Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) was known for identifying carbon monoxide, but mainly as the…read morediscoverer of oxygen in 1774. He was also a theologian, educator, political activist and writer. He spent the last years of his life in then rural Northumberland, Pennsylvania. He was a strong supported of the political ideas of the french revolution and had supported many religious Dissenters (both no-no's in his homeland of England), for this his house, library & laboratory were burned down, he was accused of treason and then he immigrated to The United States. First settling in Philadelphia, then moving to northumberland, he had hoped that moving to such a rural and secluded area would perhaps give him some breathing-space and time to think. He wasn't welcome as a preacher in Northumberland, but founded the first congregation of Unitarian faith in Philadelphia. His house was equipped with a laboratory, where he conducted experiments. His ideas greatly influenced Thomas Jefferson and the Constitution, and also his education planning is the basis for the liberal arts college. This is basically a tour of his original house, it has been modified since then. takes about a half-hour. 4.00 admission per person.

Dan pretty much hits the nail on the head in his review. I'd heard of the Joseph Priestley House…read morebefore, but I'd never visited it. Not only did Priestley discover oxygen, he also conducted early experiments in electricity and counted Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and James Watt among his friends. His teachings were so controversial that his house in Birmingham England was burned to the ground. He and his family fled Engand and Priestley spent the last decade of his life in Northumberland. The Joseph Priestley House is a National Historic Landmark and from the outside, it looks like a typically unassuming English gentleman's estate. But it's really easy to spend some time in here. Priestley and his family not only lived here, he had his laboratory here too. And I'm happy to say that the lab has been recently renovated. When the lab was renovated, it was done so without intruding on the elements of the house. The exhibit is set as though Priestley is at work investigating carbon monoxide in his Northumberland laboratory. Reproduction glassware pieces were selected, based on pieces that Joseph Priestley was known to have used here. The original laboratory glassware is now at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC. Other renovations include two representative furnaces with chimneys and a fume hood spanning the width of the lab. There's also a lot of family history in the house. His spouse Mary Priestley did a lot of the planning for the new house. She passed away, however, two years after they arrived in Northumberland and she never saw the completion of the house. As a widower, Joseph Priestley lived here with his eldest son, Joesph Priestley Jr and his daughter-in-law and his grandchildren. In 1919 Dr. George Gilbert Pond bought the house at auction. Dr. Pond was dean of the School of Natural Sciences at Pennsylvania State College (now Penn State). After his death in 1926, the college purchased the house and built the Pond House in his honor. It was used as a firepoof museum for Joseph Priestley's artificats. It once served as a visitor center, however plans are afoot to adapt it for public meetings and exhibits. I think that visiting small historical houses such as Priestley's can be just as rewarding as visiting well-known museums. If you visit the Priestley House, do the "Priestley Pilgrimage" by also visitng the Joseph Priestley Memorial Chapel, Riverview Cemetery and Northumberland's Historic District.

Twin Bridges Covered Bridge, Circa 1850 at 103 feet long…read more The Twin Bridges - East Paden and West Paden The only twin covered bridges in the United States. They are located on Huntington Creek in Fishing Creek Township, east of Forks in Columbia County. The Twin Bridges, constructed as a Queenpost Truss in 1884 by W. C. Pennington for $720, named after John Paden, who operated a nearby sawmill. Twin Bridges County Park was created in 1963 when a new road bypassed the structures. The original West Paden was washed away by floods waters in June 2006. It was reconstructed in 2008. These bridges are only open to foot traffic, the inside of each are utilized as picnic areas for the park. Look close to see they have picnic tables lined up down the center.

We've been crossing the mighty Susquehanna on this old ferry for many years. Always a delightful…read moreexperience, peaceful crossing with interesting towns on both sides. The Captain and Crew are friendly and knowledgeable.

