Aliana Legorreta checks out an antique stereoscope during Creslane third graders’ guided tour of Creswell Historical Museum last week. GINI DAVIS – THE CRESWELL CHRONICLE
What is the name of the Native American people who lived in the Creswell area?
Who is the town of Creswell named after?
What was the name of Creswell’s first bank?
Do you know the answers to these questions? Would you like to? Then visit the Creswell Historical Museum, as Creslane Elementary School third graders did last week.
On April 18, four classrooms of third graders received informative tours of the Museum guided by Creswell Historical Society (CAHS) members Georgia Reid, Suzanne Peterson and Mike Briesemeister.
Worksheets and pencils in hand, the students moved from display to display, learning about how early pioneers came to Oregon and the Native Americans who lived in this area, and about early Creswell area churches, schools and family life. Listening and reading display information carefully, they sought answers to 10 worksheet questions.
Students learned about the trail Levi Scott and other pioneers traveled to arrive in Creswell and viewed wagon train artifacts; they learned that the building in which the Museum is housed was once a church and saw a large bell that once rang out to call children to school.
They learned about the two men who donated land for the town of Creswell and about Creswell’s first mayor, and saw a painting commemorating the North Korean attack on the U.S.S. Pueblo, in which Duane Hodges of Creswell perished.
They sat in early school desks and tried out antique stereoscopes, viewing two side-by-side images of the same scene (left-eye and right-eye views) and manipulating the slide to see them come together into a single three-dimensional image. They saw vintage business, school and church displays, a roomful of toys and children’s furnishings, a bedroom and a kitchen, ”where women worked really, really hard,” Peterson explained.
”The students were able to visualize how prior residents lived day-to-day lives and the difficulties of coming West over the Scott/Applegate and the Lost Wagon Train trails, and about historical events that affected Creswell residents in the past,” Reid said.
After the tour, students were asked to answer the final question on their worksheet: What did you most enjoy learning about today?
Answers ranged from the old classroom, to the wagon train exhibit, to the stereoscopes and more.
According to teacher Rebecca Harshbarger, the Museum tour was part of an educational unit on the history of the local community.
”We’ve been giving these tours for several years now,” Peterson noted. ”It’s always a lot of fun to see the kids enjoying these things.”
