Illinois Holocaust Museum, Skokie, IL

 

Pinchas Gutter

The Illinois Holocaust Museum is in Skokie, Illinois. It was established after several marches were threatened in Skokie by neo-Nazis. The Chicagoland Holocaust Survivors created the museum. It moved to its present building in 2009. We have been to the Holocaust Museum in Israel, the Documentation Center in Nuremberg, and the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. So why go to another holocaust museum? We had seen on 60 Minutes showing how Holocaust stories were being preserved in a new way, week-long interviews that were captured by holograms. You can ask questions of a survivor and get their story. The Skokie museum is one of the places where you get to interact in this fascinating way. In our case, we heard from Pinchas Gutter, born in Poland in 1932, his family was sent to the Warsaw Ghetto and then sent to the Majdanek concentration camp. Here men and women were separated, and Pinchas saw his parents for the last time. He managed to survive three different camps and was liberated in April 1945. Even after liberation, he had to survive in a country devastated by war. He was eventually sent to a rehabilitation camp in Britain, and subsequently lived in France, Israel, South Africa, and now Canada. His story was fascinating, particularly how small kindnesses allowed him to survive the camps and their aftermath.

Another interesting special exhibit was “The Journey Back” where you accompany a survivor back to the camps he had been sent during the war. This is a virtual reality experience, my first ever, but was somewhat disappointing as they put black and white pictures of prisoners mixed in with the color picture of the prison camp today. Still, it was good.

Warsaw Ghetto - 20% of Warsaw's Population in 2% of land

The major exhibits go through the history of the rise of the Nazi Party, the targeting of Jews as the cause of Germany’s suffering after World War I, the elimination of Jewish businesses, the segregation of Jews, cripples, and other ‘undesirables’ into Ghettos and labor camps, and the “final solution” to exterminate the Jewish race. We were familiar with most of this material from other museums.

Jews Killed (red) vs. Pre-war Population

We finished off our trip by visiting our granddaughters in Minneapolis before heading home.

Cincinnati zoo

 

Manatee

We had planned to visit the Harriet Beacher Stowe house as part of our Civil War theme, but it was closed for renovations. Just a few blocks away was the Cincinnati Zoo, which has been rated as one of the best zoos in the country. I also would give it a high rating, because of the many unique animals we saw there. We spent most of four hours at the zoo and probably saw about half of the zoo. We decided to skip most of the Africa sections and spend our time elsewhere: Cat Canyon, Dragons (with a Komodo Dragon as well as a Blue Tree Monitor), Gibbon Islands, Gorilla World, Jungle Trails (with an Aye-Aye and Sifaka), Manatee Springs (with Manatees, Alligators and turtles), the Reptile House (with quite a few poisonous frogs and a Galapagos Tortoise)  

Black Footed Cat

There were a couple buildings where you could see nocturnal animals ( Aardvark, Aardwolf, Black Footed Cat, Sand Cat, Fennec Fox, Bushbabies, Ocelot and Ringtails). Also unique was the insect world with lots of tarantulas, beetles, and spiders. Well worth the visit.

Giant Dead Leaf Mantis

Harper's Ferry, West Virginia

 

It’s t

Field Hospital during Civil War

ime to start towards home. Our first stop was the National Museum of Civil War Medicine. This is a small, old museum, but still worthwhile. It emphasized the innovations made in medicine during the civil war. The first was the use of field hospitals which would be near the battlefield, where first aid was applied to control the damage from wounds or disease. The second was the use of ambulances, horse-drawn carriages to move the wounded, primarily from the field to a hospital. Third, was the use of chloroform or ether to reduce the pain of surgery – over 90% of operations used some form of anesthesia. There were quite a few stories about the doctors and nurses of the time, including Clara Barton founder of the American Red Cross. They also emphasized that 2/3^rd of the deaths during the civil war were not from battle, but from disease, especially dysentery. Another form of medicine I hadn’t considered was veterinary medicine because of all the horses and mules used to carry supplies and cannons. We spent about an hour here.

