Archive for the ‘Jordan’ Category
Meadowcroft
I got to chaperone a field trip for Jordan’s class the other day.
Before I get into the details of the trip, can I just say once again how much I love anything having to do with his new school?? This was probably the best field trip I have EVER been on. And it’s just such a nice group to travel with. The teachers are nice, the other parents are nice, all the kids were so nice, normal and well behaved. It was awesome. And I forgot my camera, go figure. I’m SO mad about that. And I think I want to take our family back up there, just to get pictures if nothing else. It was that neat.
So the trip itself was to Meadowcroft, which I had never heard of before. It’s in southwest Pennsylvania. There’s a rock shelter there (kinda like a cave….but not really) where they’ve found human artifacts from 12,000 years ago. At the rock shelter itself, they have built a really nice cover and platform for visitors to stand and view the dig. Everything is labeled and they have a lighting system set up so the presenter can easily point out different areas and finds. Coolest part of that is that it all came from a guy finding some junk in a ground hog hole. First some old soda cans, then an old tool (that turned out to be a Native American tool). Honestly, if I were strolling around my property (not that I have property, but you know) dug up a hole and found some stuff….I would never think to call someone to come and look at it. But this guy did, and the stuff they found was pretty amazing.
There’s also a 19th Century Villiage, which we didn’t get to see, but I’m sure is very neat.
They also have an Indian Villiage. It was perfect for the kids, very hands on. I learned a ton of stuff I didn’t know about live before the Europeans came to America. They had four different stations for the kids to go to in groups.
The first we went to was about agriculture. We learned all about how farming was done before the european methods (straight, orderly rows, modern tools, etc). They had to kill the trees by damaging a ring around the base of the tree (they had no metal tools, no axes to cut trees down) then burn the tree to bring it down. I could take several years just for one tree. Then they would spread the ashes on the soil as fertilizer and the women would break the soil with sharpened walking sticks. They planted the Three Sisters crops….and we’re SO doing that in our garden next year. We were planning on trying corn anyway, and we already grow squash. I’m excited. Basically, you plant the corn in a hill. When the corn gets about a foot tall, you plant beans and have the grow up the corn. Once the beans have a decent start, plant squash. The corn provides a frame for the beans to climb. The beans put nitrogen back in the soil (corn depletes the soil of nitrogen) and the squash grows large leaves that shade the soil, keep moisture in and make it hard for leaves to grow. The Native Americans didn’t know any of the science behind it….they just knew it worked. Very neat.
Then we got to learn how to throw spears with an atlatl. I hit the moose. With the feather end of the spear. The kids were impressed nonetheless.
The third station was all about life in the villiage. How the wigwams were built, the villiage walls. How they used every bit of the animals and plants and created very little waste. Relationships and trading rituals with other villages.
The forth station was…..what to do with the animal once you got them with the spear. How they skinned and preserved animals. They had a huge display of animal skins for the kids to ewww and ahhh over. Even a skunk. And a bear. And a teeny white weasel. Most of them….I don’t know how they do this. They are removed all in one piece. So what’s left is like….a leftwarmer almost. Only it’s an animal. Some of the more brave kids stuck their hands right up there like they were puppets. Kinda gross. But also neat. I was content to just pet (and hand out the sanitizer when we finished).
Anyway, if you’re within driving distance….this is worth a visit. Well worth it. They are open to visitors on weekends and the admission is really reasonable ($10 adults, $5 school children, under 6 is free)
