Tricia's Travel Blog: September 18, 2011 Scranton, PA and Gettysburg

After breakfast Sunday morning we headed into Scranton to try find the PA Paper co.. A building that you see in the opening shots of the TV show The Office. Then we went to the Steamtown Mall, which is also talked about on the show. We got to the mall before all the shops opened, so we decided to walk around and wait till they opened so we could buy a souvenir from The Office store. We were also looking for the “Welcome to Scranton” sign which we heard was in the mall as well.

PA Paper Co

As we were looking for the sign we saw that there was a walking bridge off of the food court, and after making sure that we wouldn’t get locked out, we wandered outside. The bridge went over railroad tracks and they had a steam train getting ready to depart with passengers. Nate and I watched as they got the train ready and leave, it was really cool.

When the mall opened, the guy at the souvenir shop told us where the sign was. He then told us that the day before they had a big fan club tour where they took people around to different sights and places they talk about on the show.

Our plan for the day was to drive down to Virginia to stay with a friend for a few days. We didn’t want to show up until evening though so we thought we would stop by Gettysburg, PA since we were going by the exit.

At first we followed the signs for the tourist info, which was located in the old railroad station. It is the station that President Abe Lincoln arrived at when he came to town to give his famous Gettysburg address after the battle of Gettysburg. They told us that if we only had time to go to one place, that we should go to the National Military Park Museum.

Gettysburg Railroad Station

The first thing you do in the museum is watch a short 15-20 min video on the civil war. You hear about why and how the war started, and what lead up to the battle at Gettysburg. Some things that I didn’t remember were that the war actually started when Lincoln was elected President. Because of his views on slavery and the southern states relying so heavily on slaves for their plantations, they declared themselves the confederate states.

The 34 star American Flag of 1861. The US Government never recognized the Southern states right to leave the Union, and so their stars remained on the flag throughout the war.

Nate and I thought that General Lee reminded us of Ed Bergman, for those of you who know who he is

The battle at Gettysburg probably would have been won by the south if they had better communications, but it wasn’t meant to be. There was only one civilian killed in Gettysburg, but there where about 7,000 soldiers killed, which overwhelmed the small town for decades. There were 3 times more dead bodies then people who lived in the city, and they had to find a way to bury them. Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg address was given as a dedication to the new cemetery; The Soldiers National Cemetery.

After the video you go up to a dark room where they have this huge painting called The Gettysburg Cyclorama. You stand on a 30’ diameter platform that has a 360 degree view of what the battlefield looked like on the morning of July 3, 1863. The painting was done by a French artist named Paul Dominique Philippoteaux. He painted it only 20 years after the battle took place and it took him only 1 year to complete. The painting is 360 feet long and 26 feet tall. Below the platform they have made it look like there is ground and there are props and things that go all the way up to the painting, and the painting is so detailed that is some places you can’t hardly tell where the ground ends and the painting begins.

Part of the Cyclorama.

The museum also has many, many guns and canons on display. Plus there is a part that has the different uniforms and tools, along with newspapers and lots of information. Unfortunately they were going to be closing and we really had to rush through the rest of it.