Surgical Kit

On to Harper’s Ferry, which is situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers where Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia join. George Washington established a munitions factory here because of the availability of water power. The National Park Service maintains the Lower Town as a historical park. 

Lower Town Harper's Ferry

This was also the site form John Brown’s Raid in October 1859. He led a group to take over the town with the goal of freeing the slaves here. He had raised money across the country over the preceding months from abolitionists and purchased rifles and pikes. He and his men took over the armory and took hostages, but the slaves in the area did not join his rebellion. The marines eventually take over the armory, leaving John Brown and his men in the fire house. The marines take over the fire house without any hostages being injured, but 16 people died, including 10 of Brown’s men. By the end of the month, Brown and his remaining men are tried and sentenced to death. He was hanged on December 2^nd. While he may have lost the battle, a newspaper account read: “The Harpers Ferry invasion has advanced the cause of disunion more than any other event since the formation of the Government.” Harper’s Ferry would change hands eight times during the Civil War.

John Brown's Raid

Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, PA

 

Franklin Institue

We remember going to the Franklin Institute when our girls were in Junior High. At the time, it was the one of the first museums to have interactive displays (first time we had seen computers used in a museum). We were interested in how the museum is today. They still rate as one of the best museums to bring your children. We started at the heart exhibit: they had a walk through heart, an exhibit that let you hear how fast hearts beat in different animals (a whale beats at 20 beats/min and a bird at 400 to 600). Then we watched the dissection of a goat heart, which is very similar to a human heart in size. The electrical activity in the brain was represented thus:

The section on electricity had comparison of the different types of light bulb, you could turn a crank to see how much effort it took to light an incandescent, LCD, and LED lights (quite impressive how little cranking it took to brightly light an LED). The section on machines was fascinating, showing you how various levers and configurations would translate one type of motion (circular motion to run your wind shield wipers) to another or how you gained leverage or moderated speed by the type of gears used. These types of demonstrations continued in different subject areas: trains, airplanes, the body, the brain, etc. It was fun to see a bunch of teen-age boys experimenting with the shape of wings or trying to create a helicopter.

Independence Hall, Philidelphia

 

Assembly Room

We headed to Philadelphia (about a hour and 20 minute drive). We started at Independence Hall, built in 1750 as the Pennsylvania State House with offices for the governor upstairs, a court on the West side and the legislature on the east side. The Assembly room was used by the Second Continental Congress during the Revolutionary War. Here was debated the Declaration of Independence, which had to have the approval of all 13 Colonies. The vote was to be held on July 2^nd. And one of the 3 delegates, Caesar Rodney, from Delaware had to ride all night to Philadelphia (60 miles) to be there for the vote. On July 4^th, they approved the written document, and signed the document on August 6^th. This was also the room where the Constitution was debated and ultimately approved. The only original furniture in the room is Rising Sun Speaker’s chair.  

Rising Sun Chair

Next door is Congress Hall, originally the Philadelphia County Courthouse. This was where congress held their sessions from 1790 until 1800, when they moved to Washington, D.C.

Senate Chamber

Of course, we also visited the Liberty Bell with it's message of "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof" which became a cry for the abolition of slavery as well as women's suffrage. 

The Liberty Bell

Hagley Museum and Gardens

 

Hagley House owned by Dupont family

We headed up the Eastern Seaboard, camping at Elk Neck State Park just a few miles south of the Delaware border. The campsites here are a challenge for trailers because of a narrow road and obstacles. We had to go about 6 feet on the grass to get our trailer in. In the afternoon we headed to Wilmington, DE to visit the Hagley Museum and Gardens. E.I. Dupont and his brother immigrated from France in 1800. They initially planned to settle in the Shenandoah Valley and had formulated nine different business opportunities. The Shenandoah Valley proved too expensive, so they ended up outside Wilmington along the Brandywine River. Their ninth business opportunity proved to be the winner – making gun powder. E.I. was a hunter and found the American-made powder to be of poor quality, so he began mixing his own. The local stone, a blue-colored gneiss was solid building material, and locally they could find the ingredients for the gun powder. The river provided waterpower for the refining and mixing of the powder. He built his house here in 1802, later adding a lean-to on the building to house his offices. Upon his death one of his sons became the owner of the house and the powder mill and modified the house to remove the lean-to and add two wings. That is the house we see today. The gun powder factory was down the hill from the house and continued to manufacture gun powder here until 1921. During that time there were 288 explosions, killing over 100 men. The city grew too close by 1921, so they shut the mill down. It was fascinating to see so much of the original equipment still there. Especially the two 8-ton wheels that were used for mixing the powder. There was a flood last May, and the sluice had been filled with over 50 dump trucks worth of mud. They are hoping to be able to reopen the sluice this summer to demonstrate the mill operating.

