Museums in Ligonier Valley draw hundreds on day of free admission

Free admission was a good incentive Sunday for some to learn more about the history of where they live.

“We decided to check out our backyard,” said Kathy Vargo while standing in the shade outside Fort Ligonier. She lives in Hempfield but was spending a couple days with her husband, Bruce Vargo, at their Ligonier Township cabin.

But for others, Ligonier Valley Free Museum Day was a reason to make a trip to eastern Westmoreland County. John Learn of northeastern Indiana County made a day of it with his two teenage sons.

“I want to teach them history and I’m interested myself,” he said.

Among the hundreds who descended on five Ligonier area museums that participated in the event were visitors from Pittsburgh, said Theresa Gay Rohall, executive director of the Compass Inn Museum in Laughlintown. In addition to that location, other participants were Fort Ligonier, Lincoln Highway Experience, Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum and Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art.

Gay Rohall said she saw a diverse mix of people come through the restored 1799 stagecoach stop. The museums started the event as a way to give back to the community and support each other while drawing in new faces who likely wouldn’t otherwise visit.

“Really, it’s a two-way street for us,” she said.

Stickers were handed out at each of the stops as a way to track the number of visitors. By about halfway through the day, Gay Rohall estimated more than 700 people of all ages, genders and socioeconomic backgrounds had stopped in Laughlintown to learn more.

“It’s kind of bringing all the community together,” she said.

There were special events at many of the participating museums, from cricket on the lawn of the Compass Inn to reenactors portraying French Marines at Fort Ligonier.

Learn said his sons, Evan, 15, and Eric, 14, have an interest in history, specifically around World Wars I and II, and enjoyed checking out the museums. It was Learn’s first time at all of the four they visited — Fort Ligonier, Lincoln Highway Experience and Ligonier Valley Rail Road Museum, with a planned stop at Compass Inn Museum.

“It’s really nice,” he said. “It’s definitely more than you can comprehend in one fly-through afternoon.”

Bruce and Kathy Vargo visited Compass Inn Museum and Fort Ligonier where they met up with Dan and Beth Vargo of Mt. Pleasant Township. The two men are brothers.

“I remember being here when we were little kids,” Bruce Vargo said while standing outside Fort Ligonier watching visitors stream in and out. “History’s good, good for their business, I can see.”

The free admission day was made possible through the support of the Jack Buncher Foundation.