Sunday, September 21, 2003
Performing arts centerdevelops from resort
BUSHKILL, Pa. -- With its mountains and lakes, the Pocono Mountains has long been a popular year-round vacation spot, offering everything from hiking, swimming and boating to leaf-peeping and winter sports.
But now there's a new reason for travelers to head to these scenic Pennsylvania mountains: the Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts, which opened Aug. 8.
The center is located on 675 acres in Bushkill and will host a wide variety of performances, from classical music to ballet, jazz and pop in its outdoor amphitheater, as well as art exhibits. The site is about 90 minutes from New York City and 21/2 hours from Philadelphia.
Facilities include an amphitheater with a seating capacity of 2,500 beneath the roof and 7,500 on the lawn, and a boathouse that has been turned into a dinner club with nightly shows and a Jazz Era-style bar.
The center is located on the grounds of an old resort called the Unity House that was once owned by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. The resort was first developed in the early 1900s as a getaway for factory workers and their families. Its visitors included politicians and celebrities from President Kennedy to Danny Kaye.
For more information, visit www.mountainlaurelcenter.org or call (570) 588-5800.
Book tells everythingabout steamships
NEW YORK -- Taking a trans-Atlantic cruise?
You'll need a good book to read on board, and "Transatlantic: Samuel Cunard, Isambard Brunel and the Great Atlantic Steamships" (HarperCollins, $29.95) might be the perfect literary companion.
The new book by Stephen Fox tells the story of the steamships that first made the journey between America and Western Europe safe and reliable for commerce and immigrants, and later turned that voyage into a luxury vacation in which the on-board amenities were as important as the destination.
The book includes accounts of shipboard life from literary figures like Charles Dickens and Mark Twain, descriptions of the technology that cut westward passage on the Atlantic from six weeks to six days, and biographies of the entrepreneurs and engineers who turned a once-dangerous journey into a traveler's dream.
Arizona Biltmoreseeks memorabilia
PHOENIX, Ariz. -- The Arizona Biltmore is looking for a few good memories.
The Biltmore, which was one of the state's earliest resorts when it opened in 1929 as Arizona's tourist industry was getting off the ground, celebrates its 75th anniversary next year. The luxury hotel is seeking stories, vintage photos and hotel memorabilia from guests who stayed there in its early years.
The Biltmore was designed by Albert McArthur, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright's, with Wright's assistance. It was owned for 43 years by the Wrigley family -- of chewing-gum fame -- and its guests over the years have included movie stars and other celebrities. The resort's amenities include eight swimming pools, seven tennis courts and two 18-hole PGA golf courses.
To take part in the resort's "Call for Memories," e-mail your stories to memoriesarizonabiltmore.com or write to its 75th Anniversary Committee at the Biltmore, 2400 E. Missouri, Phoenix, Ariz. 85016.
Prairie Rose opensHopalong Cassidy museum
TOWANDA, Kan. -- Hopalong Cassidy fans have a new tourist shrine to visit -- in rural Kansas.
The Hopalong Cassidy Cowboy Museum has just opened at the Prairie Rose in eastern Butler County. The Prairie Rose began serving chuckwagon suppers in 1999, and the site now has a recreational vehicle camp, an opera house and a children's theater.
The new museum has 10,000 square feet of exhibit space devoted to Hopalong Cassidy, played by actor William Lawrence Boyd and featured in 66 movies and 52 television shows from 1935 to 1951.
Also new is "Hopalong House," filled with souvenirs and a 250-seat theater.
The Prairie Rose drew about 50,000 last year, according to owners Thomas and Cheryl Etheredge. They believe it will draw 60,000 visitors this year and hope the new museum will draw even more in the future.
The Hopalong Cassidy museum is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, check out the link to the museum from the www.prairierosechuckwagon.com Web site, or call (316) 778-2121.
Berkshire Bird Sanctuaryhouses 2,000 fowl
GRAFTON, N.Y. -- If you're leaf-peeping in the Berkshires this fall, plan a stop at the Berkshire Bird Sanctuary.
The sanctuary is home to 2,000 birds, from exotic species like emus, sandhill cranes, parrots and macaws that were abandoned by their owners, to bald eagles who were injured in the wild and brought to the facility for rehabilitation.
Eaglet hatchings in captivity are extremely rare, but two of the eagles brought to the bird sanctuary for rehabilitation became parents in May.
The bird sanctuary is located at 43 Red Pond Road in Petersburgh, near Grafton Lakes State Park on the New York side of the Berkshires. It is open to the public every day through the end of October. There is no set admission, but director Peter Dubacher encourages donations to support his work.
For more directions or more information, visit www.birdparadise.org or call (518) 279-3801.
Independence Trail links65 historical sites in N.Y.
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. -- If you think Boston's got the market cornered on Revolutionary War sites, you haven't been to New York lately.
The New York Independence Trail links 65 historical sites around the state from Valcour Island on Lake Champlain, just south of the Canadian border, to the Staten Island Conference House, on the state's southern tip. A state park on Valcour memorializes Benedict Arnold's leadership of a fleet of ships against the British navy -- before he turned traitor -- and the Conference House was where the British tried to convince John Adams and Ben Franklin that the colonists should remain loyal to the king.
The trail also includes various forts, museum and historic homes, as well as well-known sites like Fraunces Tavern in Manhattan, where Washington delivered his famous farewell to the troops.
What makes the New York trail unique is its emphasis on waterways, which were the highways of the 18th century. Most of the historic sites are located along key water routes, from Battery Park in New York Harbor in Lower Manhattan, to the waters of Lake George, where divers can take a look at the sunken 1758 Radeau Land Tortoise, the oldest intact warship in North America, to Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery along the Hudson River.
For more information, visit www.independencetrail.org or call (866) OUR-TRAIL and ask for two brochures: "Travel the New York Independence Trail" and "Visit New York's Historic Waterways."
Combined dispatches