Day 2, 10:30 AM - Thomas T. Taber Museum

The Thomas T. Taber Museum.

This local museum provides a very dense and accurate historical perspective of Lycoming County and its environs. The Shempp toy train exhibit lies in the basement (with two working train stations, to boot!). A handful of period rooms trace through the history of the area--from the Ice Age to the Victorian era to the present. There are also local artists' exhibits and a very small but charming collection of surrealist sketches by Miro and Dali. In addition to the museum itself, the building houses archives and a library of the history of the region. When in Williamsport, it's definitely worth checking out for the summary of local history!

The wealth of lumber in central Pennsylvania was immensely important to the first and second Industrial Revolutions. Rafts of lumber and logs could easily be transported on the Schuylkill, Susquehanna, and Delaware Rivers. The rafts could easily reach major ports in Philadelphia and Baltimore. The implementation of railroads allowed the lumber to be transported to further areas in the state and throughout the country. Towns sprang up quickly along the mining sites--small towns such as Ulysses and Bloomsburg. By the 1920s, however, Pennsylvania's lumber supply was nearly wiped out as the Great Depression loomed.