Ok, so this is probably interesting to nobody but me, but we're doing a unit on the Cariboo Gold Rush right now, and it is SO COOL! I'm sitting here in my classroom finding old archived pictures for the kids so that they can see what life was really like, and have some images in their head of how things were back in the 1860s for people arriving from all over the world, taking steamships and paddlewheelers up the Fraser River, taking mule trains and stage coaches up the Cariboo Wagon Road, and striking it rich up in the interior of British Columbia... it's really really cool! I've never studied about this before (well, that I remember, anyway!) and I'm having a blast. The novel we're reading - Cariboo Runaway - is really historically accurate, I'm finding. Even the stagecoach line that the characters take was actually a real company. And online is a veritable treasure trove of photos and original documents, like an actual mining licence or steamer ticket. Wowee!
And this is where I have realized that I am a teacher through and through. You can still travel the Cariboo Wagon Road, stopping at various historical points all the way to Barkerville - the 'capital' of the Gold Rush in B.C. And I want to do it! Take a road trip. Mostly for fun, but think of all the photos and stuff I could collect for my students next year! Aaaand yes, I realize that that would be letting my job even dictate what holidays I would take in the summer. But Oh! It would be so fun!
Ok, back to work. Yes, I realize this post makes me a humungous nerdball. But I'm hoping that my discovering this stuff, too, as the kids do, will make it all the more interesting for them!
4 comments:
I get the same way! Once I get interested in something, I jump in with both feet until everyone around me gets sick and tired of hearing about it.
I was so excited when Twin and I got to go to Jamestown, New York where Lucille Ball was born. We went to all the museums and read every single exhibit. It was great fun.
I have the book "Journey" by James Michener that I've only barely begun, but it's about that. And he's one of my all-time favorites, so I know it will be good! You might really enjoy it as he takes great history and weaves amazing novels of them! :)
So even though your road trip might (*might!*) be put on hold, how long a drive is the entire trail? I couldn't find that information (ok, so I didn't look SUPER hard but I didn't see it anywhere obvious!)
Hillary, Brent and I did Barkerville July 2005 and it was lots of fun. He even got pulled into a little skit at the end of the day. It was oh so fun!! And hilarious! Definitely worth the trip!!
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