Researching info on your great-great-great grandfather? Have a passion for antique engines? Curious about Native American crafts and culture? You might be surprised to know that you can find out about all of it at the Cumberland County Historical Society.
The CCHS manages eight historic sites and museums, each recounting a piece of the region’s past. At the Gibbon House, Barn Museum, Prehistorical Museum, Maritime Museum, Warren Lemmis Library, Swedish Granary, Potters’ Tavern, and the Tea Burners’ Monument, you can uncover all kinds of interesting facts about Cumberland County’s origins. And with origins dating back to prehistoric times, there is a lot to discover.
At the Prehistorical Museum, you can time travel to the days of the Paleo (Clovis) Indians who lived in the region at the end of the Ice Age. The fossils, stone and bone artifacts in the collection are pretty cool and with more than 1,000 items in the collection, you’ll get a sense of the people, plants and animals that inhabited the region’s primordial landscape.
Flash forward a few thousand years and you can discover how the maritime industry contributed to the region’s growth throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The DuBois Maritime Museum has preserved dozens of rustic tools, masts, riggings, engines and other artifacts important in the boating and shipping biz.
As for the time in-between, the Tea Burner’s Memorial, Barn Museum, Swedish Granary, Potters’ Tavern and Gibbon House give glimpses into the various key events and people through the ages. And if you get bitten by the history bug, the Warren Lemmis Library is a researcher’s delight, especially if you are doing genealogical research. Some of the library’s records, which include wills, deeds, court records, maps, newspapers and other documents, date back to 1682.
Throughout the year, the Cumberland County Historical Society holds special events and activities that will perk up anyone’s interest in history, such as hearth cooking demonstrations, costumed, first-person programs and other program bring the past into the present for individuals and groups.