Innovative exhibits tell importance of history
Visitors who enter the exhibit area of the new Fort Necessity National Battlefield/National Road Interpretive and Education Center will receive a welcome from a cast figure of the Half-King, an important figure in the French and Indian War story. They then enter a section called “Footsteps into History.’
“The whole idea is to help them remember the time frame, what life was like in the 1750s in the area,’ said Mary Ellen Snyder, chief of interpretation for the center.
Cast figures in this area include a woman traveler on the National Road and an older George Washington as he appeared in 1784, when Ranger Brian Reedy explained he visited his property in the area and met a young Albert Gallatin at Fort Pierpont near present-day Morgantown.
“Fort Necessity and the French and Indian War’ are examined through a series of exhibits that begin at Jumonville Glen, escalate to Fort Necessity and then explain how this became the first world war.
Particularly intriguing is the Jumonville Glen scene. Visitors walk into a reproduction of rocks and life-size trees to hear a volley of guns and French soldiers shouting, and see shadows of soldiers and Native Americans in the woods.
A cast-figure of a Virginian on a rock takes aim while a cast-figure of wounded Jumonville is held by a comrade.
The Battle of Fort Necessity is a miniature theater-in-the-round that features murals of the British side and French and Indian side made from artist Robert Griffing’s paintings as well as cast figures of a wounded Virginian being carried to safety and visitor-activated audio and light show that puts you in the battle.
Visitors can also find out what happened to the fort with a few remnants of the original burned log posts on display.
And making sure these stories are told from all points of view, the exhibit includes a section in which visitors meet three figures who tell stories from their own perspectives: Washington, representing the British, Half-King representing American Indians, and a soldier, representing the French.
The exhibits also explain how the outcome of the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, including a time line that explains events from 1754 to 1776.
The establishment of the country also leads to the debate for a National Road.
“A lot of people don’t understand how the building of the National Road connected the nation,’ said Snyder. “If you have people trying to communicate with each other, roads are the way to communicate, make sure you have goods and that people can travel. Roads tie people together.’
The National Road section includes an exhibit on the debate about the road, featuring key historic features who argued questions of constitutionality, tax battles and states rights.
A section called Building the Road shows a cast figure of an Irish immigrant working on the road while signage explains how the road evolved from Nemacolin’s Trail to Washington’s Military Road to Braddock’s Road to the National Road.
The Heyday – 1820-50 has visitors walk through a replica of the Brownsville covered bridge and then enter a bustling scene where a moving cyclorama shows the multitude of travelers, livestock and goods along the road.
The Tavern places visitors in a mid-19th century “National Road Tavern,’ that’s representative of those along the National Road, which ran from Cumberland, Md., to Vandalia, Ill.
Visitors can overhear conversation between cast figures of a female innkeeper and her two male customers.
National Road Glory Departed explains what happened to the National Road with the advent of the railroad and how the road changed again with the coming of the automobile.
A section called Remembrance and Commemoration tells how people have thought of this story for the last 75 years, explained Snyder.
The section includes a model of the 1932-square-foot, bronze plaques donated by the Daughters of the American Revolution and the archaeological dig that revealed Fort Necessity was actually round.
There are also programs from commemoration ceremonies, including the 250th anniversary in 2004.
An interpretive playground – the first for a national park – will be installed in the back of the interpretive center next spring.
That’s also when new educational programs will be introduced as well as a new film for the theater.
In the meantime, the theater will show an excerpt from the upcoming PBS mini-series on the French and Indian War called “The War That Made America.’
Visitors will also be able to step out the back door of the interpretive center and walk through the woods to the reconstructed fort, actually a shorter distance then from the original visitor’s center.