An essential improvement at the Old Stone Fort in Schoharie is one you can’t see.
Wireless internet is now through the entire museum complex, a boon for those visiting the grounds or conducting research.
And although the Fort remains closed during the pandemic, virtual programming allows the public to enjoy talks and presentations.
The wifi is one of several projects at the Fort, which has been closed since the pandemic began.
The new technology is a major step forward for the Fort, which is owned by Schoharie County and maintained by the Schoharie County Historical Society.
With its own technology, the Historical Society needn’t go through the county website for Zoom meetings, and many more members can participate. A recent meeting had attendees from California and Washington state.
Now, said Museum Director Melinda McTaggart, “you can be part of the Society without being in Schoharie.
“With wifi and virtual programming, it was a game-changer. It’s so important as a Society to grow and sustain our membership.”
A major donor offered funds for a major project, and “it was a perfect fit for wifi,” Ms. McTaggart said.
Historical Society President Curt Van Steele dug the trenches for the wiring, and MIDTEL did the rest.
“MIDTEL was fabulous,” Ms. McTaggart said.
The pandemic provided one benefit; with the museum closed, work could proceed easily.
“If the museum was open, there’s no way we could have done this,” said Mr. Van Steele, pointing to the trenching.
The array of new technology allows members to access past programs, among them presentations by Jeff O’Connor and Pete Lindemann, a society trustee.
Ms. McTaggart credited Erika Eklund with handling much of the in-house technology, including an ongoing project, revamping the Fort’s website.
Also in the works is fixing leaks in the Fort library, which holds books, genealogical records, negatives, photos and more. Mr. Van Steele, volunteers and county employees moved the items out of the library to avoid damage.
There’s no timetable for getting the library in shape––including new exhibits––but Mr. Van Steele wants to have it finished by next year, the Fort’s 250th anniversary.
An upcoming project will be planting trees and shrubs along the bank of Fox Creek, which borders museum property, to stop erosion. The Society is working with guidance from Soil and Water Conservation District.
Yet another project is developing presentations about ‘underserved populations’––in Schoharie County’s case, people of color. Expected to be done by the end of the year, the exhibit has heavy technological support through a grant from the Museum Association of New York.
“It’s really something, African-Americans before the Civil War and after,” Ms. McTaggart said, adding that the exhibit will build on work done by the late Jack Daniels, who in the 1990s researched African-American history here.
With all these projects finished or ongoing, the Society continues to depend on volunteers. Dave Pelepzuck and Don Van Steele, Curt Van Steele’s father, are organizing the collection of Chester Zimmer, the late Gallupville farmer who had huge holdings of memorabilia.
And Mr. Lindemann is working on the Fort’s collection of Harold Toles, the longtime Cobleskill photographer who worked from the 1950s into the 1980s.
The Society is looking for more volunteers. Mr. Van Steele suggested that anyone interested can call the Fort––518-295-7192––to match interests with a project.
As for the Fort’s reopening, there’s no telling when that will happen because controlling the number of visitors would be difficult, Mr. Van Steele said.
But with wifi and other technology, Ms. McTaggart added, “People can still enjoy what we have here.”

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Still more projects are coming up:
•Putting QR codes on the buildings so that visitors can access information about the historic structures. “People will be able to do this even when we’re closed,” said Ms. McTaggart, who said the codes probably wouldn’t be installed this year.
•Building a beehive oven, a communal oven of colonial times that people used to bake bread.
•Recording oral histories from longtime residents. “Once they’re gone, we’ll never have that history again,” Mr. Van Steele said.