Outdoor classroom offers window to the past

Karen Story shows the fourth grade students from Truman how to spin wool into yarn. Story has been spinning for 25 years and has stories to impart about the craft including one about the phrase "putting on the dog." --Photos by Steve Moyer/Daily Mail

Truman fourth graders got a preview of the Missouri Osage Territory Muzzle Loaders at Marmaduke Park Friday. The group will have their fall shoot Saturday and Sunday at the park and the school took the opportunity to give the students some hands-on instruction in American history.

Kevin King from the Missouri Department of Conservation was on hand with some exhibits sure to grab the attention of the fourth graders, animal skulls and pelts. King told the students which animals the trappers were after and showed them the various skulls and skins.

Karen Story, who has been spinning for 25 years demonstrated spinning wool into yarn. One story involved spinning dog fur into yarn and knitting clothing from it.

"You could say that's where the phrase 'putting on the dog' came from," Story said.

Jessica Schwarz and Jason Pike from Nevada Parks and Recreation had a campfire and talked about the food mountaineers ate, and how they seasoned it. In addition to store-bought spices, mountaineers used herbs and spices they found growing in the area in which they worked. Food was cooked over an open fire on grates or spits.

Doug Righter -- he's the tall one -- demonstrates a tomahawk, the multi-purpose tool of a mountaineer. Since there were no stores within easy travel distance and everything a mountaineer needed had to be carried in they made do with what they had or they did without. A tomahawk could be used to chop firewood, hammer a nail or as a weapon as needed.

Steve Lewis, Vernon County Road and Bridge, demonstrated throwing a tomahawk and, more importantly to the students, let each of them take a turn trying to hit a wooden target.

"Power isn't as important as style," Lewis said. "If you try to throw too hard you can put too much spin on the tomahawk and it will hit in the wrong place or you could miss the target entirely."

Lewis said that overall during the day the girls seemed to have an edge.

"Today it seems like the girls are doing better at this than the boys are, they seem to be sticking the tomahawk more often," Lewis said.

Doug Righter was dressed in the traditional garb of a mountain man and explained that he had to carry all his equipment with him, either on his back or on a pack animal. For that reason most mountaineers only had one pair of pants and two or three shirts for all year and they used all of an animal to make clothing and other things with.

"Here is a button made from an antler," Righter said. "The mountain men couldn't just run to the store to buy clothes and other things they needed so they used what they had. They wanted the beaver pelts to sell but they would use other animals for food and to make clothing with the fur. They ate the meat and they would use the intestines, they would scrape them off and use them to carry water. They would make pouches called possibles bags where they carried everything they needed like gun powder, bullets and patches to fire their rifles."

There were several other demonstrations and the students were divided into several groups, each one at a different demonstration, and would spend the same amount of time at each station and shift to a new one at the end of the time.