Wheels for mixing gun powder

Fort McHenry, Baltimore, MD

 

Diagram of the Battle

We woke up to our first day in almost a week without the threat of rain. (Last night there was 2” hail just west of us.) We also have done 3 days straight of museums, so instead of going to the National Aquarium in Baltimore, we decided to go to Fort McHenry. After watching the park movie, we listened to the ranger talk on the Battle for the Chesapeake during the War of 1812. He used red cones to represent the British Fleet or their 5000-man army and blue cones to represent American privateers and militia. The British were fighting the French in the Napoleonic Wars, but this had affected U.S. trade, since the British would sink any ship trading with France, and they often stopped American ships to search for “British deserters” impounding them to serve in the British Navy. After much debate, the U.S. declared war on Britain to begin the War of 1812. Congress sent the U.S. Army to Canada, intent on extending the U.S. borders North. They burnt down the city of Toronto as part of that attempt.

In 1814, the war with Napoleon ended, so Britain sent their fleet and army to the U.S. targeting the population centers and agriculture of the resource-rich Chesapeake Bay. With the army near Canada and no real Navy, only local militia and privateers were available to defend the Bay. The British declared that any town that shot at the British would be burned down. Indeed, they burned several towns. While the privateers had some success against the British Navy, they were eventually cornered up-river and burned their ships to avoid capture by the British. Then the British targeted Washington, D.C. When the 5000-man British army encountered the 7500 militia defending D.C., the ill-trained militia ran, and the British came in and burned D.C. However, here they only burned the government buildings, leaving homes alone. Their next target was Baltimore, the 3^rd largest city in America and the largest port. The army first tried attacking the city from the East, but the Americans had a large militia who were dug in East of the city with substantial earth works on a hill above the city. The British concluded that they couldn’t take the city that way, so the plan was to attack the city by sea. Meanwhile, Francis Scott Key was sent to the fleet under a white flag to negotiate the release of a U.S. Citizen who had been taken as a prisoner of war in Washington. He completed the negotiation but wasn’t allowed to return to Baltimore until after the battle. The American forces had sunk ships along the channel that led to the Baltimore harbor and stretched a chain across the remaining portion. This would force any invading ships to be within gun range of Fort McHenry which was on a peninsula near the harbor entrance. The problem was that the guns and rockets of the British fleet could bombard the fort from two miles, while the cannon of the fort could only fire about 1 ½ miles. At 7 AM on September 13^th, 1814, the British bombardment of the Fort began. 

Defense Batteries

Key watched “The rockets red-glare, the bombs bursting in air” all day and night. The bombardment lasted 24 hours, and through the smoke, Key searched to see which flag was flying above the Fort. As we all know… he saw the Stars and Stripes still flying. The British concluded that there was no way, they would be able to destroy the Fort from the sea. They left the area, and the peace treaty of Ghent was signed about 3 months later.

Star Spangled Banner above the Fort

National Museum of African American History

The National Museum of African American History is the newest museum of the Smithsonian and required a time-slot ticket that we purchased on the internet. We got there at 10:30 when things were relatively quiet, but the museum still was crowded. The history begins with Africa in the 1600’s when trade with Europe was just beginning. Some of that trade was in slaves, especially with Great Britain, France, Portugal, and the Dutch who were the major seafarers of the time. 

