What's near you?

[AFSOC]

I also remember going to Fort Ti when I was a kid with my family. I went back a few years ago and had a blast.

Lots of little French and Indian War sites to check out. Bloody Pond is one of them. Fort William Henry, and probably stuff in Fort Edward and Fort Anne.

Lake George is up the road, and there was the Battle of Lake George.

Here in PA, there's the National Civil War museum, which is nice. Gettysburg and the sites in that area are great to check out. My dad isn't a big Civil War fan (thinks it was pretty stupid for a country to fight amongst itself when there are more interesting neighbors to fight!), but he really liked Gettysburg.

And I completely forgot about Valley Forge. That's about 1.5 or 2 hours away. Great place to visit. Just be careful when driving; there are hundreds of deer in the area!!

I have to go to Andrews AFB for my Altitude Chamber refresher and might hit some places on the way down and back.

 

[JoeMcEvoy]

Here in Toronto (formerly York) I'm just a couple of miles from Fort York, where in April, 1813, General Zebulon Pike and a couple of thousand Americans overwhelmed the British and Canadian defenders and occupied York for a couple of days burning Government buildings prior to departure. The British reciprocated the next year, burning the President's house in Washington.
The fort has been nicely reconstructed to it's slightly post war of 1812 incarnation, but there's lots of history here. Like Andy, we're a short drive from the Niagara Frontier. A couple of years ago my wife and I dropped in at Fort Ticonderoga a mere 6 - 8 hour drive. A very impressive site.
Joseph McEvoy

 

[Jason W.]

Originally posted by garyjd@Apr 3 2005, 09:21 PM
Jason, I'll be visiting Gettysburg twice this year.~Gary

RUB-IT-IN! :angry:

 

[dario966]

I live and work in New York but we have a family house in a small town of Glowno, Poland. Plenty many battles and fights had taken place in and around the town, at least since 10th century all the way until early 1946 (when last independent Polish Home Army units fought the Soviet and communist Polish troops).
If, standing in my Polish house garden and holding town's map, I draw a circle of let us say a 3 mile radius, this circle will include hundreds wartime sites and burials spanning more than a 1000 years - 10-11th century stronghold burial ground (when the first documented tribal fort was taken and inhabitants slaughtered) through the Medieval conflicts (we were part of the Duchy of Mazovia until 1470s), the Swedish Deluge 1655-60, Lubomirski Rebellion 1664-65, Northern War 1700-21, Napoleonic Wars, 1830-31 uprising, 1863-64 uprising; during the World War I German Emperor visited his troops here and precisely in 1915 the German-Russian heavy fighting in and around the town destroyed most of the buildings, unfortunately including the 15th century church; War World II [with my grandfather and uncles tragic participation - September 1939 - battle of Bzura and the Home Armybattles and fights of 1940-44 ; January liberation 1945 - tragic for many town inhabitants e.g. the liberating Russian tanks rode over unarmed and fleeing column of German civilians killing them all] etc.
And since this forum just had a post about Mike Blank's new diorama for Boston, it may be of interest to you that starting ...''on November 2, 1704 Swedish king Charles XII and his mounted troops, without any wagon train, camped at and around my church for a week or so, plundering the town, the parochial church and any individual nobles and burgers who happened to be so unlucky to have been around..." - wrote then vicar of the Glowno church Tomasz Koscielski (there between 1698-1710) in the still surviving parochial books.
I just want to add that since Saturday the entire Poland(including my neighbourhood Greenpoint, NY) has been in mourning because of the death of John Paul II, our beloved Father and Roman Catholic Church leader.
Perhaps someone will make his figure very soon as he was one of the greatest warriors...for peace and justice.
Dario

 

[Mike McGregor]

I'm in London Ontario, which is about 1/2 way between Toronto ON and Detroit. About a 5 min. Walk from my door is the site of a native settlement circa the 1600s(I forget which tribe though...) Other than that, I'm about an hour-and-a-half from Moravian Town where William Tecumseh fell in 1813. Further SW are sites along the Widsor-Detroit frontier related to the war of 1812 and a raid in 1838. In the other direction is the Niagara penesula (Fort George, Fort Erie, Lundy's Lane, Queenston Heights, Stoney Creek et. al. from the War of 1812, The Ridgeway form the Fenian Raids of 1866). South of me there were a couple of raids during the war of 1812 at Port Dover and along the Grand River (which I'd like to read up on, as I just found out about them...) North of me is Huronia, home of the Huron, rivals of the Iroquois. Thats about all I can think of...

