Doing it like the pioneers

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Enjoying getting their hands dirty molding adobe bricks were the quartet of McKinley School fourth-graders (clockwise from left) Treasure Jones, Shontra Holland, Timesha Wells and Efrain Vazquez.

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Docent Dale Hopwood showed curious children how log cabins, such as the 1868 Barnes cabin behind him, were built.

Nowadays, you do not see many fourth-graders jumping in to help Dad build a split rail fence around the homestead, mold adobe bricks or lift heavy logs into place to construct the family home. Those were tasks left to the early pioneers who settled in Kern County, but on Oct. 16 a new generation of fourth-graders was learning how it was done during the third annual California History Day at the Kern County Museum. More than 600 students, parents and faculty from schools all over the county dug theirs hands into the mud, lifted rails into place, even sampled sauerkraut getting a feel of what life must have been like for those early residents of Kern.

"We discovered how expensive it was for local schools to make field trips to California’s missions to experience the state’s early history," said Jackie Brouillette, the museum’s education manager. "We knew the museum had the resources, so we thought why not have more affordable California History Days right here in Kern County to let even more local students experience what those pioneer days must have been like."

While not intended to provide a complete history, California History Day does support the state history curriculum standards and provides concrete learning experiences students will remember for years to come. The day is designed to support student learning of our state's early history from the days of the first explorers to the early Twentieth century.

After walking through the 1868 Barnes Log Cabin and then the 19th Century Howell House, McKinley School fourth-grader Timesha Wells discovered a connecting thread. Interior lighting was used in both before electricity was harnessed to do the job.

"I was really interested to learn that people have been lighting their homes for a thousand years," Wells said. "Instead of a switch to turn on the electricity, they had to light lanterns and candles. I think I would have had a tough time living like that. What if you came into the house, and it was dark? I might have fallen flat on my fence looking for the candle."

Volunteer docents and museum staff dressed in period costumes helped students journey back in time to learn what the first European explorers and the settlers that followed had to endure while civilizing the county.

"Some find it to be a really different taste. Others crinkle up their noses and spit it out, "said docent Cindy Douhan, as she described initiating the young students to their first taste of sauerkraut. "Whatever their reaction, they discovered early settlers had to find ways to preserve their food. And one of those ways was to pickle the cabbage."

A large group gathered around docent Dale Hopwood as he stood in front of the Barnes Log Cabin. Holding small toy logs in his hand, he demonstrated the principle behind building the homes in which their ancestors lived.

"You had to know how to build a log cabin so the corners wouldn’t fall down and the rain wouldn’t come in," Hopwood told his young listeners. Then, he invited a few to see if they could accomplish that with the miniature toy logs he had set out on the table.

One of the more popular hands-on exhibits was adobe brick molding. Smiling and laughing, children crowded around the wooden boxes filled with…"Dirt, water, straw or dried grass," according to volunteer Jill Field. As the children dug into their task, Field explained that the mixture would be pressed tightly into a mold to dry in the sun, with settlers turning it often until the desired firmness for building was reached.

"If I was living back then, it wouldn’t have been easy to build all the stuff they had to," McKinley School fourth-grader Shontra Holland observed. "Today, it would be easy with all the technology that’s available."

There were other lessons to be learned, such as what brought some of the first Basque, African-American and Chinese settlers to the area and what role the arrival of trains played in the county’s history. Students even panned for gold in a makeshift stream much like those who came before them did along the Kern River.

But the day was not just about history. Students also discovered how math and science were applied to such things as mining the gold, separating it from the ore and calculating its weight and worth in an assay office.

"Before the classes ever arrive, we present the teachers with study guides we prepare based on the state curriculum standards," Brouillette said. "It gives the students a chance to study about what they will see at the museum and after their visit a way to review what they learned."


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