Slave Trading Routes

Slaves were used as laborers throughout the New World, primarily to grow rice, tobacco, and sugar cane. Cotton did not become much of a crop until the invention of the cotton gin in the late 1700’s. The exhibits emphasized the terrible journey across the Atlantic Ocean as well as the slave trading in the U.S., especially after the importation of slaves was banned. The cruelty of parents and children being separated was emphasized. Periodically, throughout the 18^th and 19^th centuries there were race incidents (riots), but none of these led to any improvement. In Congress throughout the first of the 19^th century, slavery was the key issue between the North and South. The museum emphasizes the key black leaders who tried to end slavery, names like Frederick Douglas, Dred Scott, Margaret Tubman, and many others that we’re just starting to learn about. During the Civil War, many blacks crossed Union lines to gain “freedom”, but they were treated as property of war until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. At that time, Lincoln allowed the creation of black battalions, but they only received half the pay of white soldiers. The museum goes on to explain the Reconstruction period, where blacks gained state and federal office. From there we started speeding up our visit because it covered many of the times and events we had viewed in the International Civil Rights Museum. The Historical part of the museum also covered how black artists, musicians, actors, and sports stars slowly changed our perceptions of blacks away from the typical stereotypes in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. The 60’s and 70’s were the years of protests, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X, Black power, etc.  Finally, it covered the 80’s to the 2000’s as blacks appeared in movies, TV shows, and advertisements. 

Blacks are seen on TV

The election of Obama as the first black president is the current end of the story. There are other sections to this museum which we didn’t cover, but we spent 3 ½ hours viewing this history section. We really appreciated the short videos produced by the Smithsonian channel and regretted the fact that there were very few benches or chairs to rest our legs.

We finalized our visit to Washington with taking the Mall Circulator just to view something other than the Smithsonian. We didn’t have the energy to walk anymore, but we saw the Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, the White House and Congress from the bus.  Great way to get around the mall at only $1 per ride. 

American History Museum, Washington, D.C.

 

Lincoln's Top Hat

We’ve been to the American History Museum numerous times and did repeat two sections: the American Presidency and the First Ladies. The first Ladies primarily displays their gown from Dolly Madison to the present day. The display on the Presidents enumerated their varied roles as a political leader, a commander in chief, an ambassador of the American people, and a Head of State. 

Table built in 1868 by a German Immigrant

The most interesting exhibit was Many Voices, One Nation, reminding us of how America has incorporated people from many places over time. We started as a unification of English, French, Spanish, and Dutch colonists each with their own traditions. Then we became the place where Europeans immigrated to being a new life. The Louisiana Purchase and the buying of Alaska incorporated peoples with differing cultures. We also fought the Mexican War and Spanish-American War to incorporate areas like: Puerto Rico, California, and most of the Southwest, and over time became responsible for places like Hawaii and other South Pacific islands. It was a thought-provoking exhibit. There were other exhibits about inventions, and wars, we only viewed at most a third of the building.

Automation of a Friar from mid-1500s

We crossed the Mall to see the exhibit on Futures, an exhibit to celebrate the 175^th Anniversary of the Smithsonian. It encouraged visitors to think about what kind of future they might like and what they could do to bring it about. The exhibits tended to focus on three things: how artificial intelligence can accelerate our ability to solve problems, how many new transportation options we will have in the future (hyperloop, people carrying drones, space exploration), and finally the potentials of DNA manipulation for the benefit of mankind and the world.

Hyperloop People Mover

American Indian Museum, Washington, D.C.

 

Culture of Yupik Tribe of Alaska

Yesterday, we traveled about 140 miles, but it took almost 4 hours as we headed to College Park, MA and the Cherry Hill Park RV park. This campground is expensive, but the closest campground to D.C. (with full hookups). If you don’t need full hookups the Park Service Campground is just as close and much quieter (unless the cicadas are chirping).

