catching up

I realize it has been a while since I last posted. I had every intention of posting more regularly but well, intentions and inclination apparently do not always see eye-to-eye. Now I have some catching up to do.

I will start with some pictures of the field trips on which we have gone and give you the added bonus of a history lesson while I am at it.

Our history studies this year have taken us through early modern times and this area of Western Pennsylvania is rich in its connections to much that happened during that epoch. Last summer, before we even had an inkling that our life would make us Pittsburgh residents, we came for a visit, as was our usual wont. Knowing that we would be covering the French and Indian War in the upcoming year, my sister and I decided to take a trip to the Fort Pitt Museum.

It was the pivotal fort in that war and is located at "The Point" where two rivers (the Monongahela and the Allegheny) meet and form the Ohio, in the heart of Pittsburgh. This area, the confluence of the rivers, is what the war was fought over. Whoever controlled this area would gain control of all the land west and both the French and the English wanted it, not to mention the natives who wanted to keep it as largely untouched as possible. The French gained control of it first and built what was Fort Duquesne but the English would ultimately win it back and build Fort Pitt named for the British Secretary of State under George II, William Pitt, the Elder, who was the driving force behind the British victory.

 
Now that we live here we can take even more advantage of the history jackpot.

So, a couple of weeks ago we visited Fort Ligonier, which was the staging area of the British attack on Fort Duquesne and has the distinction of never falling to an enemy both during the French and Indian War and Pontiac's War which followed shortly after. The natives were not well-pleased with the results of the previous war and joined together under Pontiac, chief of the Ottowa tribe, to push the settlers out of the region. They were largely successful, taking many outlying forts, except Ligonier, until meeting a crushing defeat at the Battle of Bushy Run.

Oh, and we stopped at Bushy Run as well, but it was just a big hill. The kids had fun rolling down it at least...

The next period in history in which Western Pennsylvania would play a key part in would be the Industrial Revolution or "The Age of Industry" for my Classical Conversations friends. This past weekend we took a ride on the Duquesne Incline. It is a cable car which takes tourists and commuters from the river's edge up to Mt. Washington.

It originally opened in 1877 when Pittsburgh was really growing due to the steel industry. It's one of two left in the city, the last two of 17 that used to run throughout the city. At the Upper Station there is a picture museum chronicling much of the city's history. This was my main interest as we were able to see what the city was like during the height of steel production. The smoke stacks pumped out so much black smoke that it was dark by three in the afternoon and still looked like midnight at nine in the morning.

A Pittsburgh street with streetlights on at noon

The city has literally cleaned up its act and is now considered one of the most livable cities in the country. The view from the Upper Station was "voted on of the top ten sites for viewing a cityscape by USA Today" according to the website. It's a pretty cool city:

...but for the clouds...this is typical of the 'burgh, which has fewer sunny days than Seattle. It was beautiful and sunny when we planned this trip in the morning...

So, anyway, back to the Industrial Revolution: several inventions would drive it especially James Watt's steam engine. What fueled the steam engine was coal and there's a ton of coal in these here parts. We headed to Tarentum just north of the city to the Tour-Ed Coal Mine. It was first being mined in 1850 when miners used candles to see by, and pick axes, shovels, and coal carts pulled by mules to get the coal out. 

Young boys would be responsible for opening and closing doors to control air flow throughout the mine as well as "spragging" the coal carts (throwing planks of wood b/t the wheels to slow them down) and picking the rocks out of the coal in the breakers. It was horrible work and we have learned to appreciate the fact that we did not live during the Industrial Revolution (well, at least I attempted to impress that upon my thankless children).

My dad came along for the coal car ride down into the mine

Noah got to use the drill  that puts holes in the rock for dynamite

This is what it looks like in the mine when the lights go out

Our history lessons were made so much more interesting for all the field trips and I hope you were at least slightly interested too. Mainly I did this so that I have a quick concise record of all that we learned for future reference.