LIVE YOUR ADVENTURE

From breathtaking outdoors to unique local eats, world-class geocaching and thriving local culture, Martinsburg-Berkeley County, West Virginia, is a fantastic place to “Live Your Adventure.”

Spring brings longer, sunny days dedicated to creating memorable experiences for yourself and the whole family.

Berkeley County offers fantastic outdoor experiences, from our rugged hiking paths to scenic nature paths, public parks, fishing streams and nature preserves. Adventurers can explore the 23,000-acre Sleepy Creek Wildlife Management Area, which contains extensive primitive camping, hiking, fishing, canoeing and kayaking opportunities.

The Route 9 walking and biking trail stretches between Martinsburg and the Charles Town/Ranson area and offers users wide-open views and diverse terrain, from flat land to sloping hills.

If observing nature is more your style, Berkeley County has two nature preserves that house various birds and native plants. Stauffer’s Marsh Nature Preserve, in Back Creek Valley, and the Yankauer Nature Preserve, located adjacent to the Potomac River, offer easy walking trails that allow easy observation.

Dark Ages

In the early medieval ages, torture was a way of getting rid of heretics — anyone practicing a religion the king didn’t like. A er seeing its e ectiveness in getting confessions (though they o en weren’t true) and how crowds gathered to watch executions, torture was expanded. Before long, the victims were anyone the king disliked.

e 6,000-square-foot Medieval Torture Museum in Chicago’s Loop takes visitors into that thankfully long-forgotten world. e Medieval Torture Museum showcases more than 100 macabre devices — 30% of which are original to their time, while the rest are replicas that give visitors an idea of their cra and use.

Painstakingly researched, vignettes presented throughout the museum use mannequins to showcase how the machines worked, and the dimly lit rooms create an eerie atmosphere, adding to the authenticity of the experience. Admission includes an audio guide and a ghosttracking app. While the place is said to be haunted, the ghosts here are reported to be mischievous rather than mean — pulling hair, relighting candles and just creating a general aura of playfulness. e same can’t be said of the torture devices on display. e endishly designed equipment includes such standards as an iron maiden with nails for impaling and racks for stretching victims past their breaking point. ere are also gruesome collections of knives, chains and pliers. Creativity gone mad resulted in such torture devices as the Sicilian Bull, a hollow bronze bull in which a person was locked in its belly and a re started underneath. e variety of implements allowed kings and rulers choices when it came to how to punish their subjects.

Although the museum is a perfect, if not gory, way to celebrate Halloween, the Medieval Torture Museum, represents some of the darkest days of humanity and is a learning experience as well. 177 N. State St., Chicago, Illinois 60601, 773/241-7777, medievaltorturemuseum.com

Jane Simon Ammeson