Julian Mining Company

Kaden had a fabulous field trip to a place called Julian Mining Company.  They were studying the Revolutionary War and it was a perfect chance to go and have them live a day in the life.  Kaden thought it was a little boring but I was fascinated.  It was such a great day and I learned a lot!

The poor people that ran the company - I don't think they have ever had a group that big.  

The kids were a little rowdy to say the least.

There were a few different stations that we went to.  One was husbandry where they kids learned about how people got food and farmed in Revolutionary days.  I think the kids favorite part was holding the baby goats and chasing them around.

At this station the kids learned about carding wool to make the clothes they needed.  

I thought the boys might turn their noses up at this but they all loved doing it.

Kaden even went late to the next station so he could finish his loom

The next station was the press.  They taught the kids how they had to use quills with ink and stamps to make brochures to teach people about what was happening in the Colonies.  The kids each wrote a letter to their family.  They learned how messy the whole thing can be!

These were actual duplicates of some of the wood molds they used to pass around.  They had the separated snake which was in Benjamin Franklin's Gazette and was labeled "join or die" and the row of coffins representing the Boston Massacre.

Kaden wanted to do a stamp of the Boston Massacre

They had a candle dipping station.  Kaden was a little bummed that he couldn't make his candle bigger

The kids even got to play some of the games that kids played in Revolutionary Times.  They were actually pretty good at it!  It took a little time to learn but the boys quickly mastered it.

They were even trained to be soldiers.  They had to form ranks and follow the orders of their commander.  They even had muskets aka long sticks.  The boys were pretty pumped to use those.  I mean really what boy doesn't have fun with a pretend musket?

It was a beautiful day and we learned a lot.  It was one of my favorite field trips of the year.

At the end of the mock battle our leader gave a speech.  It was very moving.  I wish I recorded it.  He talked about how amazing our country is but the only reason we have the America of today is because of brave men and women but most importantly by the Grace of God.  I got a little teary as he talked of patriotism and remembering our founding fathers.  I went in to thank them after for a great day and apparently they had just been chewed out by one of the 5th grade teachers for giving the patriotic speech at the end.  I was so mad that someone would be offended by talking about our founding principles to a bunch of students.  I told the people in charge that we all thought it was amazing and hopefully it made an impression on the students that day to be proud to be an American.  If you want to check out this amazing field trip go to  http://www.julianminingcompany.com/  you won't regret it!