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For more than 250 years Cumberland County has been at the crossroads of history. You can still experience some of that history when you visit the county’s towns, villages, museums, and historical sites. Carlisle, founded in 1751, is the county seat and has the greatest concentration of museums and historical sites. At Carlisle Barracks, established by the British in 1757, you can tour the Hessian Powder Museum built during the Revolutionary War, and the General Omar N. Bradley Museum at the Military History Institute. The Barracks was also the site of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School where Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe and more than 10,000 American Indian children attended school from 1879—1918. 
If you enjoy antiques and folk art, then don’t miss a visit to the museum at the Cumberland County Historical Society in Carlisle. It is filled with furniture, tall-case clocks, silver, pottery, iron, textiles, and carvings by Wilhelm Schimmel, as well as artifacts from the Carlisle Indian School. Historical societies in Shippensburg, Mechanicsburg, and Newville have permanent collections as well as changing exhibits that tell the story of the history in their areas. Architecturally and historically significant
buildings and sites are scattered throughout the county, from the
ruins of the 18th C. iron furnace at Boiling Springs where ammunition
was made during the Revolutionary War, and the Carlisle church
where George Washington worshipped in 1794,
to one of the last covered bridges
in the county near Newburg. Check the menu on this page for
a full listing of museums and historical sites. |
