Gabbie has had an interest in the history of people moving west in the United States for some time now. She reads historical fiction on this topic and enjoys visiting historical places in our area. We live about a half an hour from Independence, MO, a town that was once a frontier village and a main point for the three principle trails that crossed the west – the Santa Fe, Oregon, and California Trails. It was in Independence where thousands met to purchase and load their wagons before organizing into wagon trains. On one of the days off the kids had two weeks ago, I took them to the Frontier Trails Museum in Independence for a closer look at the history of the area.
People would write their names on rocks as they passed and this rock has a paper on it for kids to write their names. Zachary found his name already on the rock!
There is an interactive area at the museum called “Pack Your Wagon,” At “Pack Your Wagon,” where you can pack a scaled-down version of a pioneer wagon with items suggested for a five month journey on the trail. The kids enjoyed this area for awhile.
After we finished at the museum, we tried to find the wagon swales left from the wagon trains. Swales are wagon ruts and are left in a grassy area near the museum. There is a paved walkway around the area. We weren’t sure we were actually looking at anything other than grass, but it was pretty cool to know that we were exactly where the wagons crossed so many years ago.
Do you like visiting historical places?