Historic Tours

Double Dose of Fun Issue: Spring/Summer 2012 Author(s): Becky Linhardt Whether it’s hearty “yee-haw” or an archaic “mark twain,” Point Pleasant, West Virginia has a lot of history to shout about. Located at the confluence of the Ohio and Kanawha rivers, this small town opened the Point Pleasant River Museum in 2003 to celebrate its heritage. The rivers’ natural world is revealed within the imposing 2400-gallon aquarium stocked with freshwater fish from the Ohio River Valley. You can stand in a working model of an old steamboat pilot house, ogle numerous steamboat models an...

Presidential Past Issue: Spring/Summer 2012 Author(s): Gerald Bartell That the home and farm of Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower stands adjacent to the Gettysburg Battlefield is some sort of metaphor. Throughout his eight years in office, the 34th president of the United States often sought refuge here from the battles of Washington, finding tranquility looking over the rolling farmland (where he raised Black Angus cattle) to the distant hills. Visitors may now tour the home, which the Eisenhowers bought in 1948 and lived in intermittently during Eisenhower’s presidency and pe...

In the Days of Ore Issue: Spring/Summer 2012 Author(s): Patricia Bates A lump of black coal never seems the same after a visit to the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine in Beckley, West Virginia . Once you discover the source of our energy, you’ll know how much work it takes to provide our nation’s heating fuel. With a pick, an axe and a shovel, miners would hand-load ore years ago into bins some 1,500 feet below the hills of New River Park. Get a feel for what life was like on the underground tour and ride the authentic “man cars” to explore a former geological site with a vete...

A Decisive Fortress Issue: Spring/Summer 2012 Author(s): Matthew Biddle Two hundred years ago, the War of 1812 ignited between Great Britain and the young United States. Old Fort Niagara , located in Youngstown, New York , was right in the middle of the action — just as it had been for centuries. The French first established a post here in 1679, and it later changed hands during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. Today, the fort’s largest structure, called the French Castle, stands as the oldest building on the Great Lakes. The first stop on a tour of Ol...

An American Castle Issue: Spring/Summer 2012 Author(s): Susan R. Pollack Symbols recalling the Golden Age of the automobile still stand proud around the Motor City. The showiest is the 88,000-square-foot Tudor-revival mansion built in the 1920s by Matilda Dodge Wilson, widow of auto titan John Dodge and her second husband, lumber baron Alfred Wilson. Located on the Oakland University campus in Rochester, Michigan , 40 miles north of Detroit, Matilda Dodge Wilson’s Meadow Brook Hall cost $4 million to build and has been dubbed “an American castle,” complete with 110 rooms, fo...

Decisive Battleground Issue: Fall/Winter 2011 Author(s): Claudia Taller One of the most important historical events in American history took place in Adams County, Pennsylvania , just north of the Maryland border. The Battle of Gettysburg was a turning point in the Civil War, when Union forces defeated the Confederate General Robert E. Lee on July 1–3, 1863. And today, the story can be heard on an air-conditioned bus, during a self-guided auto audio tour, on a guided car tour, on foot, or by bicycle. As for the most authentic way to explore the 40 miles of battlefield roads...

Family Feud Issue: Fall/Winter 2011 Author(s): J. Eric Eckard It should come as no surprise that the bloodiest war on U.S. soil also sparked one of the nation’s most famous family feuds. Many historians trace the roots of the feud between the Hatfields and McCoys to 1865. Returning home from the Civil War, Union soldier Asa Harmon McCoy was killed by a band of Southern sympathizers, whose ranks were filled with Hatfields. But after years of fighting that led to 13 deaths, a pall cast over the Tug Valley between West Virginia and Kentucky, and the “mountain folk” j...

A Well-Preserved Past Issue: Fall/Winter 2011 Author(s): Christina Ipavec It’s no longer 1861 — far from it, actually — but that doesn’t mean visitors to Fort Duffield in West Point, Kentucky, can’t still be drafted into the Civil War. Situated among Fort Duffield Park’s 172 acres, the abandoned fort still stands tall, welcoming visitors to experience the past through walking tours and living-history programs that are offered twice a year on Memorial Day and Labor Day. Fort Duffield stood untouched on private property for 80 years when it belonged to Fort Knox — the army-trai...