a dress-up clothes etc. We all also loved the kid's treasure hunt sheet for the upper-floor collection - quite challenging for all ages!
It's always slightly strange as members of the losing team to visit Revolutionary War locations in the area - but this little museum is a gem - and extremely wide-ranging as you can see. My guess is that we were there for about three hours - we all learned something (one of mine was that a riddle is a farm implement!) and we all had fun doing it.
It's always slightly strange as members of the losing team to visit Revolutionary War locations in the area
ReplyDeleteBwahaha!
It's great you're getting out to see OUR history :-) - I hope you have had or get the chance to visit Revolutionary War sites elsewhere in the US as well.
Not yet! We also saw some 1812 war locations last summer - it seems everyone was probably on the losing side in that one!
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