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| - Time for an update. My husband Rick and I took our niece Allison and our nephew Brian here this past weekend. We wanted to see the new exhibit, "American Frontier Rifleman: Tall Tales & Truth", which will be here until April 28, 2012.
"The American Frontier Rifleman" explores the truths and myths of the iconic backwoodsman. This character was a combination of hunter, marksman, and warrior and he quickly became an icon of American literature and folklore. The American Rifleman had a resurgence in the mid-20th Century in popular culture, first in the movies and later in television. Three different versions of "The Ballad of Davey Crockett" made the top of the "Billboard" charts, selling a combined total of 10 million copies.
This exhibit is really well done, displaying rare hunting shirts (the clothing most often associated with the riflemen), powderhorns and weaponry from the 1700s and 1800s, and a display of riflemen in pop culture including memorabalia from movies and TV. It's really well done and I recommend seeing it before it leaves.
As for the other exhibits at the Fort Pitt, many of them have undergone some much-needed renovations. The museum has updated several of the rooms showing life inside the Fort during the 1750s and including re-creations of soldiers' barracks, a fur trader's cabin, and munitions storage. The Fort Pitt is an amazing little museum that's well worth checking out.
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