Wednesday I took a trip through the Hunt Valley Motor Coach Company to Falling Water and Kentuck Knob. On the way, we stopped at the Pennsylvania town of Somerset to pick up our local guide and then went on to the Somerset Historical Center. This center preserves the rural lifestyles of southwestern Pennsylvania from the times of the earliest farmers to the present day. In less than two hundred years, farm life in southwestern Pennsylvania advanced from handwork to machine power, from crude subsistence farming to advanced commercial agriculture. The rural isolation that once characterized the region became a thing of the past. This story of change and its effect on the everyday lives of the people is dramatically presented at the Somerset Historical Center through the many exhibits and innovative educational programs that portray the life and culture of rural southwestern Pennsylvania. On display are original tools, utensils, furnishings, a recreated circa 1770 farmstead, and an 1830's farmstead with log house, barn, and summer kitchen. Also on the site is an 1850's covered bridge, an 1860's maple sugar camp, and an 1890's apple cider press. Exhibits, orientation films, a gift shop, guided tours, and one of the region's best genealogical libraries are found at the Visitor's Center.
