Pennsylvania’s Bear Creek Mountain Resort & Conference Center

            Let the travels begin! Many people are almost giddy with the thought of being able to travel again but even though circumstances are beginning to stabilize around a “new normal” those planning to travel continue to be mindful of safety protocols, mode of travel, affordability and accommodations.  Lehigh Valley’s Bear Creek Mountain Resort meets and exceeds all these requirements as well as adding a number of notable travel experiences.

            The resort is within driving distance of Washington, DC, Baltimore and New York. It is the nearest ski resort, 60-miles, to Philadelphia. The all-season resort, located in the Lehigh Valley between Blue and South Mountains, was populated pre-first contact, by the Lenni Lenape. They traveled the Great Minsi Trail, now Bethlehem Pike, as a trade route.  #discoverlehighvalley

Europeans arrived in the Lehigh Valley in the early 1700s, traveled the trail and forcibly removed the natives from the area and in 1737 the land was ceded to Pennsylvania in the Walking Purchase. German immigrants arrived around 1743 drawn by advertisements from land agents of William Penn. Census records from 1800 indicate that of the 21 African Americans residing in the valley only one was enslaved. She was a house servant in Macungie.

Bear Creek Mountain Resort is located in Macungie, founded in 1776 on what was formerly known by the natives as Maccongy, “feeding place of the bears”. In1857 the Rittenhouse Gap mine was established along with the 1850 Catasuaqua-Fogelsville Railroad. The railroad carried iron ore to valley furnaces for processing. Thomas Edison spent time visiting the mine to explore developing an economical method of iron ore extraction. The mine closed in 1944.  www.bcmountainresort.com 

A two-trail ski area opened in 1967 as Doe Mountain Ski Resort and after new ownership in 1999 it was reborn as the 52-room, year round, Bear Creek Mountain Resort & Conference Center. 

Specialty winter resort offers include 21 ski trails over 86-acres. The trails represent skill levels from beginner to the challenging Sasquatch Trail with a 50% slope. Tubing, ski rental, snowboarding, ski lessons and Mountain Trail Passes are also offered to both day and resort guests. Bear Mountain has been designated in the top ten Small Ski Area’s in both North America and the United States.

The menu of warm weather activities is even more creative and expansive. In the activity center you can sign up for archery shooting and ax throwing, Segway tours, pond fishing and guided mountain SXS tours. SXS tours take you on the ski trails to the mountain summit and along the tracks of the mining railroad. A unique Giant Swing helps you fly through the woods and over a pond in a 90-minute session that includes lessons and flight. Children can also experience Bear Creek Mountain Camp.

The resort’s Fitness Center is fully equipped with state-of-the-art apparatus available to registered guests. Paired with on-site, full-service, spa treatments and an outdoor heated pool, stays here are immersive wellness experiences. There are two dining facilities, the Grille at Bear Creek and the Trail’s End café that are available throughout all seasons. Designed for quick bites for outdoor enthusiasts the Mountain Eatery is open during winter months only. 

Hotel accommodations are spacious, have great views and provide

amenities including WIFI, deluxe bedding and safety protocols. 

            Bear Mountain Creek Resort and Conference Center is a perfect destination for these times. There are numerous on-site events and activities and guests can interact with others at a level at which they feel comfortable. The resort is close enough to other sites and attractions to make it an ideal hub from which to explore the surrounding area.

Lehigh Valley is filled with unique cultural sites including Pennsylvania Dutch Country and the Moravian settled cities. This year they are honoring the International Tricentennial Moravian Trail. The trail traces their route from Hernhut, Germany to colonies in the New World. The most notable colonies in Pennsylvania, Nazareth and Bethlehem, continue to have extant sites that date from the 1740s and are open to visitors.   

Bethlehem, a 30-minute drive from Bear Creek, is Bethlehem, PA, the official “Christmas City USA” since 1937 and is currently a tentative UNESCO site. The north side of the city contains the historic district and tours are offered year round. #VisitBethlehempa

            Allentown, 15-miles from Bear Creek, contains a significant American Revolutionary historic site. The colonies’ Chief Justice, William Allen, founded the city in 1762. The Allen family engaged in the slave trade but divested themselves of the business in the 1770s. The enslaved they held were freed upon the death of individual family members. It is believed the final three were freed in 1778 upon the death of William’s son.

            Allentown’s first church was constructed of logs in 1762. It was rebuilt of stone in 1773 and the Zion Reformed Church has stood on the original site ever since. The church, on the National Register of Historic Places, has functioned as safe haven during Indian raids, a Revolutionary War hospital and the Liberty Bell Shrine.

