The Big Piney 4th Grade class visited the Sommers Ranch Homestead Museum and Living History Center in September. It was a great experience for the students with them learning Wyoming history this year.
Clint Gilchrist talked about Indian archaeology on the place. Angie Boroff taught roping and let the kids pet Nibbles, the horse.
Dawn Ballou orchestrated making dolls from clothes pins, washing clothes with wash tubs and scrub boards, and hand pumping the water. Dawn also explained how the root cellar was used.
Jonita Sommers and MaryAnne Almquist supervised the students gathering eggs and cleaning them.
Jonita showed them how to iron clothes by heating the iron on the cook stove. She also showed them how the cook stove worked.
Jamie Brewer taught them how to churn butter after Jonita explained how the milk separator worked. Jamie brought bread so when the butter was churned everyone could have a piece of bread with the churned butter and gooseberry jelly Jonita had made.
The teachers were able to supervise the students playing with the toys in the children’s room upstairs and playing on the ranch-built playground equipment outside. They also toured the shop and outhouse that are renovated.
The tour was particularly special for two of the students, Cassidy Espenscheid and Heidi Sharp. The ranch was homesteaded by their great, great grandparents.
From RealRancher Jonita Sommers – Pinedale, Wyo.
Fantastic
What fun for those kids, minus perhaps, the tour of the outhouse! Wish I were a fourth grader again just to get to have this extraordinary experience.