The New Scout on the Old Scout Trail Guide

Volkswagen obtained the trademark to the International Scout name a few years ago and, on October 24, the new Scout Motors will officially reveal an all-electric Scout vehicle. In the meantime, they have been leaning into International Harvester Scout history on their website.

Witness their recent post on the 1979 International Scout Four-Wheel-Drive Trail Guide, a thick (224 pages!) combination atlas and collection of essays on 4×4 trails across America, including, based on the photo below, at least one in New Jersey that may no longer be off-road.

Source: Scoutmotors.com

The Mercer Museum of Doylestown

This museum in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, is housed in a concrete castle designed by Henry Mercer, an early archaeologist, collector, and ceramicist. Mercer collected historic tools and other artifacts that demonstrated American industry and crafts, including blacksmithing, butchery, hat-making, and many more.

Cradles and chairs on the ceiling.
Butchery and sausage-making tools.
Firebacks and more firebacks.
Ceramic tiles!

Ruins of the Estellville Glassworks

Not far from Atlantic City, New Jersey, are the remains of the nineteenth-century Estellville Glassworks, which was in operation from about 1826 to 1877. These buildings are unusual among New Jersey glassworks in using local sandstone with brick arches. Visited on a balmy Autumn day.

Sandstone ruins of glass factory
Ruins of the Pot House.
Sandstone ruins of Glass Factory
Ruins of the Pot House, where the clay crucibles, or pots, were made.
Sandstone and brick ruins of Glass Factory
Ruins of the Melting Furnace.

High Bridge to Califon: E-Bike

The Columbia Trail runs along the former alignment of the High Bridge Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. The South Branch Raritan River, a popular trout fishing spot, flows alongside it; the trail crosses the river at the bridge in the featured image above. The river valley here is known as Ken Lockwood Gorge and is a New Jersey Wildlife management Area.

Athens Archaeology: There’s an App

In the nineties, jobs in Greece’s state archeological service were often offered on a contract basis, and women tended to fill these nonpermanent positions, which came without benefits. Understaffed, poorly compensated, and facing ferocious pressure from landowners eager to start building, state archeologists usually went unrecognized, their reports often signed only by their supervisors.

Nick Romeo, the New Yorker

The Dipylon Society maps the ancient topography and cultural environment of Athens, Greece, using data accumulated over decades by contract archaeology projects in the city. Read The Hidden Archaeologists of Athens: By collecting long-forgotten archeological data, a new project reveals the researchers who toiled unrecognized in The New Yorker.

Source: Dipylon.org