Currents of the Juniata:
Of Time and the River
Holly Wolbert '02, a senior from Erie, guides a rapt audience through a computerized map that reveals the location of every historic industrial site in Huntingdon County (see related story in Campus News). As she presses a button, pictures of Greenwood Furnace flicker into focus on the classroom wall.
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The presentation by Wolbert detailed one of the first projects completed under a new interdisciplinary project called Currents of the Juniata Valley. Created by the College in partnership with the Westsylvania Heritage Corp., the project is a long-term regional program that will combine educational outreach, scholarly research and community participation to create yearly slates of educational tours, lectures, and events centering on topics relating to historical and cultural events in the seven Pennsylvania counties comprising the Juniata River Valley (Bedford, Blair, Fulton, Huntingdon, Juniata, Mifflin, and Perry counties). In addition, tours or presentations relating to current and historical aspects of the Juniata Valley can eventually be developed into self-led heritage tours or tourism sites.
"The Juniata Valley has been here for thousands of years and we are interested in history that speaks across that span in a multitude of ways," says Betty Ann Cherry, professor emerita of history at Juniata College and steering committee chairperson of the "Currents of the Juniata Valley" project.
"Juniata is perfectly positioned to be the foundation of data collection for a regional area that has deep historical threads running through it," says George John Drobnock '72, a grants writer and planner for Huntingdon Borough and Smithfield Township who plans to become involved in the Currents project. "The days of each county looking at itself as the only island in the sea are long gone."
Juniata debuted its first Currents projects this spring at Outdoor Heritage Days, a Westsylvania Heritage Corp. event held May 2-4 at the Huntingdon County Fairgrounds. The Civil War musical group Acoustic Shadows of Blue and Gray performed period songs, including the locally famous song "The Blue Juniata." Storyteller Jan Kinney recounted tales of colonial life on the Pennsylvania Canal system.
David Hsiung, W. Newton and Hazel Long Professor of History,
created a tour along several local Indian trails. His lecture highlighted the
historic and geographic conditions faced by Indians and settlers in the 18th
and 19th centuries. Steve Stroman, a Democratic legislative analyst at the Pennsylvania
House of Representatives, led a tour of the Thousand Steps, (pictured here),
a local historic industrial site between Mount Union and Mapleton where workers
for the Harbison and Walker Refractories Co. climbed a series of 1,050 steps
to Ledge Quarry. The company quarried silica there to make silica bricks for
use in high-temperature applications such as steel mill smokestacks, coke ovens
and locomotive boilers.
"Since Juniata is a leader in the community it's only natural that the College should take a leadership role in this project," Dr. Hsiung says.
One of the major Currents projects to be completed is a resource survey listing telephone and Internet contact information for all libraries, historical societies and other relevant groups in the seven-county area. In addition, a bibliography and journal library of local history resources is nearing completion. A Web site, featuring links to these and other resources will debut in September.
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"There is a great need for telling the cultural and natural history stories of this region, particularly the seven-county area of the Juniata Valley," says Randy Cooley, president of Westsylvania Corp., "There also is a dearth of storytellers within the Juniata Valley who are trained to bring those stories to the public and that's why our partnership with Juniata College makes this such an exciting opportunity to get that job done."
"Juniata has an extraordinary faculty in the humanities," says John Hille, Juniata vice president for college advancement and marketing. "Currents will provide us with a showcase for that talent, and with a great opportunity for experiential learning."
Program Projects
Projects for the "Currents of the Juniata Valley" program will fall into one of four general categories or "currents." Within each of these areas, projects can be developed or examined from four periods or perspectives: prehistory, colonial settlement, the age of industrial development, and the present.
Making a Living: The development of commerce, including the history of trading posts, trail towns and river towns, is the focus of this current. Industrial development and the Valley's agricultural heritage are included.
Faith and Religion: The dominant religious beliefs within the Juniata Valley played a major role in shaping the legacy of Juniata Valley communities.
Humans in the Environment: Scholars can examine the consequences of how people interacted with the Valley's environment over time.
Transportation and Communication: The networks of trails that led Native Americans and settlers across the state eventually developed into a circuit of waterways, roads, railways and airways that affected the economic and cultural development of the Juniata Valley.