Someone recently reached out to me about putting together information — or perhaps a presentation — for the upcoming 100th anniversary celebration of the Salix Log Cabin in Salix, Pennsylvania. I grew up near Salix and have spent years collecting information about the village and the cabin, so I agreed to try to put together a handout for the event that would showcase its history.

The Salix Log Cabin has long been a beloved community gathering place, available to rent for picnics, family reunions, weddings, and all kinds of special occasions. For generations, it has been the backdrop for some of the area’s most cherished memories — and this year, the community comes together to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Over the last several years, I’ve found myself relying more and more on AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and others for projects at work, trip planning, image creation, and general research. So when this came up, I thought: why not let AI help me organize all the fragmented images, historical articles, and scattered notes I’ve gathered on Salix into something meaningful?

I’d heard that Claude.ai was among the best large language models available, so I decided to give it a try. What I discovered is that you can upload PDFs, text files, screenshots, and other documents directly into a project, then repeatedly draw on those materials by prompting Claude to review them and synthesize them into something new — which is exactly what I did.

The result was remarkable. Claude produced a beautiful, multi-page document ready to share and print. What would have taken me countless hours of writing and editing came together in a fraction of the time. AI has genuinely transformed a lot of the historical work I do, including family history research.

Below is the link to my Salix Log Cabin 100th Anniversary document — which, thanks to AI, helped bring the past alive for the future.