Meadowcroft ready to open for 50th season
What should be Pennsylvania’s most famous groundhog has no name.
His or her day came on Nov. 12, 1955, when Washington County farmer Albert Miller noticed some artifacts next to a freshly dug groundhog hole and decided to do some digging, himself.
“He saw more artifacts,” David Scofield said, “and confirmed his suspicions.
The Almanac
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The Meadowcroft Rockshelter opened to the public in 2002.
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As 25-year director of Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village near Avella, Scofield can provide an encyclopedia’s worth of details off the top of his head about Miller and members of his family – including his harness racing legend brother, Delvin – who had lived on the property that now is Meadowcroft since the 18th century.
Albert, a historian and amateur archaeologist, long had suspected that the property contained some remnants of the distant past. But he had no idea how distant.
Radiocarbon dating has established that the cliffs of sandstone, siltstone and shale overlooking Cross Creek have provided shelter for humans for at least 16,000 years.
“That site really pushed back the clock on the peopling of the Americas,” Andy Masich, president and chief executive officer of the Senator John Heinz History Center,” explained. “Before that time, the best scientists in the world thought, well, there weren’t any human beings on this continent earlier than 10,000 years ago.”
Meadowcroft, which is among the history center’s family of museums, also boasts the attraction of the re-creation of a village of the past, which Albert Miller opened for business on Memorial Day 1969. As such, 2018 marks the historic village’s 50th season of operation.
“It’s a site not only for school field trips but for families to come, where it is history, but it’s engaging,” Scofield said. “We try to incorporate hands-on activities to keep it interesting and to make the learning fun.”
Teams compete under rules circa 1860 during the annual Vintage Base Ball Game at Meadowcroft.
With the help of re-enactors, visitors learn about life in the 1800s through activities such as sitting in class in a one-room schoolhouse and making the types of candles that would have lit their pre-bulb world. A particular favorite is watching practitioners of the not-quite-lost art of blacksmithing.
About a decade ago, Meadowcroft received a planning grant from National Endowment for the Humanities and brought consultants aboard to discuss the site’s future.
“Since we have a prehistoric and had a 19th-century re-created rural village, how do we make sense of the two of them? What we ended up with is the idea of creating these interpretive areas that deal with big ideas over the course of 16,000 years and how that changed people’s lives,” Scofield explained. “At the rockshelter, we talk about the discovery of the site, the archaeology that took place there, how we know what we know from archaeology, and the hunter-gatherer lifestyle.”
Enhancing the experience is an educational curriculum, First Peoples, that uses interactive images developed by Carnegie Mellon University and NASA. The curriculum has received the 2018 Institutional Achievement Awards from PA Museums, the statewide trade association serving museum professionals and institutions.
Meadowcroft interpreter Beverly Cline demonstrates the historic technique of spinning wool into yarn using a drop spindle. Families without access to a spinning wheel could still spin wool for clothing using this simple, homemade device.
Further exhibits feature re-creations of a 16th-century Monongahela Indian village and 18th-century frontier trading post.
“It’s a great story to tell,” Scofield said, “and Meadowcroft is the perfect place to do it.”
Masich concurred.
“We’re proud to have it as one of our branch museums,” he said. “And it’s great for people to go there and unplug. That Cross Creek Valley is like the land that time forgot. People can turn off their cellphones and listen to nature. They can be a part of the environment in ways that it’s hard to get out of a book or from your television or handheld device.”
Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village’s 50th season opens the weekend of May 5, with hours from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, visit www.heinzhistorycenter.org/meadowcroft.
Opening weekend: May 5 and 6
Life With a Shawnee Family: May 19. Learn about the Shawnee people by talking with members of a visiting Shawnee family who will demonstrate daily life skills of their ancestors in 18th-century Western Pennsylvania.
Walk Through Prehistory: June 9 and Sept. 29. Talk a two-mile hike while learning about the flora and fauna prehistoric people used for food and materials to survive.
21st Annual Meadowcroft Atlatl Competition: June 16. Beginners are invited to try using the atlatl, a spear thrower used by prehistoric hunters, and watch World Atlatl Association competitors in action.
Independence Day Celebration: July 4.
Vintage Base Ball Game: Aug. 18. Watch “base ball,” it was spelled in the 19th century, played using 1860 rules.
Washington and Greene Counties 47th Annual Covered Bridge Festival: Sept. 15-16. Visit Meadowcroft’s 1871 Pine Bank Covered Bridge.
Frontier Heritage Weekend: Sept. 22-23. Learn how Indians and Europeans borrowed ideas from one another to build a better life in the Western Pennsylvania wilderness.
Walk in Penn’s Woods: Oct. 7. Meadowcroft will serve as a host venue for a day of educational woodland walks and informative programs.
Archaeology Day: Oct. 13. Archaeologists from the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology will present lectures and demonstrations, and identify artifacts for visitors.
Fall Finale and Taffy Pull: Oct. 27. Learn about historic confections while making an old-fashioned treat to take home.
Insiders Tours of the Meadowcroft Rockshelter: June 23, Sept. 8, Oct. 14 and Nov. 3. For reservations, visit www.heinzhistorycenter.org/meadowcroft or call 724-587-3412.