Category: History and Heritage

History Meets Ingenuity

As seen in the 2026 Destination Gettysburg Getaway Guide

Rising from the fields outside Biglerville, the Historic Round Barn is one of Adams County’s most distinctive landmarks and one of its most inventive. Built in 1914, this striking structure was designed with efficiency in mind. Its circular shape allowed farmers to work smarter, not harder, with livestock stalls arranged around a central silo and a roof system engineered to support heavy loads without interior columns. At a time when agriculture was rapidly modernizing, the Round Barn stood at the cutting edge ... Read This Story

Base Ball’s Early Days

As seen in the 2026 Destination Gettysburg Getaway Guide

One July weekend every summer, Gettysburg comes to life with the crack of a wooden bat and the cheers of onlookers transported back to the 19th century.

It’s all due to the Annual Gettysburg National 19th Century Base Ball Festival, bringing together clubs from across the country who play the game as it was known during the Civil War, when it was spelled base ball, played barehanded, and governed by a very different set of rules.

Teams arrive in period uniforms and compete with ... Read This Story

Adams County Timeline

As seen in the 2026 Destination Gettysburg Getaway Guide

This timeline highlights moments in Gettysburg and Adams County history that shaped the broader American story. It focuses on dates with more national significance, events that connect the area to the ideas, conflicts, and turning points relevant to America’s 250th anniversary.

The Woodland Period’s Indigenous peoples establish prehistoric toolmaking and trade across the mid-Atlantic region. In the Adams County area, transient hunter-gatherers include Nanticoke, Susquehannock, Shawnee and Delaware

1681  William Penn receives a charter from King Charles II of England for 45,000 square miles ... Read This Story

History for Kids

As seen in the 2026 Destination Gettysburg Getaway Guide

Within a few hours’ drive, families can turn a Gettysburg visit into a road trip filled with places where kids can walk, climb, imagine, and ask questions as highlights of American history come to life.

In Philadelphia, families can stroll the same streets as the Founding Fathers, explore interactive museums, and discover how big ideas were born in small rooms.

Washington, D.C.. invites kids to connect the dots between history and today through hands-on museums, open-air monuments, and wide green spaces made for exploring.

Baltimore, ... Read This Story

Greetings from Gettysburg

As seen in the 2026 Destination Gettysburg Getaway Guide

Long before social media and smartphone cameras, postcards were how travelers shared their experiences, with Gettysburg one of the most photographed destinations in America. In the early 1900s, visitors mailed hand-colored postcards home, offering loved ones a glimpse of battlefield landscapes, monuments, and quiet corners they couldn’t easily see for themselves.

The historic postcards featured in the 2026 Getaway Guide were produced by leading publishers of the era, including Rotograph Company of New York City (circa 1904) and Raphael Tuck & Sons (circa 1907). Known for their richly ... Read This Story

A Mural in the Making

As seen in the 2026 Destination Gettysburg Getaway Guide

Something big is taking shape in Gettysburg—literally. As Adams County marks America’s 250th anniversary, a new public art mural transforms the exterior wall of the Adams County Historical Society’s Beyond the Battle Museum into a powerful visual story of themed to address, “Who we are, where we’ve been, and where we’re headed.”

The mural, titled “Adams County: Stories Past, Present, and Future,” is being created by artist Sarah Jacobs, whose work many locals already recognize from her striking murals at the Adams County Arts Council. ... Read This Story

November Like No Other

As seen in the 2026 Destination Gettysburg Getaway Guide

In November 2026, Gettysburg will host a landmark commemoration as Lincoln at Gettysburg: Shall Not Perish brings history back to the place where it forever changed the nation. Timed to the closing months of America’s 250th anniversary, this live, theatrical re-creation honors President Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 visit to Gettysburg and the words that reshaped the meaning of the American experiment.

Plans unfold over many months, reflecting the scale and care required to honor a moment that still resonates more than 160 years later. In ... Read This Story

Highway of Heroes

As seen in the 2026 Destination Gettysburg Getaway Guide

Stretching more than 300 miles across the Commonwealth, Pennsylvania’s Highway of Heroes follows historic U.S. Route 30, the Lincoln Highway, America’s first transcontinental roadway. Traveling east to west from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, this meaningful route connects six nationally significant sites that together tell the story of courage, sacrifice, leadership, and freedom.

As the nation commemorates its 250th anniversary, Pennsylvania’s role in shaping America comes sharply into focus. Along this single road, visitors can trace the country’s journey from independence and endurance to unity, global ... Read This Story

Before The Battle

As seen in the 2026 Destination Gettysburg Getaway Guide

Gettysburg’s history reaches back well before the Civil War. Early Scots Irish settlers, frontier farms, and the turnpikes that carried travelers west helped shape this region long before armies arrived. Local militia culture and Pennsylvania’s role in the American Revolution left lasting marks on the landscape and its people. At the Gettysburg Museum of History, artifacts from the colonial era help connect these early stories to the events that later unfolded on the battlefield. Together, they show how Gettysburg grew from a colonial crossroads into a place where ... Read This Story

Making Lasting Memories in Gettysburg, PA: One Day-Guide for Family and Friends

by: Carl Whitehill

Gettysburg is a place that brings many friends and family together. In between the memories that are being made, there are many experiences that you can continue these memories to make them last a lifetime. Whether you are here to visit family or friends or hosting guests yourself, Gettysburg offers endless things to do for all types of visitors. Here are some ideas to make the most of the time in Gettysburg and ensure you enjoy every moment with the ones you love.

