April 2002
Trenton’s own battlefield tour guide tries
to liven up history
A Trenton battlefield tour? Fabulous. So where's the battlefield?
"At
this moment you are standing on a battlefield. It may not look
like one to you because there is no park and there are no monuments.
But it is here, around you on all sides, on these streets, the
sidewalks many of us walk along every day."
Funny, it looks more like we are standing outside of a drycleaner.
And indeed you are. It is outside of a dry cleaner on the corner
of Warren and Lafayette streets where Ralph Siegel begins his
two-hour Trenton battlefield tour, an 11-block walk up to the
Trenton Battle Monument and back down again to Mill Hill Park.
The tour requires a crisp narrative and a generous imagination.
This is Trenton Battlefield Tours, available privately for hire,
for school and community groups, and on designated Saturday mornings
at a discount price working out of Café Olé, on
South Warren Street.
Siegel
says his idea is modeled on the licensed guide programs run by
the National Park Service in Gettysburg, Pa., and Vicksburg, Miss.,
which rely on self-taught experts to provide individual tours
tailored to specific visitors and groups.
Since no one is regulating tours and issuing licenses in Trenton,
Siegel admits his role is more akin to the loosely knit network
of guides-for-hire who circulate around many of the nation's other
battlefield parks.
Further, Siegel makes it clear to his tourists he is not a historian,
not a reenactor, not even a teacher. "A teacher can function
in a classroom. A guide generally needs his battlefield to tell
the story," he says. "If I have to use an analogy to
explain the work, then a battlefield guide is a walking storyteller."
Siegel has been studying for years to pass the licensing exam
at Gettysburg. His studies gave the Mercerville resident the impetus
to learn what he needed to know about the Battle of Trenton, to
transfer his enthusiasm and to start doing tours closer to home.
A Rider University graduate, he has spent 21 years in and around
Trenton working in theater, education and for the past 12 years
as a news reporter at the State House.
Siegel says he wants a licensed guide program in Trenton and for
the Mercer County area with rigorous standards. But rather than
wait and work his way through a countless array of meetings and
committees, he decided to just get things going on his own.
"I
look forward to the day when I can be the first person to fail
Trenton's licensing exam," he jokes.
Tours come at a price. Siegel says volunteer touring has not succeeded
anywhere in the country. "One person might be gifted but
there is no way to manage and market that sort of tour operation.
Something has to be reliable and steady before people acknowledge
it, before school leaders and local groups adopt it as a part
of what they offer to their students or their members. If something
educational is worthwhile and entertaining, a token cost is not
a barrier."
Siegel will book a two-hour tour for $35. The price goes up to
$50 for groups of six or more. On a monthly basis he also tries
to offer special tour events at Cafe Olé on select Saturday
mornings. A $5 ticket gets a visitor a free cappuccino or coffee.
Everyone meets at 9 a.m. for questions about the timing and context
of the Battle of Trenton, and the walking tour gets underway at
10 a.m. to show people what occurred where.
Siegel also offers a four-hour "Victory Trail" motor
tour of Mercer County for $75 beginning either in Princeton or
at Washington's Crossing, Pa. It includes walking tours of the
famous Christmas crossing site, Trenton and Princeton Battlefield
State Park. The Victory Trail tour price does not include transportation,
although Siegel says he works informally and is willing to drive
a tour party's vehicle or to taxi them around in his own car for
the price of the gas.
"Compared
to our national military parks, compared to Washington's Crossing
and the Princeton Battlefield, there does not seem to be much
in Trenton. Appreciating this battlefield requires a bit of imagination,"
Siegel says. "You have to establish a brisk and lively narrative.
"But
forget what we are missing. Brooklyn was the site of an incredibly
important battle and you can't find evidence of it with a satellite
photo," Siegel says. "The people of Trenton are incredibly
lucky to have what is here, so let's make use of it. The Old Barracks
is a national model for restoration and the staff has made the
absolute most of it, a terrific living history experience. We
have the Douglass House, St. Michael's Church, Mill Hill Park
and the fantastic Trenton Battle Monument. I try to give a little
bit of an art-appreciation thing when we get up around there.
And the city has done such a tremendous job fixing up that neighborhood,"
Siegel says.
Siegel also says some people still express surprise he is willing
to lead groups to the once-notorious Five Points section. But
the skeptics who come along are happily surprised, especially
on Saturdays when Henry Williams is operating the elevator to
the platform atop the 150-foot column.
"What
I try to do with the tour is to entertain. The main thing is to
have fun, show people a good time by keeping them moving, telling
a lively story rich with amazing characters, try to have them
feel some of the lay of the land and the drama of events,"
Siegel adds. "If visitors enjoy themselves, if they come
away with a sense of wonder, then some of it will stick."
"Boredom
has done immeasurable damage to the role of history in American
education," Siegel added. "For any young people I have
seen on tours like this in Trenton, Morristown or even Gettysburg,
the teachers and guides start off with a big handicap. The kids
are in the boredom zone before they even get out of the car or
off the bus. You have to really focus on them."
Trenton
Battlefield Tours can be reached at 609-584-1614. A Web site is
being set up at www.trentonbattlefieldtours.org.
