As Kori has indicated in previous entries, our family enjoys American history. One of the
benefits of living in southern Maryland is the close proximity we have to so
many historical places. One such place
is Fort Necessity. I have wanted to
visit for a while so I was very excited to finally get out there. The drive out
took about four hours and the kids all did very well. It still amazes me how good of a traveler
Luke is. When they were Luke’s age, the
other kids (Kara especially) did not like being in the car for an extended
period of time. And for Kara, an
extended period of time was anything longer than five minutes. We are very fortunate that Luke (so far) has
taken to traveling so well. Anyway,
getting back to the trip, we arrived at the Fort Necessity National Battlefield
Visitors' Center at 1:19pm. Thanks to Kara's detailed record keeping, we know
when we arrived and departed from all of our stops. Kara has been reading the
Magic Tree House books, and so she decided to keep a journal during our trip,
just like the characters in those books.
That was very cool.
The first thing we did at the visitor’s
center was watch a short (about 15 minutes) movie on the French and Indian
War. Everyone agreed that it was really
good and were excited to get out and explore.
Following a quick tour through a small display area, we headed outside. They had a play area for the kids, complete
with a small “Fort Necessity” to play in.
Although I was eager to head out to Great Meadows (the site of the
actual battle) the kids needed to work off some energy after the long car ride,
so we let them play for a little while.
The weather was perfect and spirits were high. Little did we know of the chaos and tragedy
that would soon hit our family.
Just kidding-nothing bad happened. It
just seemed like the blog needed some drama.
So, once the kids had enough of the play area (or should I say, once the
parents had enough of it), we headed down the trail to the reconstructed
fort. We were walking through a heavily
wooded area that suddenly opened up into a very large and lush clearing. In fact, one might describe it as a great
meadow.
Jack and Luke in the play area. |
I have seen many pictures of it but seeing the
fort in person I was struck by how small it was. I had always envisioned a fort large enough
to accommodate the 400 men George Washington had under his command but I can’t
imagine getting more than 100 in there. I
guess the fort wasn’t made to accommodate the soldiers, but rather the
supplies, ammunition, and livestock. It seemed rather strange since the fort
was in the middle of this large meadow, surrounded by forest. One would think the fort would be used to
help defend the soldiers since they were otherwise sitting targets to any
approaching enemy. The French and their
Native American allies agreed—they soon surrounded the fort from the protection
of the forest and opened fire with Washington’s surrender soon following.
We spent a little bit of time in the fort (not
too long because, again, it was really small) and surveyed the area. Jack manned the cannon and picked off a few
imaginary French soldiers who dared to leave the protection of their trees.
At the entrance to the fort. |
We then followed the trail up to the Mount Washington
Tavern. It was a bit of a hike up a
really steep hill, but everyone agreed it was worth the extra effort. It was an original building from 1839. How did we know it was built in 1839? Well, because the sign and the brochure all
said it. But that’s not the cool
part. During a recent renovation,
wallpaper was removed and underneath it was the original walls with “graffiti”
(their signatures and the date-July 1839) left by the men who built the
structure. It was really awesome to see
those signatures and imagine the men writing them. What would they say if they
knew that people would be standing in their building, reading their handwriting
176 years after they left it?
The rest of the building was also
interesting. It had served as a tavern
along the national road. People
traveling out west to the Ohio valley would stop off and have a meal or if they
could afford it they’d actually stay the night, although most people apparently
just continued on their journey, sleeping under the stars. A couple of facts the kids found
interesting—although it was a “restaurant” there was not menu from which to
choose the food. Patrons just sat at the
table and the host brought out whatever meal they were making in the kitchen
that day. Talk about a bad business
model! The other thing the kids were
fascinated by were the sleeping arrangements.
Men and women were not allowed to sleep in the same room, even if they
were married. So all the men would sleep
together in one room and all the women in another. They
also shared the same bed. So if you
stayed the night, you most likely found yourself sharing a bed with total
strangers. It’s not hard to see why these types of “accommodations” went the
way of the dodo bird.
From there we headed back to the car and drove
to Braddock’s grave. General Edward
Braddock was Commander-in-Chief of military forces in America in 1755 and led
the expedition to take Fort Duquesne. Unfortunately for poor General Braddock,
they were ambushed by the French and Native Americans. Routed by their enemy, with General Braddock
mortally wounded, young George Washington took over and led the British on an
organized retreat thereby saving the day for the British army. Once again, in defeat, Washington’s legacy grew. He was recognized throughout the colonies and
mother England as the man who saved the day during the Battle of the
Monongahela.
Following
our brief stop at the grave, we drove the 8 miles to Jumonville Glen, finishing
the Fort Necessity National Park trifecta.
Jumonville Glen was the site of the skirmish that actually started the
French and Indian war and was George Washington’s first exposure to warfare. The
amazing thing about Jumonville Glen was how preserved the entire area is. We all talked about how if George Washington
were somehow transported there in present day, he would find that it looked nearly
identical to how it was that fateful morning in 1754. I don’t imagine there are
many places you can say that about. It
was very cool.
When
finally checked into our cabin at Jellystone, Kori was looking through the book
at local attractions and noticed that the Flight 93 memorial was fairly close
by. We decided to head out there on our
way home on Sunday. I’m glad we did,
because it was an amazing experience.
The memorial is seemingly in the middle of nowhere so it’s generally not
something that one will simply stumble upon, so it made us feel good to see so
many cars in the parking lot. Clearly
the impact of the 9/11 attacks still resonates with people.
Parts of
the memorial were still under construction, with the main visitors’ center and
the walking trail are scheduled to be finished by the end of the year. Even without those areas being open yet, the
memorial was really nice. There’s no
doubt it’s a sad place to visit. It was
so horrific to read all of the accounts of the hijacking and the subsequent
crash (along with everything that occurred between those events). But I also found it very inspiring. These were people who refused to accept their
fate. They fought back and very nearly
overcame the odds. And although they
were not successful in taking back the plane, their efforts unquestionably saved
the lives of hundreds of other (would-be) innocent victims. They refused to give up, and kept fighting
until the very end. Their actions were truly
inspiring. I know that I will think of
those brave souls the next time I am faced with seemingly impossible odds. When the easy road would be to simply give in,
I’m going to stand up, look that challenge directly in the face and say, “let’s
roll!”
Jack and Anna reading the names on the memorial wall. The dark ground they are walking on represents the flight pattern the plane took. It crashed on the other side of the gate. |
Another view of the memorial wall. |
No comments:
Post a Comment