Our first day here we are visiting the American Indian Museum since we’ve never been here before. The major exhibits are on the fourth floor. We spent almost an hour in the room which depicts Our Universes, the cultural stories of 8 different American tribes. Some common elements among the stories was the importance of the earth, the sky, and the compass directions. Most of the tribes were in the U.S., but we also learned about Inca traditions, Mexico’s Day of the Dead, and Canadian and Alaskan traditions. There were also videos describing the stories behind the constellations The next major exhibit was about the treaties between the U.S. government and the America’s Indian Tribes. For each treaty, they discussed the viewpoints, negotiators, treaty terms, and the aftermath of the treaty. Viewpoints was interesting because of such wide differences in philosophy and social values between Americans and Europeans. Think of the problems when Americans/Europeans meet the tribal social structure of no property ownership and decisions by the entire tribe versus property ownership and a hierarchical decision making. Most of the aftermaths of the treaties pointed out how the new settlers would negate the treaty within several years because of their need for more land and resources because of the continually growing population or the concept of “Manifest Destiny” – that belief that the U.S. should stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The defeat of Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn was a shock to the Nation, one of the few defeats of the U.S. army, yet a few months later the Indians lost the war and escaped into Canada. Things did not turn around until the 1940’s when a federal judge gave the Indians a victory: treaty rights must be followed. In this case, that the Indians in Oregon and Washington had a right to the salmon harvest. Later were cases that provided reparations for territory stolen from the Indians in California. Then the reservations were allowed to build Casinos in states that allowed any form of gambling. In the 70’s and 80’s Congress passed several laws providing Indians with more rights and services.

Depiction of the Battle of the Little Bighorn

We also toured the Exhibit of the Raven and the Box of  Daylight, an artwork collection from Preston Singletary. There are other exhibits we didn’t see: Indians service in wars and Indian artwork.

Preston Singletary Sculpture

USS Monitor and CSS Virginia, Newport News, VA

 

Cannon from CSS Virginia

Today, we visit the Mariner’s Museum and Park in Newport News, VA. Our primary objective is to visit the USS Monitor Center and indeed we spent three hours here. This was founded after the raising of the turret of the Monitor from it’s watery grave. That turret is still being prepared for exhibit. It’s been in a tank for over 10 years, trying to remove the material it collected on the ocean floor. But don’t worry they have numerous exhibits that recreate the entire Monitor including its turret. In addition, they have also recreated the interior of the Merrimac and as you enter the exhibit there is one of the original cannon from the Merrimac, or should I say C.S.S. Virginia. For the confederate navy, without the means to build new ships, they raised the sunken wooden ship, USS Merrimac, from the harbor and then plated it with iron to create the first ironclad, renaming it the CSS Virginia. The Virginia’s primary mission was to break the Union Blockade of Hampton roads.  On March 8^th it came out of the Elizabeth river and laid course for the USS Cumberland. It rammed the Cumberland, sinking the ship. Then it tore into the USS Congress, which had grounded itself in their panic. The Monitor had been built in only 100 days and had a unique feature: a rotating turret with two guns. They arrived the night of March 8^th and were ordered to protect the USS Minnesota, still in the harbor. About midnight they saw the Congress blow up when fire reached its powder magazine. In the morning, the Monitor pulled up next to the Minnesota to provide protection. Both the Merrimac and the Monitor fired at each other. The Monitor only periodically, since once they started rotating the turret, they couldn’t stop it. Both survived and they ended the day parting ways. The Monitor pulled into the river, but became trapped there, and the crew scuttled the ship a few days later.

Monitor's Propeller

We would highly recommend this museum, especially if you’re into the Civil War. Take in the movie which explained a lot the battle. There are other things to visit here too, but we had already spent 3 hours at the Monitor Center and called it a day.

Mockup of the interior of the CSS Virginia

Pamplin Historical Park, Petersburg, VA

 

National Museum of Civil War Soldier

Pamplin Historical Park is a private museum featuring the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier and situated on the grounds of the Breakthrough Battle of the Civil War. The museum is filled with artifacts from the civil war: uniforms, weapons, photographs, journals, and personal items. Entering the museum, you chose one of several soldiers and learn their story from recruitment till the end of the war. There were numerous exhibits depicting camp life: what food they ate, how the camp was supplied, the organization of units, how they were drilled and trained, medical care, and moving from camp to the battlefield. We were both surprised by how fair the exhibits were to both the Union and Confederate soldiers, pointing out how they felt that they were upholding the ideals of their countrymen. Unfortunately, they didn’t allow photography in the museum itself, I especially wanted a picture of a journal with a bullet in it.