Mike.

 

[nagashino]

Hi All

Neat thread!

Most of the locale around here (South Midlands UK) was heavily fought over during the English Civil War. I live 500 yards from a pub where Charles I stayed on a regular basis, and Oxford (8 miles) was his headquarters. The Berkshire Downs, 7 miles South have a couple of interesting battle-sites from the time of Alfred the Great, and within an hour or so there are more battlefields from the Wars of the Roses era.

Then of course there are the old airfields. England was one big airfield in WW2, and there are dozens of little satelite 'dromes in this part of the world, some still with their control towers and barrack-blocks.

I envy you guys who live where heritage sites are given special status. We build motorways through the middle of our important sites :angry:

Phil

 

[Figure Mad]

Hi Guys

Great question, where I live doesn’t have much to speak of, but where I work is another matter, I work in the the City of London, So where I work has the largest amount of historical places I have seen in one area, but just around the corner from me is whats called St. Johns Square, where at one end is St. Johns Gate, which has a museum and no end of artifacts to see around it, it also is one of the most comprehensive research areas for The Order of St. John. It has armour, heraldry and weapons dating back to the Crusades. The Gate was built in 1504, so celebrated its 500 anniversary last year... A great place to see

Dave

 

[Yago]

I live in Zaragoza wich name is derivated of emperor Cesaraugustus, its founder on an older iberian town called Salduie.
Less than five minutes walking I,ve got La Aljafería castle, constructed by one of the muslims kings of the city. By the way El Cid was in there while "working" for one of these kings. Later it was residence of the kings of Aragon, of Spain and still later prison and Court of Saint Inquisition and barracks. It was a stronghold in the two sieges (1808-9) by the napoleonic troops.
Walking by the city you can see roman walls, forum, theatre, baths and port with their stones marked with the simbols of two legions that made it.
The medieval cathedral is constructed over a mosque that probably was constructed over an older church. The kings of Aragon were crowned there. Talking with the concierge of certain bulding you can see the medieval jewish baths.
The impacts of the bullets of the war against Napoleon are clarly visible in various buildings and in the Carmen gate. The graves of three heroins of these sieges are in a church five minutes walking from my house.
And you can see the two bombs that a plane throw on the church of the Virgen del Pilar in 1937 without explode. If you look to the ceiling you see the paintings made by Goya. I think I must stop here...

 

[Guy]

Thanks Diego. You are truely surrounded by history.

 

[mahross]

Well Wolverhampton is at the northern end of the region know as the Black Country. This was a major areas involved in Britains raise to a great industrial country. Just north of me is RAF Cosford which is an outsite for the RAF Museum. Also just up from me is Cannock Chase which has a war cemetary which includes some German pilots who were downed over the Midlands.

Ross

 

[dario966]

hey Yago,
Como estas?
I just want to add to your post about Zaragoza - el capital de Aragon, that according to my family tradition one of my ancestors, being a soldier in the Vistula Legion infantry, took part in the 2 sieges of Zaragoza during the Napoleonic Wars.
dario

 

[Yago]

Hola Darío.
Yes, we know that a great part of the besieging army was in fact polish. We have had some polish lecturers about the sieges that have made a esplendid work. Fortunately these conflicts seem imposible in Europe nowadays.
Guy, I have nothing to do with that! It is a matter of coincidence.
Diego

 

[Anders Heintz]

When I was living in Sweden I lived 20 minutes from the place of the Battle of Lund (dont much remember the dates or even year of that one, I know I am a bad Swede )