Start Your Morning Downtown

Begin your morning by taking the family out to ... Read This Story

Geology of Gettysburg and Impact on the Battle

by: Mary Grace Kauffman

If you’ve traversed the rocky boulders at Devil’s Den, climbed Culp’s Hill or watched the sun set from Little Round Top, you’ve stood on geologic formations millions of years in the making.

The landscape of Gettysburg had a major influence on the Civil War battle that took place here July 1, 2 and 3, 1863, prompting scholars to study the battle from a geological perspective.

About 200 million years before the Battle of Gettysburg, tectonic plates shifted to create the Gettysburg Formation, made of sandstone, siltstone and shale, according to the National Park Service. Magma ... Read This Story

Behind the Glass: How Artifacts are Prepared for Display in Gettysburg

There’s a small army working behind the scenes at Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center.

Up to a dozen people prepare each artifact for display in the 1,000-plus piece collection that tells the story of Gettysburg’s epic Civil War battle. A stroll through the exhibits takes visitors on a journey back to 1863.

Artifacts come to the museum through archaeological efforts and donations from the public, according to museum curator Greg Goodell. Several steps are required before a historic object makes it to the exhibit before the visitor’s eyes.

Artifact conservators conduct conservation treatments. Depending on the piece, reversible varnish and ... Read This Story

Gettysburg’s Black History Featured at Local Museums

by: Tinsy Labrie

Books about Gettysburg’s history fill sections of libraries and bookstores. Just about every nuance of the fighting that took place during three days in July of 1863 has been carefully studied, mapped, curated, and presented by historians of world renown to weekend history buffs.

Still, there are other parts of local history that have been overlooked or underappreciated.

For generations of Gettysburg’s Black residents, maintaining and sharing the memories and stories of their people became the responsibility of family historians. Without their tenacious quest to keep those stories alive, most of Gettysburg’s Black history might have ... Read This Story

Battlefield Vantage Points

The Gettysburg Battlefield spans nearly 6,000 acres. From monuments and wayside markers to distinctive boulders and undulating ridges, there is a lot to see and learn while exploring the battlefield.

Countless locations on the battlefield provide vantage points that not only offer valuable insight into the military positions of both the Union and Confederate armies, but also showcase incredible vistas of this historic and hallowed land.

Join us as we discover some of the best vantage points on the Gettysburg Battlefield.

Solo Travel in Gettysburg

By Tinsy Labrie

I am a lifelong visitor to Gettysburg who decided to make this charming little town my home, like so many other travelers who fall in love with this community.

And, like a lot of those visitors, I find great passion in traveling solo – experiencing destinations on my own schedule, and sometimes, my own whim.

Solo travelers have been coming to Gettysburg since the battle ended, to tend to the wounded, to learn of their loved ones who fought there, or to understand the magnitude of what happened on July 1, 2, 3, 1863.  

People ... Read This Story

Four Presidential Places in Gettysburg

Abraham Lincoln, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, these historic figures have greatly impacted the history ... Read This Story

A Girls Weekend Away

In this chaotic, crazy world, sometimes a getaway with your closest girlfriends is just what the doctor ordered. With unique experiences, ... Read This Story

A few Ways To Tour The Gettysburg Battlefield

Rightfully so, touring Gettysburg National Military Park is high on the to-do list of most people ... Read This Story

11 Experiences To Have This Spring In Gettysburg

Spring is officially here, and we couldn’t be more excited about it being one of the ... Read This Story

Take a Walk in President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Footsteps

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered a 272-word speech to dedicate a new National ... Read This Story

Road Cycling in Adams County

If you are into road cycling and haven’t been to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania to ride – here is your invitation. ... Read This Story

Walk in General Eisenhower’s Footsteps – 5 Spots to Visit in Gettysburg

General Dwight D. Eisenhower was a resident of Gettysburg not only during ... Read This Story

Don’t Miss these 10 Sunset Views in Gettysburg

Anyone who has been to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania will tell you that the sunsets here are sensational. ... Read This Story

Seven Secrets of the Gettysburg Battlefield

By Carl Whitehill – In my several years in Gettysburg, I’ve met some amazing folks – visitors, locals ... Read This Story

Historic Dining in Gettysburg

The history of Gettysburg is undoubtedly one of the biggest draws to the area. It can be experienced through an ... Read This Story

Fifteen Places Every History Buff Should Visit in Gettysburg

History is certainly everywhere in Gettysburg – through the streets, inside the buildings around town ... Read This Story