Tudor Hall Plantation Slave Quarters

Outside had exhibits on plantation life at Tudor Hall Plantation for both the whites and their slaves. They also recreated the defense works that were put up to defend Richmond during the Battle of Petersburg. The combination of sharpened logs, moat, and walls built up from which the soldiers can shoot. We saw the remnants of these groundworks along a trail of the battlefield. For the last year of the Civil War, Lee and Grant battled for control of Petersburg, which led to Richmond, the Confederate Capital. The contest was won by Grant on April 2, 1865 when the Union troops broke through the Confederate lines at this location. More than a thousand Federal troops were killed here, but most of the Confederate soldiers were killed or wounded. We finished our day with a 50 minute movie about the life of soldiers from their initial recruitment through training, drilling, and fighting. It gave you a feeling for how terrible war is: wounded men dying on the contested land, the search for missing comrades after a battle, the attempt to help the wounded, often by removing a limb. The movie was centered around the journal with theWh bullet hole in it. How one soldier gave the journal to another in case he was killed, and that journal saved his life, when it stopped the bullet, finally how he continued journaling in his companion’s journal for the rest of the war.

Recreation of Civil War Earthworks

International Civil Rights Museum, Greensboro, NC

 

International Civil Rights Museum

We leave the Smokies and head to Greensboro, North Carolina. We’re camping at the KOA here, which is close to our museum, but right next to the Interstate. Not very quiet. The International Civil Rights Museum is housed in the Woolworths store, where 4 A&T students started a sit-in to protest the fact that the lunch counter was white-only on February 1^st, 1960. 

The Lunch Counter

We took the staff-guided tour since we seem to learn a lot more that way than reading all the exhibits. It started with the phrase “all men are created equal” but pointed out that the men referred to at the time were white, protestant, and property owners, not all men (or women). The exhibit provided the background behind the Civil Rights movement: slavery, a brief period during reconstruction where blacks gained rights in the South, followed by Jim Crow laws (from the character of Jim Crow created in the 1830s). Segregation laws that created the concept of separate, but equal facilities, which were separate, but far from equal. For example: a coke machine with two sides: the white side charged a nickel and the black side 6 cents. The restrictions on voting like poll taxes or literacy tests with strange questions: “how many gum drops are in this jar” or “what’s the second sentence in the North Carolina constitution?” Then the story of violence against blacks: the Klu Klux Klan, lynching of blacks for minor offenses against whites, and the school and church bombings.

The Greensboro Four were spurred to action by the murder of Emmett Till. They decided to sit down at the F.W. Woolworth’s store and ask to be served. When denied service they refused to give up their seats. By February 5^th, about 300 black college students had joined the sit-in and this action started similar sit-ins throughout the South. When the college students left at the end of the spring, high school students continued the sit-in in Greensboro. Business was down because people either supported the movement or wanted to avoid the conflict at the store. Finally, at the end of July, the owner asked four of his black employees to sit at the lunch counter and be served. This ended the lunch counter segregation at the Woolworth store. While the title is International Civil Rights Museum, most of the museum is dedicated to the U.S. struggle, upstairs is an interesting exhibit about Helen Suzman, the housewife turned politician who battled for the end of Apartheid in South Africa. For 13 years she was the lone member of the Progressive Party in Parliament, a white woman who was constantly advocating for the end of Apartheid.

The Protests

Dollywood, Pigeon Forge, TN

Walkway at Dollywood

The sun is coming out and we’re headed to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge. The town has all the features of a tourist trap – lots of hotels, restaurants, and tourist shops. Dollywood is a combination of an amusement park with many rides, especially roller coasters, and shops. We’re headed there mainly for the music. We listened to music almost the entire day, except for a train ride up the mountain and one roller coaster, the lightning rod. Dreamland Drive-in told a story with a large cast and music from the 50s and 60s. The Hall sisters did harmony with tunes from the 40’s to 60’s. 

