Creative History

  A maul is a war hammer.  It is traditionally thought of, in reference to European history anyway, as a medieval weapon.  However, well into the 18th century many of the indigenous peoples of North America used stone war hammers, mauls, to protect their homeland from white settlers and to terrorize their enemies.   In the unassuming suburban town of Wyoming, Pennsylvania in Luzerne County which sits along the banks of the Susquehanna River about five miles north of Wilkes-Barre is a large boulder known to posterity as “Queen Esther’s Rock” often simply called by locals “The Bloody Rock”. During the 1960’a monument with a plaque was erected on this site in the middle of town by local historians to commemorate the supposed massacre of fourteen Continental soldiers during the American Revolution that took place on or near that site by a vengeful maul-wielding Iroquois woman who sought retribution for what she perceived as the unjust murder of her son. The mo...

  The home of the American Philosophical Society, known as Philosophical Hall, is located in Center City Philadelphia mere yards from Independence Hall. It has stood as an integral part of Old City Philadelphia for well over 200 years.   Philosophical Hall is now a part of Independence National Historic Park and in addition to still being home to the offices of the American Philosophical Society it is also visited by thousands of tourists and researchers with an interest in American history each year. Founded in 1743 the American Philosophical Society was, and continues to be, an organization dedicated to promoting learning in the sciences and humanities through research, discussion, community outreach and most importantly reading.  The father and founding member, some would even say the creator of the American Philosophical Society itself, was none other than the inventor of bifocals, and the man whose portrait graces our one-hundred dollar bill, Benjamin Franklin...

  Greenbrier County, West Virginia is located in the heart of Appalachia.  It has a storied history dating back to the late 18th century.  Famed orator and founding father Patrick Henry, as a young attorney, once defended a murder suspect in Greenbrier County years before an official courthouse was ever constructed there. Eighty years later, a more modern and permanent courthouse in Greenbrier County would be the site of a Civil War hospital and witness the bloody carnage of battle as thousands of amputations, both confederate and union alike, would be performed on the courthouse grounds. To this day many say that the Greenbrier County Courthouse, constructed in 1837 by a well known local brick mason named John W. Dunn, and relatively unchanged since it was originally constructed nearly 200 years ago, is haunted by the spirits of limbless young men dressed in blue and gray uniforms who wander its hallways at night looking for their eternal resting place. As frighten...

  Old Fort Niagara sits at the mouth of the Niagara River on the shores of Lake Ontario.  It is located on the U.S.-Canadian border within the confines of Youngstown, New York. It is built on land that for centuries had been used by the Seneca Tribe as the site of a seasonal hunting and fishing camp.  The French were the first westerners to make contact with the native Seneca people in the area during the middle of the 17th century and they erected the first wooden fortification where Old Fort Niagara now stands back in 1679.  It is said that this wooden fortification, which was named Fort Conti, either through accident or arson burnt to the ground within a year of its construction killing all members of the garrison stationed inside. Thus began the long and cursed history of Old Fort Niagara. Within the decade, in 1687, the French erected the more formidable and permanent Fort Denonville on the site and began a deliberate campaign of subjugation against the ...