History Walk

Can you imagine walking on a 6-inch steel girder 100 stories up on a skyscraper when it was under construction in Manhattan? Or what about experiencing what happened to some of our ancestors who arrived in the United States through the daunting, crowded chambers of Ellis Island?

If time travel is something you or your family have contemplated, this weekend in Lancaster is your chance to try it. A Time Machine interactive display sponsored by the History Channel will be set up Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Lancaster City Park during the annual California Poppy Festival.

The people who operate cable TV’s History Channel are bringing the display to the park to provide an opportunity for the public to experience an exhibit that so far has been available primarily at school sites around the state.

The display is actually a 48-foot trailer, sort of a terrestrial space capsule dedicated to time travel through history. Participants can experience historic simulations, such as flying above the Great Wall of China, encounter prominent figures who operated the “underground railroad” that slaves used to reach freedom from the pre-Civil War South, learn about jeweled masks that adorned Egyptian mummies, and drive a taxi through the streets of 1950s Manhattan.

When students at Dorsey High School in the Crenshaw district went through the Time Machine last month, they were surprised by details of ordinary life shown in the historical displays. Comments such as, “Wow! They had dominoes way back then?” were frequently overheard by the History Channel’s field representative, Jonathan Talbert, who is traveling with the exhibit.

“In the Ellis Island display, you see immigrants playing dominoes while they wait to get into the U.S.,” he said. “A lot of the kids noticed this but didn’t know people had dominoes back then.”

“History’s Lost & Found” is another feature. Are you ready to see the first packet of Silly Putty? The first bluejeans? The first gas mask? There are museums around the nation that rescue items.

For instance, the gas mask was found and put on display by the C. H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, dedicated to the memory of the inventor of that piece of military equipment and other scientific devices.

BE THERE

Time Machine Tour, Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., California Poppy Festival, Lancaster City Park, 43011 N. 10th St. W. Festival admission $6-$3; children under 5 free. Call (661) 723-6077.