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Health & Fitness

Field Trip Notes

Historical Society members enjoyed a field trip to the Slate Belt on Saturday

If you were one of those who came to the Lehigh Valley Transit talk by Doug Peters last week -- wasn't it great? The historical societies (Macungie and Lower Macungie) truly enjoy putting on such interesting events.

Every year members of the Lower Macungie Township Historical Society carpool to visit interesting places within a two-hour drive. This year's was no exception. On Saturday we drove in beautiful weather to Bangor to visit the Slate Belt Heritage Center.

Now, that is a historical society to admire! In the old town hall they have a series of rooms, former borough offices, each of which features one aspect of the history of the Slate Belt. Their slide show about the region's history, and a film showing slate quarrying were just what historical society members like to see when we visit a museum. 

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In one room are displays of slate quarrying, and splitting and trimming it into roof slates and other items. Three rooms celebrate the Welsh, Cornish and Italians who settled the area. Textiles and the homefront during World War II each have a room with loads of interesting displays. One room is devoted to one of the oldest villages in the area, Flicksville.

The former council chambers contains changing exhibits; among the displays there right now is a corner devoted to film star Jayne Mansfield, who grew up in the Slate Belt. An intricate and fascinating model of a slate quarry has recently been placed in the room.

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A specialty of the Slate Belt is the Cornish pasty, brought to the region by families from Cornwall who emigrated in the nineteenth century, bringing their skills. By special arrangement we ate a Cornish lunch in the council chambers, with pasties, pickled cabbage, saffron cakes, and scones with clotted cream.

On the way home we stopped at the Jacktown Grove where the  Blue Mountain Antique Gas and Steam Engine Association was having a spring meet. We got to see one of the old Flory steam-powered hoists that were used in the slate quarries operating. A rare sight! The association has a number of restored steam engines under roof, many of them quietly running on Saturday.

The operator of the steam engine is Mike Piersa of the National Museum of Industrial History that is to open in Bethlehem. He let me start up the engine, and control it for a while, but I can't claim to be an engineer yet.

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