The Ulster American Folk Park.
County Tyrone

The Ulster American Folk Park situated at Camphill, near Omagh, grew up round the cottage where Thomas Mellon was born in 1813. The story of the House of Mellon epitomizes the dream held by many of Irelands emigrants.

When Thomas was five his family emigrated to Pennsylvania. Thomas became a judge, a banker and eventually a millionaire. His son Andrew became secretary to the US Treasury, ambassador to London, chief architect of the steel town of Pittsburgh and probably the richest man in the world at the time. Mellon was an avid collector of English paintings, he give Yale Museum 140 Constables, 41 Gainsboroughs, 42 Hogarths and 35 Stubbses. Mellon was involved in building the Waldorf Astoria, the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, the locks and gates of the Panama Canal. Representatives of Mellons descendants donated money to build the folk park at Omagh.

Another famous son of Tyrone is remembered at the folk park John Hughes who after emigrating to America became Archbishop of New York, and founder of St. Patrick's Cathedral on Fifth Avenue, Hughes became a great champion of the Irish Catholic emigrant. He was born a few miles from the Folk Park in 1797, the son of a gardener, their small family cottage was taken down and rebuilt at the Folk Park

The ancestral home of another successful emigrant can be seen near Strabane. Woodrow Wilson, 28th president of the US. The farm is still occupied by Wilsons, who will show callers round the house.