Compass Inn goes rogue — blacksmiths and 'scoundrels' featured at Laughlintown site

Visitors to Laughlintown’s Compass Inn Museum will find a gathering of blacksmiths on Saturday.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. , as many as 25 area blacksmiths will be demonstrating their skills on the grounds of the historic Route 30 inn, which has been restored to its prime 1830s appearance.

The “Hammer-In” event is expected to include members of the Pittsburgh Area Artist Blacksmiths Association as well as local blacksmith Ed Appleby.

The annual event previously has been held on Father’s Day weekend, but this year’s earlier date was chosen to allow for more participants.

“They’ll be making items that can be purchased for the benefit of the Compass Inn Museum,” said Theresa Gay Rohall, executive director of the Ligonier Valley Historical Society, which owns and operates the museum.

Items that have been sold at past events include key chains, necklaces and letter openers. “Some are decorative pieces and some are items that people who are re-enactors would like to buy because they’re period-correct,” Rohall said.

Rohall noted visitors may be interested in seeing the inn’s blacksmith shop, which was temporarily reconfigured to serve as a set for recent filming of a period mystery starring Christian Bale and based on the novel “The Pale Blue Eye” by Louis Bayard.

Living history on tap

Also on the Compass Inn calendar is a re-enactment of social outcasts and rogues from past eras during a living history weekend, June 18 and 19.

Those who come to Compass Inn for the living history weekend, 11-4 each day, will see a “Scoundrel’s Alley” troupe of four re-enactors portraying those who would have lived amid the “underside” of society in past times.

Though the characters they present encompass the criminal element and other representatives of “the seamier side of life,” the approach is family-friendly and draws upon wit and humor, re-enactor Carol Jarboe indicated on the group’s website.

The portrayals range from “the entertainments of the sharper making you laugh, to the story of the pauper making you cry,” she said. “The goal is to have everyone — young and old — walk away feeling like they have learned something — and enjoyed themselves in the process.”

Rohall said the re-enactors will present performances throughout the day. They are part of Ohio-based Faire Wynds Entertainments, which recreated a two-person traveling medicine show as part of a previous living history weekend at Compass Inn.

“We had one of our highest attendances ever” for the medicine show, Rohall said. “These will be the same people but portraying a different aspect of history.”

Tickets can be purchased onsite the day of each event. Admission costs $12 for adults, $11 for those age 62 or older and $8 for ages 6-18.

For more information, email lvhscompassinn@gmail.com or call 724-238-6818.