Much To Do in Montgomery County

For many, warmer weather means it’s time to get outdoors and enjoy the many attractions and events that Valley Forge and the surrounding area of Montgomery County have to offer.

Here are a few examples:

• Valley Forge National Historical Park: The site of the Continental Army’s winter encampment of 1777−78, this hallowed ground of the Revolutionary War is rich with history and offers visitors informative tours on foot and by trolley car or onboard audio in your own vehicle. There’s also strolling, biking or horseback riding on 28 miles of designated trails.

• The John James Audubon Center: This destination celebrates the namesake artist John James Audubon, preserving his first home inAmerica and highlighting its role in his development as a naturalist. Visitors can view a full-size copy of his influential “The Birds of America”—made from copperplate etchings and hand painted in full color.

• Peter Wentz Farmstead, Pottsgrove Manor, the Mennonite Heritage Center and Pennypacker Mills: These sites offer a snapshot of 18th century agrarian life, with a steady rotation of demonstrations, lectures and programs that present the long-lost arts of weaving, cooking, iron forging, sheep shearing, hay mowing and fracture—a form of decorative calligraphy.

• The Wharton Esherick Studio Museum: This storybook cottage is an apt setting for the work of a craftsman-artist who combined whimsy and practicality. Best of all, the tours here are very hands-on, as visitors are encouraged to feel for themselves the different textures and characters of Esherick’s natural medium.

• The Stoogeum: As its name implies, this is a museum dedicated to the antics of The Three Stooges. Visitors will find an impressive collection of 3,000 items, covering three floors, that traces the trio’s roots from vaudeville to feature films. See it once, they say, and you will be back for “Moe.”

• The Glencairn Museum: This is described as a time machine that whisks visitors back to turn-of-the-century opulence and to the art of the Middle Ages. Glencairn Museum displays religious-themed frescoes, tapestries and stained glass, and has a nine-story-high observation tower.

For more information and directions to these attractions, visit www.valleyforge.org.

Information courtesy of NAPSI