            In 1777 George Washington was routed at Brandywine Creek leaving Philadelphia vulnerable to occupation. It was decided that 11 bells, including the Liberty Bell, should be hidden to keep them out of British hands and being used to make weapons. The bells were secreted in hay wagons and relocated at night under heavy guard to Allentown. They were hidden beneath the floorboards until June 1778.

            The Liberty Bell Shrine is on the lower level of Zion Reformed Church. A replicated Liberty Bell and 46-ft. mural depicting the bell’s journey are showcased. www.Libertybellmuseum.org

            Begin and end your vacation at Bear Creek Mountain Resort with lots of adventure in between. There are outstanding opportunities to stay and play as well as connect with culture at your own pace and affordable rate.

#Visitlehighvalleypa   #BearCreekResortPA   #LibertyBellMuseum  #Moravians

#BethlehemPA

 

One Hundred Years of Edgar Allan Poe in Richmond, Virginia

“From childhood's hour I have not been as others were, I have not seen as others saw. I could not awaken my heart to joy at the same tone, and all I loved I loved alone.” Poe

            Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1809 and died forty years later on Sunday, October 7^th in Washington Medical College. The circumstances surrounding his death continue to be the object of numerous theories but his impact on the world of literature is set in stone. 

             Poe was born to actors Elizabeth and David Poe in Boston. David abandoned the family when he was one and Elizabeth died the following year in 1811. The orphan went to live with John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant and his wife Frances. Initially the family resided in a Richmond, VA house at Second and Franklin Streets, the first of several Richmond residences. 

            

            Richmond has a strong claim to Poe’s legacy through exhibits at the Poe Museum complex that holds the world’s largest collection of Poe memorabilia and artifacts and is the sole museum dedicated to a literary figure in Virginia. The museum complex is showcased in the 1740 Old Stone House, the oldest extant residential structure in the city.

            He was stationed to guard the house as part of the Youth Honor Guard when the Marquis de Lafayette visited in October of 1824. Poe never lived in the house but it is only a few blocks from his first childhood home and near his first workplace. 

            The concept for the museum, originally conceived as a monument, was the brainchild of James Whitty, an avid collector of Poe memorabilia, and a group of other admirers. They founded the Poe Memorial Association, in 1906, around the theme of Poe’s poem “To One in Paradise”.  They did not garner enough support until 10-years later when they salvaged construction materials from the Southern Literary Messenger building.

            Preservationists allowed them to construct a shrine and memorial Enchanted Garden in the area behind the Old Stone House with the salvaged granite and bricks. The site opened to the public on April 26, 1922. The shrine at the rear of the garden showcases a bust of Poe. Visitors should take special note of the numerous details that relate to Poe’s life. The ivy lining the green was relocated from the grave of Poe’s mother and the garden benches were removed from the boarding house where Poe wed his 13-year-old first cousin Virginia Clemm. The Enchanted Garden is the site of numerous lectures, programs and events. “Unhappy Hour”, revelries with a Tell-Tale Heart trial, is held every third Thursday of the month. The museum is available for rentals and weddings.

            Poe was a cat lover and two black felines, Pluto and Edgar, live on the grounds. Pluto is the name of the cat in Poe’s short story “The Black Cat”.

            The collection is housed chronologically within three structures, the Old Stone House, the Memorial Building, and the North Building. The Old Stone House focuses on his personal life through exhibited portraits of significant people in his life, women he loved and his childhood bed.

            

             The Memorial Building contains his work desk and chair and career related artifacts. Items of his clothing are displayed along with his pocket watch. An empty coffin allows visitors to step inside and experience a buried alive photo op.

            Items exploring his mysterious demise and theories and research surrounding it are featured in the North Building. On display are his trunk, walking stick and a lock of his hair. “Poe’s Tell-Tale Hair” focuses on a 2002 analysis of a hair sample that did not add substantially to information on his cause of death. We still know only that he was found on Election Day, insensible and dressed in clothing that appeared not to be his.

            Purchases made in the gift shop support the museum. As well as the expected T-shirts, mugs and magnets there are many items that are unique and a bit quirky. The shop is well worth a visit.

            Poe stares dolefully out of a window in one of the buildings. Seek him out as you search for the real Edgar Allan Poe following in the footsteps of scores of international guests including H. P. Lovecraft and Salvador Dali.

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night" Poe (1841) 

#RichmondVa.  #PoeMuseum  #EdgarAllanPoe  #Theraven