 

 The Kingdom Heirs sang gospel tunes, their bass singer was fantastic. Then there was lots of country music: the Smokey Mountain String Band, the Wild Roots Band, Forever Country, and A Brighter Day. Our only disappointment was at lunch: an expensive burger and fries with a coke that didn’t taste like a coke for $18 each. If you’re into music or roller coasters, this is the place for you. 

Roller Coaster from the train

Clingman's Dome, Smokey Mountain NP

Clingmans Dome and dead Fraser trees

 

The sky remains overcast today, but it looks like the rain will stop. We travel to the Sugarland Visitor Center. After the dryness of Colorado, everything here seems moist and green. The visitor center offers a lot of information on trees, flowers, animals, birds, and insects in the area. We head up the road to Newfound Gap, the main east-west road of the park. The clouds start breaking up and we get some reasonable scenic views. Our target is Clingmans Dome the highest point in the park at 6300 feet. As we climb, the trees possess fewer and fewer leaves – you can tell we’re getting higher. Unfortunately, Clingman’s Dome is surrounded by fog. The Fraser fir trees there are unique to this area, and have been transplanted to northern reaches of the U.S. and Canada and are considered typical Balsam Christmas trees. Here the firs have been attacked by European adelgids (bugs) and most of the mature trees have died.

Smokey Mountain view

We head back down to the Roaring Fork Auto Tour. Another one-way road, but the emphasis on this tour is communing with nature. Lots of potential stops to take a short hike or just listen to nature. Since it’s late in the day, we only make a few stops before heading back to our Cade’s Cove campsite.

Cades Cove, Smokey Mountain NP

 

Methodist Church

Cades Cove was first settled in the 1830’s. The collection of structures along this one way road is considered to be the largest such in the East. We visited 3 churches, all replacements for the original log buildings : the Primitive Baptist Church built in 1887, the Methodist Church built in 1902, and the Missionary Baptist Church from 1915. Most of the churches ceased to meet during the Civil War and excluded Confederate sympathizers after the war. The graveyards of these churches are filled with family members some buried in the early 1900’s others as recent as 2021. We were treated to some women singing in the Methodist church. We also explored some of the log cabins built and expanded through the years. The Elijah Oliver house had a front room for guests to stay on the former porch as well as a corn crib, smokehouse, pig pens, and a huge barn. Log construction was used on the building until the 1870’s when a sawmill was constructed. The most interesting area is the Cable mill, a water powered grist and sawmill built in 1870. There was also a drive-through barn nearby where you could drive your hay wagon into the barn and easily pitch the hay into the barn. Here also was a one of the cantilever barns we would see today. The overhang provided shelter to the animals in the winter as well as storage space for farm equipment. On the way out, we got caught in a ‘bear jam’. A mother and 2 cubs were along the side of the road, so everyone was stopped taking pictures.

Cable Mill

We went down the mountain to take in the Smoky Mountain Heritage Center, both an outdoor and indoor museum. Here was another example of a cantilevered barn, these barns are exclusive to this area of the country. Here we also saw a country still, which was still making ‘moonshine’ into the 1960’s, hidden underneath a barn. The wife tells the story of picking up multiple bags of grain from the general store in her car trunk, and then having a flat tire on the way home. She didn’t want to arouse suspicion, so she assured the officer, she could fix her own flat. Another outdoor display was a two-man sawmill that had provided lumber to the area. Inside, we read the story of both the Native Americans and the settlers that came to this area.

Hidden Moonshine Still

Oakridge Tennessee

 

Our one stop today was the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oakridge, Tennessee. It told the story of how Oakridge was built during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project, the project to build an atomic bomb. Here they built the largest building in the world, to isolate the U-235 needed to build a bomb. After the war, Oakridge became the source not only for bombs, but also the uranium used in commercial nuclear reactors and the radioactive isotopes used in medicine. After the cold war, here is where much of the USSR’s nuclear bomb material was reprocessed to become reactor fuel. We struggled with this museum – it seemed like a public affairs museum for Oakridge, not a science museum. They did show how neutrons are shot at various materials to study their atomic structure as well as a lot about the study of radiation for multiple purposes, but we got bored at reading all the material.