Wow. My companion and I took the Millersburg Ferry on a whim on the way home from a visit to the…read morearea. I'm glad we did as the experience was a great reminder of a successful simpler time and perfect excuse to pause our day and enjoy the Susquehanna River. We boarded in Millersburg (east side of the river) and enjoyed a leisurely 15-20 minute trip. Fare was $20 for the two of us and our car. Yes, a little pricey but worth it for the experience. The captain and his teen-aged crew member were clearly experienced and operated the craft smoothly and safely. The ferry itself is wooden, which initially made me wonder it could accommodate cars. Yes, it can, though probably only two at a time. The ferry is Coast Guard-inspected and the captains are Coast Guard-licensed. Access to the ferry's western landing in Liverpool PA is through a large campground ("Ferryboat Campsites"), and the landing is not quite as well marked as it is in Millersburg. Nevertheless, if you are only making a one way trip you should seriously consider starting in Liverpool and visiting the charming town of Millersburg. Don't miss an opportunity for a unique Susquehanna River experience aboard the Millersburg Ferry. The ferry runs seasonally so check ahead to ensure it is operating--low river levels may also affect its operations.

We throughly enjoyed our tour through the Old Jail Museum! The guided tour was informative, while…read morealso giving tourists the freedom to explore around themselves at their own pace. The staff and guide(s) were very kind and helpful! The only thing I would see as a "negative" is the information received in the ~5 minute pre-tour video, that gets repeated again afterwards, taking up a chunk of time.

There are tours available, approximately 45 minutes, and its worth the $12 fee. The tour guide was…read moreknowledgeable, took questions, and did a good job explaining things. I would highly recommend this tour.

What a delightful journey through this Beautiful tunnel in…read morea beautiful mountain. The experience was fine and enjoyable and lasted moments but it felt special. I had to keep my eyes on the road but I wished I had my ukelele with me. I left her a song about the beautiful leaves changing colors . Impermanence. Joyful passing moments. (^^)

A clean tunnel. In the mountain, out the mountain. Scenic. Two lanes on each side. Well…read moremanufactured.

What a fantastic piece of history, go, stop and read the plaques and take pictures. What an amazing…read morepiece of history

Well maintained space without signs of overt modernization make this place a worthwhile…read moreexploration. Industrial relics exhibit excellent decay and are easily accessible. Short walking trail takes you through the greenspace pebbled with old structures, into small wooded areas, over a bisecting stream, and along forgotten rail tracks. Quiet, and surrounded by development though you wouldn't know it.

awesome covered bridge in northern dauphin county. the original bridge was destroyed in an arson…read moreattack in 2000. the new bridge is brand new and made from brick, aluminum and wood. pretty awesome sight to see if you want to kill a day off. Burr truss bridge.

We found the Scranton Iron Furnaces by chance as we were driving by to go to another location and…read moredecided to pull in. I'm so glad we did because the stop was educational and unique, even if it was really really cold on the particular day we chose to visit. The original reviewer, actually the only other reviewer at the time of me posting this, gave so much information and history about this location that I will try and keep it quick. There definitely is a lot to read and a lot to learn here. The furnaces are huge, not like anything I expected, and reading the plaques makes you think about how intense it must have been here back when this place was active. Is really interesting. It's also a large open space so it was dog friendly and our dog liked walking around and sniffing the paths. There was a nice grassy area down at the bottom for her to run around in as well. It was also helpful that we were the only people there, with the exception of a city cop who seemed to be sleeping in his car or hiding from the general public. It was definitely a unique place to visit and these furnaces are worth checking out if you're in Scranton, especially if you're a history buff, but between the open space and the stairs, it's also just a good place to wander and get some steps in.

