The United States is celebrating just 250 years.

How do you put that into perspective?

Yeah, it's just a blip on the on the radar.

We have these four outdoor interpretive areas that encompass that span of time.

But look at what are the big ideas that made a difference for people's lives.

People were living and they could settle year round because through agriculture they were renewing their own food supply.

We recreated a 16th century Monongahela Indian village, and in southwestern Pennsylvania, there's lots of archeological evidence of these.

Oh, that was short, but the direction was okay.

Okay, I'm just throwing high and high.

That was great.

So we're outside of the palisade of our 16th century Monongahela Indian village.

The Monongahela people were here until about 1635, and then they disappear.

These wigwams, there's archeological evidence of these in the form of circular pattern of postholes.

I don't have this experience often where I have to duck when I go inside somewhere.

So this is exciting.

Come on in.

There's no fireplace.

Like we would understand a fireplace.

It's just a fire pit in the center.

And then again, a smoke hole to allow the smoke to escape.

So this is the area where we let visitors use the atlatl, which is the prehistoric spear thrower.

Its a weapon that was used for thousands and thousands of years before the bow and arrow.

So it can be a lethal weapon in the hands of somebody who knows what they're doing.

So maybe not extremely lethal in the hands of Nebby Nick, but I got to give it a try.

So as straight as you can.

Okay.

And when you go forward, it will just be a down.

And then you're going to aggressively flick your wrist.

Oh well that'll happen too.

Okay.

That wasn't too bad.

Oh.

Thank you.

Long long span of time where people were here.

But it was prehistory and we we don't have the written records.

And it's only through archeology that we can learn about those people.

And then chronologically, the next big idea is that Europeans arrive here in North America.

This is our 18th century frontier.

So we're shooting for the time period around 1770.

What's behind me right now is our native style longhouse.

Just like your wigwam.

This is going to hold your extended family, so there's going to be several bunks on the inside.

We only have one in here, but there would be one, maybe another one above it, possibly one against the other wall.

Little smoke hole in the top.

One of the things that's going to stand out, which was an influence adopted for the Europeans, is going to be a usage of metal appliances.

So in here you'll see hooks, you'll see staples in the doors, you'll see nails, all things that make this kind of structure possible.

There was this cultural borrowing both directions from these two cultures that came together on what we call the frontier.

And then finally, our 19th century village looks at the Industrial revolution in the 19th century, and how that began to change lives for people.

So, for example, the blacksmith, who for centuries had been making most of the tools and the implements that were needed for agriculture and household implements is now more relegated to just shoeing horses and repairing things, because by the end of the 19th century, the Sears and Roebuck catalog is available for people to mail order these items.

That's one of the cooler things about having a trade like blacksmithing, is that every little item comes out slightly different.

It's not going to be all mass produced exactly the same like it is once you have industrialization come around.

A blacksmith shop is really central to the community.

Every hammer strike, it's going to move a little bit.

It's really fascinating to to be able to practice something that is kind of lost to time.

All right, David, where are we heading to next?

Welcome to the Miller one room schoolhouse.

This is a common school for grades one through eight.

So this was a community school.

This was built in the 1830s as a direct result of the Pennsylvania Common School Law, which was passed in 1834, that provided for public education.

Okay, if you were bad late, you know, talking out of turn, cheating on a test, the teacher could take you to the woodshed out there.

You know, maybe the teacher saw you talking out of turn.

Just go whack with a stick.

You know, depends on what you did wrong as to how many times you're hit with a stick.

It's the spare the rod, spoil the child philosophy.

So if you did get in trouble here, you would get in trouble at home too.

And then the circles.

If you were bad and I had to smack you.

Okay, okak, with the stick.

So I would say bend at the waist and put your nose in that circle, and then you'd be in the correct position for a thrashing.

I could see how that would be torturous.

Yeah.

So that's the kind of the stages that we look at over this 19,000 year span of time that make up this story of western Pennsylvania.