Aiming to connect early days of Philadelphia, Valley Forge

Once Upon a Nation, the popular program that has made history come alive on the streets of historic Philadelphia, is expanding to Valley Forge National Historical Park.

Three storytelling benches, a trolley tour, and an after-hours picnic, followed by time around a campfire with actors playing Gen. George Washington, his wife, Martha, and the troops, are part of a program to debut at Valley Forge this summer.

"It will help bring stories to life that we haven't had the time to tell or weren't able to tell," park superintendent Mike Caldwell said at a ceremony last week to announce the newest partnership between the National Park Service and the nonprofit Historic Philadelphia Inc.

The project provides a link between the early days of Philadelphia and the history of Valley Forge, he said.

"Between this and the city, people can start their visits in either direction," said Paul Decker, president of the Valley Forge Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"People go home and say, 'Wow, we had a great time,' " and word-of-mouth translates into more tourists, Decker said.

Historic Philadelphia Inc., which stages Once Upon a Nation, joins a growing network of partners adding intellectual and technological dimensions to the park, now celebrating its 30th anniversary. Other groups are contributing to the physical upkeep of Valley Forge, including maintenance of 28 miles of trails.

The Friends of Valley Forge will host a symposium next Friday and Saturday titled "Lock, Stock and Barrel: The World of the Revolutionary Soldier," featuring scholars, military historians, and best-selling author Thomas Fleming.

The second five-mile Revolutionary Run, a fund-raiser for the Friends sponsored by the Valley Forge Convention and Visitors Bureau, is set for April 22. Last year's event, the first run ever held in the park, attracted 1,300 participants and raised $12,000.

Before they ship out to Iraq, soldiers from Fort Dix regularly visit Valley Forge, birthplace of the U.S. Army, for a program about Revolutionary War tactics and leadership and their relevance to contemporary combat.

Podcasts about the park can be downloaded from iTunes, visitors can listen to historical tidbits on their cell phones as they move about, and Valley Forge's audio tour has been revised for the first time in 25 years.

Last month, the nonprofit American Revolution Center announced it was negotiating to buy land on the park's north side for a museum, the first in the nation to tell the entire story of America's struggle for independence. Concerns by the National Park Service over funding, location and other issues had stalled the project for more than two years.

And there are hundreds of volunteers from organizations large and small giving their time and energy at the park.

"It really shows what can be accomplished with the right leadership and the attitude of [working] together," said Joy Oakes, Mid-Atlantic regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association.

The 2007 Once Upon a Nation program builds on last summer's maiden venture, "The Road to Valley Forge: Secrets & Spies," a Saturday-afternoon bus tour that left from Independence Mall. That four-hour tour, which attracted more than 200 people at $40 a pop, will be offered again this summer.

The program's signature 13-foot curved storytelling benches will be placed in the Welcome Center and outside at the National Memorial Arch and Washington's Headquarters. Free five-minute stories at the sites will be offered daily from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Storytellers - who receive at least a month of intense instruction at the Benstitute, the Once Upon a Nation training center in Philadelphia - are working with park rangers and historians to ensure that the tales are accurate and entertaining.

Not only do the storytellers know history, they know the details of modern life, like the location of the closest ATM or how to get to the mall, Cari Feiler Bender, spokeswoman for Once Upon a Nation, said.

"They're tourism ambassadors," she said.

Last year more than 1.2 million people visited Valley Forge, where on Tuesday alone the guestbook had been signed by tourists from Texas, Florida, Ohio, Alabama, California, Utah, Oklahoma and Germany. More are expected this year.

With the expanded Once Upon a Nation, Caldwell said, they will enjoy "many new stories with more and diverse voices - exactly what visitors have been asking for."