The Scranton Iron Furnaces, aka the The Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company Furnaces, represent the…read more19th century iron industry in the United States at it's finest. The four massive stone blast furnaces are the remnants of a once extensive plant operated by the Lackawanna Iron & Steel Company. Started in 1840 as Scranton, Grant & Company, the firm began as a partnership between William Henry (he had already been experimenting in New Jersey will the concept of using a "hot-blast technique" to make steel), his son-in-law Seldon Scranton, George Scranton and Sanford Grant. Henry with help from the Scrantons and other investors bought 500+ acres of land in what was then called Slocum Hollow along the Roaring Brook and set up shop building their first blast furnace in 1841. Initially the operation hemorrhaged money and had numerous production issues that plagued the company for its first few years almost driving it to bankruptcy on several occasions. Eventually by 1844 more investors were brought in so that capital could be raised for upgrades and to take care of any lingering flaws in their production model. By the summer of 1844 the furnace averaged five to seven tons of pig iron a day, but the company soon went into the more profitable business of producing T-rails for the railroad industry as there were no facilities in America where rails were capable of being produced. Everything at that point had to be ordered and shipped from Europe. In 1851, the town of Slocum's Hollow changed its name to Scranton in honor of the majority owners of the iron works for their success. (Scranton had other names in between like Harrison in honor of Presidential candidate William Henry Harrison and Scrantonia but I'm just focusing on what stuck.) By 1865 the company had the largest iron production capacity in the United States and were the second largest independent steel making operation in America.. After a long and successful run the fortunes of the company began to change due to higher labor costs, multiple strikes, higher shipping costs, changing markets and more efficient steel making processes in Europe all of which caused the company to move the operation to the Buffalo area in at the beginning of the 20th century. (The operation in the Buffalo area lasted all the way thru several mergers until Bethlehem Steel shut it down in the 1980's.) In 1903 the Scranton property was sold to the Wyoming Valley Railroad, which contracted with a Philadelphia company that scrapped all of the equipment, and tore down all the structures except the stone blast furnaces that you still see today. From the Internet: "In the late 1960s the furnaces were acquired by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and were administered under the State park system. The furnaces were transferred to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1971. Today the four connected stone blast furnace stacks are surrounded by 3.84 acres. The furnaces are set into the south side of a hillside with a 10 foot wide bridge, supported by masonry arches connecting them to the rock cliff. The two easternmost furnaces, dated 1848-1849, are built of smooth dressed stone blocks and stand 40 feet high and are 40 feet wide at the base. No. 3 and No. 4 furnaces were constructed c.1852 and c.1857 respectively, and are constructed of rough dressed stone blocks and also stand 40 feet high. Furnace No. 3 is 46 feet wide at the base, and furnace No. 4 is 48 feet wide at the base. All of the furnace stacks still contain vestiges of their firebrick linings. The first, third and fourth stacks contain ruins of their 19th-century hearths." If you go today what you see quite honestly isn't a whole heck of a lot. The entrance to the furnace site has two small brown NPS style signs that lead you up a narrow driveway to the parking area which has space for maybe 15-20 cars. You've got what's left of the four blast furnace stacks, an example of a T-rail along the walkway the leads from the parking lot to the upper viewing platform and an acre or two of grassy park land that sits along Roaring Brook. Worth mentioning is that there are plenty of displays at the site explaining what you're looking at but if you need more your best bet would be to head over to the Anthracite Heritage Museum which is about four miles away over in McDade Park on the other side of town. If you go: The site itself is free and open to the public daily from sunrise until sunset. There are no amenities on site although you are very close to all the fun (LOL!) that downtown Scranton has to offer including the foamtastic fun over at Steamtown. There are a few special events that occur on the grounds annually. Most notably would be the Scranton Bonfire Festival which happens every year in October.

This historical marker alongside the riverbank in a residential neighborhood to Teedyuscung, whose…read morename means "as far as the wood's edge." It reads: "Called 'King of the Delawares,' he upheld the dignity of Native Americans and strove to protect their right to land in Pennsylvania. Baptized by the Moravians, he established the Wyoming Valley's last Delaware * Mahican settlement near this site in 1754 A buffer between the Iroquois and Connecticut settlers, he represented his people in conferences at Easton, 1756-1762. He died when his cabin burned down here, April 19, 1763.

I finally visited the gigantic cow located along the 309 highway and it was good! :) This is one of…read morethose things you got to do while sitting either visiting or living in Wilkes Barre, PA.

"The cow is of the bovine ilk; one end is moo, the other milk."―Ogden Nash…read more What better way to celebrate my Firstie #600 than with a review about a 51-year-old, 14'x17' 2000lb. brown cow statue? Originally purchased by the Gorman family in 1967 for $5,000 (the price of a Caddy at the time) in order to draw-in visitors to their farm. They held a contest that year to name her and the winner was "Three-O-Nina" (named after the 309 Highway she's situated next to) and they received a brand-new color TV! She is now currently owned, and maintained, by the Krugel family, who owns Krugel's Deli & Beer next door. Nina is one of those fun roadside attractions that one must stop to visit when traveling through Central PA. After all in 2010 she was named in Parade Magazine's top roadside attraction in PA! I particularly enjoy silly things like this―as it always puts me in good mooood. Sorry. I had to go there... ;-p