Our Smith Shops and Other Buildings Are in Pretty Good Order
How did our forefathers arm a revolution?
The answer’s found along the banks of French Creek: a forgotten Continental gunpowder works that helped fuel America’s fight for independence!
You won’t want to miss “Our Smith Shops and Other Buildings Are in Pretty Good Order,” an illustrated lecture uncovering the fascinating story of the Continental Powder Works of 1776-1777. A savvy combination of modern historical detective work and archaeological digging pinpointed the Powder Works’ original location and layout.
Our speaker Wade Catts brings to life the people — powder master, millwright, Continental militia, gunsmiths, stockers — who worked and lived at the Powder Works in those early, uncertain months of the American Revolution. He’ll trace how this historic patch of land on French Creek in East Pikeland was used and transformed over time, before and long after the war.
This is, literally, history unearthed — and a story of ingenuity, hard labor, and hidden infrastructure that kept our Continental Army well supplied!
Wade P. Catts is President of South River Heritage Consulting in Newark, Delaware, an adjunct professor of history at Rowan University, and co-director of the award-winning Red Bank Battlefield Archaeology Project.
Wade has degrees in American History from the University of Delaware, and is a Registered Professional Archaeologist (RPA) with 45 years’ experience. He is recognized internationally as a historian and historical archaeologist, and has led studies at Revolutionary War sites across Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Virginia.
Wade is past president of the American Cultural Resources Association (ACRA), the national trade association for the cultural resources management industry. He’s received distinguished achievement awards from the Archaeological Society of Delaware and from Daughters of the American Revolution.
Dig Into the Continental Powder Works with Wade & the SRHC!
When: Tuesday, November 10, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Schuylkill River Heritage Center (SRHC)
Foundry Building, 2 N. Main Street, Phoenixville
The presentation is free to SRHC members, $5 for non-members.
Download a printable flyer for this event.