A middle school history teacher steps outside class and outside the box to bring the frontier to life with a re-enactment of an 1800s camp.
By LOGAN NEILL
Published March 25, 2004
For the students who ventured toward the small patch of ground behind Powell Middle School, things might have looked a tad out of place last week. Outside the brick and concrete classroom where Pete Crawford spends his days teaching history, it seemed history had come alive.
Smoke rose from a wood fire nestled beside a small canvas tent that was surrounded by axes, hunting knives and cast iron pots and pans. Crawford was there too, dressed in linen pants and shirt and holding a flintlock rifle.
It shouldn't have been much of a surprise for the students who know their teacher's affection for American history.
Crawford staged the re-enactment so they could get the feel for frontier life in the early 1800s.
"I believe in hands-on history," said Crawford, who has been teaching the subject for nearly 20 years. So, when kids kept asking him what people ate and how they dressed during the times of Lewis and Clark, he took the next step. Along with some items from his own collection, he borrowed some things from assistant principal Earl Dean, an avid member of a group of re-enactors called "Mountain Men," and set up his camp.
The eighth-graders who visited the site had a living history experience. Crawford cooked up bacon and venison stew so they could smell the aroma. He hung animal hides on sticks so they could feel the pelts. He even gave lessons on how to aim a muzzle-loading rifle.
"Everybody was pretty amazed," said Ashley Donald, 13, who, along with fellow eighth-grader Joscelyn Stephens, agreed to act as helpers in the camp. Dressed in period clothing, the two girls helped cook and demonstrate utensils while Crawford lectured on culture and historical figures of the period.
Though the girls say they admired the way people used the simple technology of that era, they agreed with most of their peers that they are glad to be firmly rooted in the 21st century.
"The thing you notice most is all the work people had to do just to keep food on the table," said Joscelyn. "If you were lazy, you starved to death."
Crawford admits he's something of a buff on the early American period. Last summer, he traveled to Harpers Ferry, W.Va., where Lewis and Clark got their supplies and were outfitted for their epic exploration of the west 200 years before. So when his students expressed excitement for his own re-enactment at Powell, Crawford was nothing less than thrilled.
"I'll do just about whatever it takes to get kids excited about learning history," he said.
