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Friday, March 07, 2003 Page: 7A
OPINION
THE KING OF England, William Penn, 400 mules and free admission. Those
things link Sunday when Commonwealth museums recognize Charter Day and the
1681 grant of land by Charles II of England to William Penn, establishing
Pennsylvania.
Such history is revealed in numerous state museums, many within a modest
drive of Northeastern Pennsylvania. If you’ve never taken the opportunity,
Sunday is the day. The celebration opens many Commonwealth museums for
visitors with no admission to see the long and varied history of the state.
If you’ve never been to these museums, you’re in for a treat. The history
of Pennsylvania – from prehistoric people through Indian nations, the colonial
and Civil War periods to inventors and nation builders – is worth remembering.
That’s where the mules kick in. The history of the state, especially
eastern Pennsylvania, is dominated by industry, mining and transportation. The
mules towed barges along canals, the early highways of Pennsylvania that led
to the Industrial Revolution. The 165-mile stretch of two canal systems, from
Bristol to Wilkes-Barre, allowed the coal-mining industry of the Wyoming and
Lackawanna valleys to expand and Northeastern Pennsylvania to prosper in the
late 19th century.
That broad region is remembered by the Delaware and Lehigh National
Heritage Corridor. Organizations in the corridor will benefit from the “Miles
of Mules” project, 400 Fiberglas beasts sponsored, painted and displayed at
places throughout the region.
It’s an stunt that’s been done in many other places, but it works
exceptionally well here. Sponsorship of the mules raises money for cultural
groups from Luzerne County to Bethlehem and Doylestown, and they bring
attention to sponsors. A mule inside the Ramada Inn has brightened Public
Square in Wilkes-Barre in recent weeks. And the project brings a new kind of
attention to the broad range of museums and sites in the heritage corridor.
Like Eckley Miners’ Village near Freeland, open noon to 5 p.m. with a lecture
about the Civil War and a program celebrating Penn and the charter. And the
Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum in McDade Park, Scranton, which will
have a lecture about women garment workers in 20th-century Pennsylvania and a
concert of labor-union songs.
More than 300 years of history, 400 mules, a king, a Quaker and no
admission. We could do worse on a Sunday in March in Pennsylvania.