World United States Massachusetts Springfield

Mike and Roxanne travel east

Springfield Sep 9, 2007

September 9, 2007 We have driven into Springfield today to see the Springfield Armory National Historic Site.

The Historic Site had been an arsenal during the Revolutionary War. In 1794 the French were fighting their own war and they had been supplying the majority of American arms. The government felt it necessary for America to not be dependent on a foreign nation for its weapons. Two sites for armories were suggested, one in Harper's Ferry to supply the southern states and one in Springfield to supply the northern states.

President Washington agreed and established the first American armory in Springfield. Springfield's geographical advantages were obvious. It was at the intersection of major highways and the Connecticut River but far enough upstream to be safe from enemy attack.

Supplies, skilled manpower and adequate waterpower were available. Growth of the armory spurred the growth of the city.

The armory continued manufacturing, and testing weapons until 1968. New techniques were tried here, both in the manufacturing and in the design of weapons.

The facility evolved from a place where skilled craftsmen built, piece by -piece, one musket at a time, to a facility pioneering in mass-production techniques, and finally into a site famous for its research and development.

The many 19th century buildings now house the Springfield Technical Community College and the Springfield Armory Museum, a National Historic Site and home to the world's largest collection of American military firearms.

Then we are off to visit a friend of nearly every child in America, Theodore Seuss Giesel and the Dr. Suess National Memorial Sculpture Garden. Dr. Suess was born in Springfield in 1904 and at the time of his death in 1991 he had written 44 children's books including Horton and the Who, The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, and The Grinch Who Sstole Christmas.

Several of the charcters are immortalized here in the Sculpture Garden, Horton, the Grinch, Thing 1 and Thing 2, the Lorax, the Cat in the Hat and others.

The rest of the afternoon was spent driving around the countryside, up to Amherst, through Orange and then back to Deerfield with our last stop at the Yankee Candle factory. What fun.