Now I live in south west Missouri, where I am about one hour from where the first Cvil War 'battle' took place in Carthage. Also there is another Civil War battle field close by called Wilsons Creek. Ofcourse, if we go into Oklahoma and Kansas we have tons of settler and indian history to enjoy.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

Originally posted by Anders Heintz@Apr 4 2005, 12:33 PM
When I was living in Sweden I lived 20 minutes from the place of the Battle of Lund (dont much remember the dates or even year of that one, I know I am a bad Swede )

Now I live in south west Missouri, where I am about one hour from where the first Cvil War 'battle' took place in Carthage. Also there is another Civil War battle field close by called Wilsons Creek. Ofcourse, if we go into Oklahoma and Kansas we have tons of settler and indian history to enjoy.

Click and memorize, Anders! :angry:

Only bad Swedes to click here

Cheers

 

[Bluesking]

See the inspiration on our doorsteps!!! I can't get the scale of the USA into my head - if I drove 90mins in any direction from my home I'd either be in the sea or the Irish Republic (yes, it's a seperate country)!!!!!
I have to show off a bit in addition to iron age ring forts - 6 miles away at Carrickfergus we have a virtually complete Norman Castle built in 1096. AND in the other direction the Titanic Quarter - only the Irish would boast about a ship that sunk on it's first voyage !!!!

 

[AFSOC]

Bluesking:

"I have to show off a bit in addition to iron age ring forts - 6 miles away at Carrickfergus we have a virtually complete Norman Castle built in 1096. AND in the other direction the Titanic Quarter - only the Irish would boast about a ship that sunk on it's first voyage !!!!"

Carrickfergus? Isn't that the home of the US Rangers during World War 2?

I'm jealous of you! All those interesting cairns and iron age sites!! Love to check them out one day!

I would like to get to Wales one year and visit Flint Castle. Since that's my last name, I plan on telling everyone to get off my property!

 

[amherbert]

Originally posted by nagashino@Apr 4 2005, 03:21 AM
...We build motorways through the middle of our important sites :angry:

Phil

Well, it's not too different here! You have a lot more recorded history in the UK, with more architectural remains. In North America, historical sites are regulary disrupted, but most of the time they weren't written about, and things were made of wood, hide and so on. I know that around London, Ontario, Native American remains/artifacts are turned up regularly, but that doesn't stop the building!

And Mike, I visited the village you mentioned when I went to school in London. Pretty cool stuff there! There's a nice settlement with longhouses somewhere near Rochester too that we saw some time a couple of years ago.

Cheers
Andy

 

[Evan August]

I live in Wisconsin. Lots of history around here from the Native tribes. Burial mounds and stuff like that. Not much military history around, but some. In my hometown of Fond du Lac, there is what is now a park where Wisconsin troops camped before moving out for the Civil War. And both Fond du Lac and Platteville (where I go to school), like many other towns, had boys in the Civil War. I'll have to check out the monument in Veterans' Park some time, it has the battles they fought in listed. And if you're into those airplane things, the EAA is only like 20-30 minutes away from Fond du Lac. It is cool to see Mustangs, B-17s, and such come in low over the house every summer.

 

[PJ Deluhery]

Here in Western Massaxhusetts you can't swing a cat (with apologies to kitty lovers including your humble servant!) without hitting something of major historical importance: Basketball Hall of Fame/Springfield College (Springfield is the birthplace of basketball), Springfield Armory (we made the arms for all those other wars we discuss here!), Deerfield Massacre site, Colt arms factory, West Point (technnically in NY but two hours away), 90 miles to Boston (- and we all know what happend there - just pick a year), home of childrens' book author Dr. Seuss, Mark Twain Home, AND home of the birth control pill, 6 major colleges,and the best dang BBQ in the northeast. Ya' all come see us now, hear? :lol:

 

[renarts]

Living on the north end of Merritt Island, I have the luxury of the Space Center in my back yard. My house literaly vibrates every time they launch something.

To the north is St. Augustine the US's oldest city and boasts the Castillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas. Both in some form since the 16th c.