A Day-Long Journey to the Past
Kenneth R. "Ken" Plum
 
        For a relaxing and educational day trip or longer, consider visiting the Frontier Culture Museum just off I-81 at Staunton, Virginia.  This summer would be a particularly exciting time to visit because an Igbo village replicating the Western African culture from which the largest ethnic group coming to Virginia during the slave trade is being constructed.  Clay bricks are being made by hand from the local clay under the watchful eye of Stan Ogbonna who is a consultant to the project and a member of the Igbo tribe.  The bricks are being used to build a traditional man's home called an obi and houses for his two wives.
 
        The Igbo village will help complete the Museum's mission of interpreting the contributions to American culture made by the principal ethnic groups that settled the backcountry frontier during the late colonial period.  Much of the museum consists of actual structures that were taken apart and brought to this country and reconstructed.  An Ulster farm was dismantled in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, and shipped to the Museum where it was reconstructed in the mid-1980s.  A blacksmith forge from County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, was also relocated to the Museum.  A German farm was likewise relocated to the Museum site.  A 17th century English farmhouse was moved to the Museum in the early 1990s.  It is the oldest structure at the Museum and came from near the town of Hartleburg in Worcestershire in England's West Midland where many of the early English settlers had lived before coming to America.
 
        These farms along with the Igbo village that is being constructed represent the Old World cultures from which the earliest colonists came.  As a visitor to the Museum, you can visit these farms where costumed interpreters carry on life as it was during the period.  Just down the way you can also visit New World farms from the 1820s and 1850s to see the influences of the various cultures settling the country had on the American experience.  Farm outbuildings have also been recreated for the visitor to get a real feel for early American farm life.
 
        For more information on the Museum visit www.frontiermuseum.org or send me an email at kenplum@aol.com.  I am privileged to serve on the Board of Trustees for the Museum.  As a native of the Shenandoah Valley, I have found visits to the FrontierCultureMuseum to be particularly meaningful to me.  You will enjoy your journey to the past, whether it is for a day or longer.