Valley Forge National Historical Park

Valley Forge National Historical Park is the site where the Continental Army spent the winter of 1777–1778 near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, during the American Revolutionary War. The National Historical Park preserves the site and interprets the history of the Valley Forge encampment. Originally Valley Forge State Park, it became a national historical park in 1976. The Park contains historical buildings, recreated encampment structures, memorials, museums, and recreation facilities.

The park encompasses 3,500 acres (1,400 ha) and is visited by over 1.2 million people each year. Visitors can see restored historic structures, reconstructed structures such as the iconic log huts, and monuments erected by the states from which the Continental soldiers came. Visitor facilities include a welcome center and museum featuring original artifacts, providing a concise introduction to the American Revolution and the Valley Forge encampment. Programs, tours, and activities are available year round. The park also provides 26 miles (42 km) of hiking and biking trails, which are connected to a robust regional trails system. Wildlife watching, fishing, and boating on the nearby Schuylkill River also are popular.

Read more about Valley Forge National Historical Park:  Historical Encampment, Park History, Train Station, Modern Problems

Famous quotes containing the words valley, forge, national, historical and/or park:

    I see before me now a traveling army halting,
    Below a fertile valley spread, with barns and the orchards of summer,
    Behind, the terraced sides of a mountain, abrupt, in places rising high,
    Walt Whitman (1819–1892)

    ... patriarchy creates megapatterns that affect us all—even as we forge different individual choices within them—just as do the megapatterns of nationalism or racism.
    Gloria Steinem (b. 1934)

    The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great North-West for it. Nor yet wholly to them.... The job was a great national one.
    Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)

    What are your historical Facts; still more your biographical? Wilt thou know a Man ... by stringing-together beadrolls of what thou namest Facts?
    Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881)

    Is a park any better than a coal mine? What’s a mountain got that a slag pile hasn’t? What would you rather have in your garden—an almond tree or an oil well?
    Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944)