Hello everyone! Want to take a little field trip with me? We’re jumping on this huge truck, and driving straight into the 1700s!
I’m not sure if other states have done this, but Virginia created four huge mobile museum for the 250th birthday of the United States, and they’ve been driving throughout the state. I was thrilled that one stopped in our small area for two days. Come join me on a mini tour! I won’t share all the photos, but I want to hit a few of the highlights of Virginia’s contribution during the American Revolution.
If you’ll remember, I’m from Virginia. I grew up just a few miles away from where Thomas Jefferson lived, and a few hours from Williamsburg, and a little over an hour from Richmond, and near so many president’s homes and the universities that they founded. For me as a child, it was just a normal day to play on the grounds of Monticello, wander through his gardens, and tour the house. When I moved away, then returned and took my children there, it was such a shock to see how much it had expanded! But it was just as wonderful as I remembered.
I will admit, as much as I’ve always loved history, Virginia’s history has always had a special place in my heart. And…I’ve a secret I can’t tell you about YET…but it’s also chock full of Virginia’s history.
So, join me on the mini tour! Ready?
When you boarded the 18-wheel truck, there was something really special about it. The sides folded out, and made a huge open room for the exhibit. It was divided into two, with the first room being much smaller. The first room, we are greeted by a digital Patrick Henry, as he gives his famous speech in St. John’s Church, Richmond, on March 23, 1775. Excuse his face looking a tad odd. He was a flickering digital screen and this was how he turned out.
After we listened to the speech, we looked around in the room he was in, and learned a little about why the colonies wanted their freedom from the crown. This was a small room, and we walked through the door into the much larger room where there were loads of interactive panels and screens, videos, and images on the wall to learn from.
Here’s a fun fact. While you’ve likely heard of the Boston Tea Party…did you know that Virginia had one too, in Yorktown?
One of my favorites, was this one: The Virginia Declaration of Rights. There was a video just nearby it, talking about how it was primarily written by George Mason (one of the Founding Fathers) proclaimed the inherent rights of individuals, including life, liberty, and property and asserted that government power derives from the people.
If any of that sounded just a bit familiar, that’s because this important document influenced both the U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.
Throughout the room, on touchscreens, you got to learn about some of the important women in Virginia. Each one you touched shared a video or a still image and paragraphs about their life.
You also got to do the same for the different types of men who fought as revolutionary soldiers, including those of Virginia’s militia.
One of my favorite displays was that which told about Tarleton’s Raid. To sum things up, though he was only in his twenties, Banastre Tarleton was a part of the British Legion, which was made up of light infantry and calvary (dragoons) and most of the soldiers were American Loyalists, meaning colonists who were faithful to the British Crown. They wore short green jackets, which sometimes made them known as the Green Dragoons. To the colonists, he and his men were brutal, but to the Crown, they were heroes.
Well, since Virginia’s government had relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia, and their governor, Thomas Jefferson, lived there, that made it a tempting target to strike a crippling blow at the colonists. However, just by chance, a young man, Jack Jouett, whose father owned the Swan Tavern in Charlottesville, saw Tarleton and his men riding hard, took a shortcut through the woods, and just managed to get word out in time. Most of the men Tarleton sought managed to escape. The 1781 Charlottesville raid disrupted Virginia’s government but didn’t stop them. Supplies were damaged, but it could have been far worse, and history could be quite different from how it turned out.
Of course, there were so many famous battles in Virginia. Yorktown was another with an interesting story, and it was also the place where Tarleton and his men eventually surrendered to the French. Just in case you are curious what happened to the young British hero, he returned home, and became a member of Parliament.
We were there for a little over a half hour, long enough to see everything but not so long as to make others wait outside, since the truck could only hold so many at once. I was so glad for the opportunity to see the mobile exhibit with my own eyes, and to be reminded that large or small, so many people played a role in America’s fight for independence, and that a good number of them were lost to history, and their contributions will never be known.
Today, I’d love to give one reader an ebook of a historical romance I wrote, also set in Virginia, and also with some history to it, about the Shenandoah National Park. Here’s the book you could win!
Elizabeth Lawrence is ready for her trip to Shenandoah National Park with its cascading waterfalls, fields of colorful wildflowers, and wooded hollows with trees that stretch to the sky. Sketchbook in hand, she expects to capture the park’s serene beauty, never imagining the hidden dangers that lurk within its depths—or the unexpected jolt her heart will experience.
Counting down his final weeks as a park ranger, Kyle Struggs expects to deal with the usual threats of the rugged terrain, not the whims of privileged visitors he’ll be serving as a private guide. Yet, as he gets to know the inquisitive Elizabeth, he realizes she’s nothing like he’d anticipated, and he quickly can’t imagine life without her.
But when a vengeful poacher kidnaps Elizabeth, their blossoming relationship is threatened. Now, Elizabeth must depend on her wits to buy time to survive, while Kyle searches the vast park to save her from the very dangers he swore to protect her against.
Find the book here to learn more!
To have a chance at winning, all you have to do it tell me some historical event that happened in your state or some historical figure from your state you’ve always found fascinating.
1890 PG 90, Clifford M. Ott Collection, University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives, 
I grew up between Saratoga and Lake George, New York, about 50 miles north of Albany. So much early American history in that area. There is a reconstructed fort that was important in the French and Indian War at Lake George. Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain has some of the original stone walls as well as some reconstructed parts. It played an important part in both the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War. Both of these forts are wonderful museums and Ft Ti is in a beautiful location on Lake Champlain. My grandparents’ farm was near the Saratoga Battlefield National Historic Park where one of the crucial battles of the Revolutionary War took place. When we were kids it was still a state park where we would have family picnics. There are houses in the town where I went to school that were part of the Underground Railroad in the 1850’s and 60’s. One has become a local museum, and you can see the pit where people would hide below the floorboards. They have letters and journals describing the experience.
Where I live now in Central Washington State has played an important part in more recent history. As a result of the Reclamation Act of 1902 and the continued development of Bureau of Reclamation projects the Columbia Basin with water from Grand Coulee Dam is the largest irrigation project in the US. The Manhattan Project on what is referred to now as the Department of Energy Hanford Site developed the nuclear material for atomic bombs in WWII. It is now a research facility and still a restricted area although the B reactor is a National Historic Site. I have toured it but it was a scary experience in some ways in spite of the assurances that it is decontaminated.
The trucks you described are a wonderful way to bring history to so many people who aren’t always able to travel. Thank you for sharing.