It was day six of our rod trip and we ended at Fort Ligoner. I have to say that every other F&I location lead us to this site and what a way to end the trip! Fort Ligoner is located in the center of town and is within walking distance of a number of restaurants and the very well inventoried Toy Soldier Gallery Game Shop. We grabbed some lunch and did some shopping at the game shop (I found enough CV3/33 tankettes to fill out my FOW army!). We went to the fort.
“Meet the people of Fort Ligonier and explore why they were here, what their daily lives were like, and the many challenges they faced during the fort’s era from 1758-1766. The History Gallery tells the story of Fort Ligonier through our unique collection of archeological artifacts excavated from the site.”
https://www.fortligonier.org/museum/history-gallery/
We started with a walk through the museum and walked out to the actual fort once we were finished. the museum was divided into three main sections. On the right was the main museum that contained the majority of the historical artifacts and displays. On the left was the gift shop and a a small art museum showing portraits of famous people of the period.
In the center of the museum, there is a diorama of the original fort, based on the historical drawings. One of the staff came out and gave us a presentation of the model and what was done with the current recreated fort. This helped put everything in perspective.
The main gallery of the museum is very impressive. I was expecting to see French and Indian War and Revolutionary War items. What I was not expecting was the large number of Seven Years War artifacts from around the world. There were items from various SYW armies (even Swedish and Saxon). Surprisingly, there was even a section dedicated to the fighting in India, with arms and armor. You would of coarse expect to see this in Europe, but it is a rare thing in the US.
Once I went through the gallery, I took a stroll over the the portrait gallery. It is basically a large room with paintings of various important people from the period. I then walked over to the gift shop and looked around.
From there, it was out the back door to the actual fort. However, that is for the next post!
- Manteuffel