UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Events hosted by the Pasto Agricultural Museum in October and November will feature Pennsylvania’s ghost towns, the history of logging and forestry in the state, and discoveries and advances in ice cream science.
At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 25, local historian and Penn State electrical engineering graduate Bob Hazelton will deliver a Halloween-appropriate lecture, “The Ghost Town Next Door — the Story of Erbtown.” A member of the Pasto Museum, Centre County Genealogical Society, and Bald Eagle Archaeological Society, Hazelton serves as a history consultant to the ClearWater Conservancy and as vice president of the Centre County Historical Society.
He will share his experiences exploring and researching the abandoned early settlement, and make connections between past and present in the area between Pine Grove Mills and Baileyville, Pennsylvania.
In conjunction with Penn State University Press, the Pasto Museum will host “Wood Hicks and Bark Peelers,” a presentation and book signing with authors and historians Ronald E. Ostman and Harry Littell, at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 30.
Their book, titled “Wood Hicks and Bark Peelers – a Visual History of Pennsylvania’s Railroad Lumbering Communities; the Photographic Legacy of William T. Clarke,” examines the striking images of William T. Clarke, which portray the “wooden world” of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the rapidly growing lumber industry created entire communities of logging families and transformed the state’s natural landscape.
“Hey! There’s Science in My Ice Cream,” the museum’s annual ice cream social, will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 6. Personnel from the Department of Food Science in the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences will churn fresh ice cream and reveal some of the scientific secrets of making Penn State Berkey Creamery ice cream.
“At the museum, we love that we can bring together families for an afternoon of scrumptious fun,” said Pasto Agricultural Museum Curator Rita Graef. “As a museum educator, I hope our visitors come away with new insight around the science of how frozen desserts can be made to be most delicious! We’ll have music, hands-on games and take-away crafts, and of course, some ice cream!”
Also on Nov. 6, the Pasto Museum will unveil the chosen name of its newest exhibit, a life-sized fiberglass milking cow. Visitors can view and “milk” the cow, and suggestions for names can be submitted by online form or by the museum’s Twitter account, @PastoAgMuseum, using the hashtag #NameThatCow.
The Pasto Agricultural Museum connects the history and science of our agricultural past with the present day through exhibits, programs and demonstrations for almost 10,000 visitors each year. The museum collection focuses on what life was like and how work was done before gasoline engines and rural electrification, from earliest agriculture through the 1940s.