It was my birthday and we decided to go to Marshall Gold Discovery State Historic Park after my mom saw on the news that they were having "Live History" during that weekend. Since Dillon is in 4th grade this year, he is learning about California History, so we thought this would be a great field trip for him and for us, to learn about the gold rush. And we sure did. We even got hands on with that era. It was a lot of fun. Hope to do more field trips like this. Nothing better than seeing history in person.
Dillon getting a lesson on panning for gold.
Dillon giving it a try.
Look, Dillon found Gold!
Kaitlyn's turn. She didn't find any. But she had fun.
Jason's turn. He found a couple small pieces.
Me searching for gold. I never found any. It was fun trying. I really wanted to find some, I wasn't ready to leave.
They had a blacksmith there and he was making a candle stick out of iron. He said we all think that recycling is new, but actually it started 100's of years ago.
This guy looked like this the whole time he was singing. Love happy people. They played and sung old pioneer songs. It was great.
Trading Post
The girls got these cute braclets at the Trading Post. And Lexie got a wooden snake too. She REALLY wanted that snake. She is so funny! She can be really girly, but then once in a while. she loves things like this. I think it's cute. It's nice because she will be girly with Kate but then still can get dirty with Dillon. Best of both worlds.
Kids taking a break. Love this picture of them.
Can't go somewhere like this without getting some sassafras. So yummy! The kids loved it.
All the docents were dressed in pioneer clothes. Them dressing like this really made it feel like we were back in the 1800's.
Great background for a picture.
Old saw mill
Here is some Mormon history during the California Gold Rush....Though the great majority abandoned their other activities to search for the precious metal, one enterprising Mormon merchant named Samuel Brannan had a better idea. He bought all the mining supplies he could find, and filled his store at Sutter's Fort with buckets, pans, heavy clothing, foodstuffs, and similar provisions. Then he took a quinine bottle full of gold flakes to the nearest town, San Francisco. There he walked up and down the streets, waving the bottle of gold over his head and shouting "Gold, gold, gold in the American River!" The next day, the town's newspaper described San Francisco as a "ghost town." Samuel Brannan quickly became California's first millionaire, selling supplies to the miners as they passed by Sutter's Fort.
I love hearing about the mormon pioneers in CA.
Click on this picture to enlarge, so you can read.
There was a great docent inside this cabin telling about the mormons during the gold rush. Who knew they were part of the history.
American River
I love this picture of my kids. Crossing over the American River. They really weren't thrilled about holding hands but this is such a sweet picture. They will like it when they are older.
Look what we saw on the side of the road. We saw 6 deer all together. The kids were so excited. Watch out cute little deer! It's October and that means, IT"S DEER HUNTING SEASON!
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