What George Washington brought along when he went camping in western Pennsylvania in 1784:

* two leather and one linnen Valeses with my Marquee and horseman's Tent Poles and Pins

* bedding and Sheets

* equipage Trunk

* Silver Cups and Spoons--Canteens--two Kegs of Spirits--Horse Shoes &ca.

* Note.--in [his] equipage Trunk and the Canteens--were Madeira and Port Wine--Cherry bounce--Oyl, Mustard--Vinegar--and Spices of all sorts--Tea, and Sugar in the Camp Kettles (a whole loaf of white sugar broke up about 7 lbs. weight)

* fishing lines are in the Canteens

How girls behaved along Jacobs Creek [future home of Scottdale] in 1775, according to a cranky young Tory minister named Nicholas Cresswell:

Went with Miss Crawford and Miss Grimes to John Minton's. When we came to a small Creek we had to cross the girls tucked up their petticoats above their knees and forded it with the greatest indifference.

What happened when Quaker shopkeeper James Kenny tried to plant a garden near Fort Pitt in June 1762:

Having Planted out abot four Hundr of Cabbage Plants, there is not I think fourty left but what ye Grasshoppers has Eatten.

What Arthur Lee, sent west to negotiate a treaty with the Indians in 1784, predicted about Pittsburgh:

The place, I believe, will never be very considerable.

All excerpts are from various entries in Crossroads: Descriptions of Western Pennsylvania, 1720-1829, edited by John W. Harpster and first published in 1938. A blurb on the back of this book says, "Reading [Crossroads] is like meeting a score of travelers returned from strange lands and listening while each tells his own story of his adventures. It is a kind of American Canterbury Tales, and the tales are true." This is, in fact, an accurate description of the book.