We continued to Cades Cove Campground in Great Smokey Mountain Park. We arrived and set up our camp in a down pour.

Stones River Battlefield and Grand Old Opry, Nashville, TN

 

Stones River Battlefield commemorates the Civil War battle from December 31, 1862 to January 2^nd, 1863. This area was important because it protected both the Cumberland River and several train lines, some of which ran all the way south to Atlanta. The confederates, led by General Braxon Bragg, struck early in the morning, catching most of the Union troops, led by William Rosecrans, eating breakfast. One group was better prepared and defended their position at the Slaughter Pen for a couple of hours, then the Hazen Brigade held their position beating back 3 attacks, at Hell’s Half Acre, leaving the field covered with dead confederates and allowing the other Union troops to retreat. Bragg declared victory for the Confederates but was surprised the next morning to find that Union troops still held the Nashville Pike. On January 2^nd, the confederates charged to the Pike, but were slaughtered because union cannon held the hill above McFaddon’s ford. This proved to be the final action and the Confederates retreated. Over 25,000 men were dead, wounded, or captured during this battle. After the battle, the Union army occupied Murfreesboro, a former Tennessee capital and Fortress Rosecrans was created by the Union Army to protect the rail lines. The 200-acre fort could house 15,000 soldiers and could supply 65,000 for months.

Memorial to Hazen Brigade

We had planned to visit the National Museum of AfricanAmerican Music, but didn’t want to pay the $30 for parking since we only had about an hour and a half to spare. That night we attended the Opry Country Classics at the Grand Old Opry hosted by Larry Gatlin. This was a great two-hour show. Larry Gatlin did some great numbers with his brothers as well as quite a few solo songs. The other performers typically did about three numbers each: William Michael Morgan, Emily Ann Roberts, TG Sheppard and Shenandoah. William Michael Morgan mentioned that this was his 71^st appearance at the Opry, but the first in two years, because of Covid. The show did go on during Covid, but without an audience. Everyone was happy to have an audience and we were encouraged to sing during many of the choruses.

Country Music Hall of Fame, Nashville, TN

 

Country Music Hall of Fame

We drove to Nashville, Tennessee this morning arriving for a late lunch. Our afternoon visit was to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Understand – we are not huge country music fans, there were many exhibits we skipped because we didn’t know the artist. But we did know over half of the artists. Most interesting were the movies or telecasts that featured the artist and their songs. The highlight of the museum was a 20 minute or so review of country music on TV such as Tennessee Ernie Ford, Hee Haw, Glen Campbell, or even shows like Andy Griffith show or the Beverly Hillbillies. The museum is filled with guitars, mandolins, and banjos as well as the show clothes that the singers were during their performances. We spent a solid 2 hours here and someone more into country music would probably spend much longer.

We had a short walk along Broadway which features many bars and restaurants with loud country music groups. It was too loud for us. Michael Hlas is in Nashville helping his girlfriend, Mel, with packing to move back to Seattle after going to school here for the last year. We went to Edley’s, a barbeque restaurant. We met Mel for the first time and got to know a little about her background, family, and future plans. Hopefully, we didn’t disturb their plans too much.

Minnie Pearl Costume

Discovery Park, Union City, Tennessee

 

Discovery Park, Union City, TN

We spent the day at Discovery Park of America in Union City, Tennessee. This is an eclectic museum with a little bit of everything. Here are some of what we learned: At the train depot, we learned that trains used wireless telegraphs to send messages while they were moving. At Freedom Square, we learned about the early history of Tennessee: the creation of the Wilderness Road into the area and the role of Daniel Boone as a three-term congressman. We learned about the early inhabitants of this land with a huge display of stone tools and weapons. The military gallery gave some excellent history around the Civil War, World War I and WWII, including uniforms, arms, and the meals they served the soldiers. The science center featured changes in technology around communication, photography, data storage and energy storage. I found the display about early photography during the civil war especially interesting.  A lot of their exhibits are replicas, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t interesting. For example, they had lots of replicas of dinosaur skeletons, but a real mammoth skeleton from Russia – hard to believe how towering that mammoth was compared to a human.

Russian Mammoth