New film tells little-known story of revolutionary war soldiers’ graves in penns valley

Off a quiet gravel road around a Penns Valley farm, just two miles from Centre Hall's Sheetz, lie the graves of two Revolutionary War soldiers who left an indelible mark on the area after they died defending harvesters from American Indians in 1778.

Every year, since at least 1900, the Bellefonte chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution have gathered at the humble site to say the men's names - Thomas Van Doran and Jacob Shadecre - so they're not forgotten to time.

Now, several local filmmakers and historians are trying to do the patriotic group one better. After nearly a year of work, they produced a 17-minute documentary on the memorial titled " Graves on Indian Lane " - with the hope of taking the story national.

"It is a local story, but it's also a national story," said Matt Maris, a high school history teacher for Bellefonte Area and one of the documentary's producers. "I like to kind of describe it as a microcosm of the American Revolution. It's such a powerful story that we believed it needed to be shared, and we tried our best to do justice to it."

Many other history books and documentaries focus on conflicts involving larger encampments like Bunker Hill or Valley Forge, but often lost is the nuance that the American Revolution was waged in small towns and valleys like those here. Those stories often aren't told because the historical records no longer exist. But the skirmish in Penns Valley is an exception, partly because the community has shown a commitment for 248 years to keep its memory alive.

The documentary was written and hosted by Maris and Dustin Elder, who make up Local Historia , a local tour company that also tackles larger projects like WPSU/PBS shows . It was produced and directed by Pablo Lopez, and the cinematography was done by Matt Jacobs. And it was completed thanks to the support of Happy Valley Adventure Bureau and to the collaboration of several local history groups.