Valley Forge

VALLEY FORGE NATIONAL HISTORICAL PARK -- On a balmy spring day, runners and walkers, sunbathers and picnickers join tourists on the winding trails and wooded hillsides of Valley Forge National Historical Park. Yet the number of visitors has been steadily declining -- and is expected to keep dropping over the next two years, a recent National Park Service study reports. Last year, the park attracted 1.15 million visitors, a decrease of 5.8 percent from 2001. Projections by the Park Service forecast a 16.5 percent decrease in this year, continuing down to 834,016 visitors in 2004 -- more than one million fewer than the 1,901,406 people who visited the park in 1997.

COLLEGE PARK - Chris Downs shifted nervously in his seat, as members of the media converged on him, wishing to hear the thoughts of a football player so unaccustomed to such recognition. Downs is a fifth-year senior tailback who, until last week's 44-14 rout of visiting Akron, had been a stranger to followers of the Maryland Terrapins. Downs had worked in obscurity since coming to College Park two years ago, by way of Valley Forge (Pa.) Military Academy and College. And in one week, while veteran Bruce Perry rehabilitated an injured groin muscle, and while he and the rest of Maryland's running-back-by-committee - sophomore Jason Crawford and second-year freshman Mario Merrills - fought for position on the Terps' depth chart, Downs suddenly became the odd man in. Before getting his first start as a Terp, before rushing for 58 yards on 12 carries and scoring his first Division I touchdown, before sparking Maryland to that blowout victory, Downs had been living anonymously.

The Rev. John A. Mote's life of conscience, compassion and commitment would seem beyond reproach. But a single word -- "poor" -- scrawled on an "other than honorable" Army discharge nearly 56 years ago still echoes in his memory like a false alarm struck only this morning. "Character ... Poor." It's a description probably no one has ever used to describe Mote except the U.S. Army. Mote is 82 now, and the label still stings. He's a Methodist clergyman who only really retired a couple of years ago. He served mostly at impoverished inner-city churches in Baltimore and Washington.

HADDONFIELD, N.J. - In the sixth grade, my son asked us to help him draw a "family tree" for a school project. Compared with my wife's family - bolstered by bedtime stories from her aunts and uncles - my side looked more like a trimmed hedge. Resolving to fix this in time for my daughter's attempt at a family tree, I set out to interview some dying relatives, only to discover that part of this amnesia was induced by religious bigotry and also by an immigrant's desire to forget the past.

The National Park Service and Toll Bros. are on the brink of a deal that would put an end to the developer's hotly protested plan for a subdivision of 62 luxury homes inside Valley Forge National Historical Park. The largest builder of high-end housing in the United States. Toll intended to turn a privately owned tract on the north side into Valley Forge Overlook - the first such development within the boundaries of any national historical park. Impelled by the public outrage that has erupted across the country, the park service now is negotiating to buy the land, reportedly valued at about $10 million, in order to spare it. "I'm optimistic this is going to work because of the commitment of all parties involved to make it work," said U.S. Rep. Joseph Hoeffel, a Pennsylvania Democrat who is acting as intermediary in talks between Toll and the park service.

Five players scored in double figures, led by Clement Sorgho with 20 points, to lead the Salisbury men's basketball team to an 86-71 victory over host Washington College last night. Jim Todd added 17 for the Sea Gulls (2-1). Aaron Goode scored 16 to lead the Shoremen (1-2). Goucher 74, Johns Hopkins 66: Issac Brooks scored 20 and Thabo Letsebe added 18 to lead the Gophers (2-1) over the Blue Jays (1-2). Matthew Eisley led Hopkins with 17 points. Western Maryland 65, Valley Forge 57: Starting slowly, the Green Terror (2-3)

In eastern Pennsylvania, about 20 miles west of Philadelphia, lies Valley Forge, a potent symbol of America's struggle for independence. Here amid the rolling hills was the site of the Continental Army's 1777-1778 winter camp, during the third year of the American Revolution. Valley Forge was no conventional battlefield. America's enemies there were hunger, cold and disease, and they attacked relentlessly from December into the following spring. "The whole army is sick and crawling with vermin," complained an officer in March 1778.

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. -- Of all the creatures caught up in suburban sprawl, few possess a more idyllic sanctuary than the white-tail deer herd of Valley Forge National Historical Park as they graze and multiply in safety while shopping malls and home developments boom on the horizon. And few creatures are more bedeviled by the deer's position of privilege -- by the 1,000-member herd's annual growth rate of 20 percent as park hunting is absolutely barred -- than the neighboring homeowners of the Valley Forge Citizens for Deer Control Inc. They intercept deer daily on roads and backyard patios and bridle in civic meetings at their doe-eyed ubiquity.

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. -- Once a remote Revolutionary War encampment, Valley Forge National Historical Park is being overrun by the modern threats of traffic congestion and suburban sprawl, officials warn. "Valley Forge is very much threatened," said Marie Rust, the National Park Service regional director. "It's a national and cultural resource that's being degraded by traffic and pollution from development." Close to the King of Prussia mall, the Route 202 corridor and the booming Chester County suburbs, the park has traffic troubles that have become overwhelming, Rust said, since most commuters head toward Philadelphia.

Scottish, Irish FairThe first Mid-Summer Scottish and Irish Music Festival and Fair is coming to the Valley Forge Convention Center in King of Prussia, Pa., Saturday and Sunday . Top Irish and Scottish performers including Seven Nations, Black 47, Men of Worth, Bur, Whelan & O'Riordan and Donna Missigman, will highlight this weekend's event. More than 30 craft exhibitors and vendors will be open for business, and bagpipers, Irish step dancers and Scottish Highland dance groups will perform continuously.