Pinedale Elementary 4th grade students learn Homestead history
by Jonita Sommers
May 25, 2015
The Pinedale 4th grade students visited the Sommers Homestead Living History Museum Thursday, May 21, 2015. Children got to milk a cow, saw a log with a two-man crosscut saw, churn butter, collect eggs, learn about a cream separator and kitchen stove, find ice in the ice house, use ice tongs and see ice cutting tools, learn how to saddle a horse and how to throw a rope. It was a beautiful day for a learning and memorable experience with 77 students and 10 chaperones/bus drivers. The weather was perfect to enjoy playing homestead games such as the egg-spoon, gunny sack, and three-legged races along with a tug-a-war contest. Students got to stamp leather and make coasters or bookmarks in the shop area and make clothespin dolls as crafts activities. They learned how people at the turn of the century lived and worked before electricity was available. They got to see how the Homestead Act and Manifest Destiny inspired people to come west to become homesteaders, ranchers, cowboys and tie hacks.
Volunteers Pat Schueler, Katherine Rees, Delta McCormick, Liz Wardell, Arlinda McLoughlin, Bob Bing, Jonita Sommers, and Dawn Ballou helped with the living history activity stations. DeeAnn Price made homemade bread and Jonita Sommers made the black currant jam.
The homestead is managed as a living history site under a cooperative agreement between the Sublette County Historical Society, the Green River Valley Museum, and siblings Jonita and Albert Sommers. Buildings on the site include the 100-year old, two-story log homestead house, a garage, root cellar, barn, meat house, ice house, and bunk house. The homestead will be open to the public during the summer season - June, July and August on Fridays and Saturdays from 10AM to 3PM. Private group tours are welcome on days the homestead is not usually open during the summer and can be arranged by calling the Museum of the Mountain Man, 307-367-4101. Admission is by donation.
Directions: On the East Green River Road, 7.3 miles south from US 191 (turn south at the Cora Y at Trappers Point). From Big Piney, take the East Green River Road north 15.2 miles. The historic site is on the south side of the Sommers Fishing Access Road-County Road 146.
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