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Erie plans six-month celebration to mark port city’s bicentennialERIE, Pa. (AP) - The Great Lakes port that once brought fur traders to Pennsylvania — and might someday draw card sharks — this week marks its 200th anniversary.A paid staff of three with a budget of $600,000 is coordinating a six* month Erie bicentennial celebration, including a birthday party concert on Tuesday and an hours-long “parade of the century” on May 27.Lectures, tours and exhibitions are among the other events planned into September.An act of Pennsylvania’s legislature on April 18, 1795, created a town from the settlements claimed at various times over 40 years by Erie Indians, French and British troops and Iroquois Indians.The last to claim ownership was a survey crew charged by thefledgling commonwealth withforming a planned community on the Lake Erie shore.The area offered a harbor sheltered by what the French named Presqu’ile, “almost an island” of sand that cradles Presque IsleBay:“The essence of Erie is the port,” said Donald Muller, executive director of the Erie County Historical Society. 'The reason that’s here is Presque Isle.”Erie quickly became a trading center. Fur, salt, and other necessities from ports along the St. Lawrence River arrived m the harbor and were portaged 20 miles south to Waterford.The goods continued from there to the Mississippi River along French Creek and the Ohio and Allegheny rivers.The discovery of oil in Titusville in 1859 helped convert Erie to amanufacturing center, and residents could eventually brag that “Erie Enterprise Encircles the Earth.”With access to unlimited water, rail lines, and a largely immigrant work force, heavy industry flour* ished with products such as Skinner steam engines, cast-iron Griswold cookware and Louis Marx toys.Plastics manufacturers — successors to Erie’s foundries — these days produce much of the country’s plastic deodorant containers, beverage bottles and canvasPresque Isle, now a state-operated park, takes the sting out of the “dreary Ene” jokes The calm waters of the bay now attracts sailors and windsurfersThe park’s 3,200 acres of beaches, hiking trails, and picnic areas drew 3.7 million visitors m 1994, more than Yellowstone National Park and Philadelphia’s LibertyBell.And the sheltered harbor could soon harbor legalized gambling. A bill introduced in the state Legislature last month would legalize riverboat gambling m Pennsylvania’s port cities.A similar bill introduced m the last legislative session did not pass.Gov. Tom Ridge, an Erie favorite son, has promised a statewide referendum on the issue But two out-of-state gammg companies have optimistically leased property, hoping for the gambling measure’s approval.“Many people think the bayfront is the future of Erie, just as it was 200 years ago,” Muller said.
Newspaper Details
Gettysburg Times
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, US
Mon, Apr 17, 1995
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Sara B.
NA, 01 Apr 2022
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