Our final trip!

Takinga tour of Salem was our final trip. It was awesome! First we visited the visitor center where we watch a movie about salem history. Every one seemed to enjoy the sideshow. After taht we went to the friendship bout, There we tooka look at how English men sailed. It wasn’t very comfortable. Our final stop was when we wen t to Mr.Carrs house, there he gave us background on hes own dig in his backyard! He found cool stuff like plates, dolls, and whole pipes! To top it alll off, Mrs.Carr served us cookies and beverages!

JOURNEY TO SALEM!

The many events that happened on our last field trip to the Salem Town are just too many to describe. Therefore, I will only describe our visit to Mr. Newhall’s friend, Mr. John Carr, who has done background archaeology in his very own back yard and had excavated (in a very deep pit) at least 10 000 artifacts. And he told us that everything he found was done by hand. He didn’t have trowels, or screens or hand sifts. Instead, he used a shovel to dig, and his hands to dig, and his hands to sift through the dirt and find artifacts. I thought that Mr. Carr would have had to thoroughly sift through the dirt many times to be sure there were no artifacts since he did not have or use a screen. I thought that it would have been a lot difficult. But despite all that, I was amazed how Mr. Carr and his wife, Mrs. Carr found all these artifacts, and added on to the history of Salem.

Salem MA, what we saw and how we liked it

Wow, I cannot imagine sleeping in one of those bunk beds, they had on old ships! That is exactly what they did on the Friendship. The beds were so cramped, and so hard it must have been impossible to get a good night’s sleep. I learned a lot when we got on the Friendship model, I learned the parts of the ship, and I learned that the ship was captured by the British.

I can’t believe that children now play, where accused witches were once hung. Yes, they did build a playground on top of the infamous hanging tree. Why wouldn’t the town of Salem acknowledge this historic site? i think it is because, the witch trials were an awful thing, even though some people think of the hysteria as sort of a benefactor to Salem.

I also like visiting Mr. and Mrs. Carr. The amount of artifacts they found was about 10,000. Wow, that is a lot. The Carr’s have bottles, shells, and many other artifacts in their house. After we looked at the artifacts, we ate the delicious cookies that Mrs. Carr made from scratch and we asked questions. This final field trip, was probably the best one we went on (even though the others were fun too)!!

-Christine Farzan

Salem Trip

The thing that fascinates me the most about the whole field trip is that the hanging site for the witch trials turned into a littered playground. I would usually assume that such historically important setting would be preserved and kept tidy, but I guess I assumed wrong.

On our way to our destination, there was a museum that caught my eye. It was the Salem Witch Museum. As soon as I saw this museum there was an urge deep within me to go and see what was inside this museum. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to go.

We stopped by at a Seventeenth Century Hours called the Narbonne House. In that house we learned about how roofs and the house itself changed over time. While we were learning about that, our whole group was in one of the newest edition to the Narbonne House. We then slowly moved toward a room filled with artifacts found at the excavation held years back.

After the lovely lunch, we went into a store called “West India Store.” We spent about 10-20 minutes in there just shopping for souvenirs. Before we went to this store, we actually went on the Friendship. It was a replica, but it was still something that was very awesome. We all completed the training to become junior rangers and I am proud to announce that now I am a true junior ranger. WOOHOO!

Before we left Salem, we stopped by Mr. Carr’s house to see how his excavation in his backyard went. He found about 10,000 artifacts, which I found quite astonishing. He explained to us how he sifted through the dirt with his bare hands. We then viewed his collection of artifacts that were beyond plentiful and enjoyed homemade cookies and lemonade which I thought was delicious!

Historic Salem gets New History: AWESMEOSITY!

My computer was not cooperating with me, so I couldn’t upload a picture AND I lost this blog post I finished yesterday night. Oh well, so this one will be shorter. Today was our trip to historic Salem, and our last field trip.

We started our day driving up to this small park with no signs or anything. Then we stand in a circle around this patch of grass, where Mr. Newhall tells us that it was where the hanging site of the salem witchcraft trials was. Everyone started looking for a plaque, but it wasn’t there. So we took a moment of silence to remember the 20 victims of hysteria.

Then we hopped back into the cars and headed over to the visitor’s center, where we looked around at the models of things you would see in Colonial times. Then we watched a short move on the history of Salem as a whole. Te part about all the trade ships to China was pretty cool, but other than that, I was so tired, I tried SO HARD not to fall asleep.

A short walk later, we were at the Narbonne house, where Ms. Murphy showed us architecture from the 16000’s to the early 1900’s. This was actually pretty cool.We learned about half houses and additions. I thought the Gambrel roof was kind of impractical, though.

Next, LUNCH! And due to another horrible wrap, I decided to buy it this time. So Mr. Newhall showed our class this coffee shop, where I bought a bagel with cream cheese and a green tea bubble tea. The bubble tea was really good. I love tapioca!

Then we got on to the Friendship, and earned Junior Rangers badges. YAY! I won’t go into much detail on the ship, but it looked A LOT like Old Ironsides. I learned a lot about parts of ships.

Finally, we went to Mr. Carr’s house, which was built in the 1700’s. Isn’t that cool? Anyway, Mr. carr is conducting a backyard excavation. He’s already dug a hole 6 feet deep! He told us how he excavated his property, as well as showed us some of the artifacts he has found. He showed us this one cylindrical tube, which he was unsure about. I suggested it was a candle molder, and later, Art agreed with me! ( Art is one of the people that helped us with the homestead dig.) After some delicious cookies from Mrs. Carr. We are done with field trips.

P.S I AM STILL MAD WE ARE NOT GOING TO THE SALEM WITCH MUSEUM!!!!!! It wouldv’e been fun, even if we already knew everything in there…

Salem Town, Not Only Famous For Witches

Salem, Not Only Famous for the Witches!

Today, we went to Salem, Massachusetts. That happens to be where some of the witch trials took place. The witch trials were a horrible thing, and the girls that played the game were misguided, because the caused twenty people to die. That is horrible! I feel very bad for those twenty people, because they gave their lives for a kid’s game. They lost theirs lives for no reason. I also feel bad for Tituba, because she was not really a witch; she just said that so her master would stop beating her.

The first thing that we saw in Salem was a very sacred and famous, or I should say infamous, place. We went to the sight of the hanging tree. The funny thing was there was no memorial that showed that this was the place. Another weird thing was that the site was converted to a children’s playground, which is kind of scary. When I found out that the sight was of the hanging tree, I was shocked, because the first thought that came into my mind was the fact that little children were playing on the sight of a tree were people hung other people. In other words, the children were playing on the sight of where people died. It is very creepy!

The next thing we did was we went to the Visitor’s Center, where there was a gift shop, and where we watched a movie. The movie was primarily about Salem, but it featured other settlements of Essex County. One thing that made Salem blossom, was the fishing. All the fishermen thought that the fish were abundant, but they learned the hard way, that fish were not abundant, because soon the fish went away, and people were catching less and less. This is one of the main reasons that Salem blossomed early. Salem was where the first actual industry of the New World. It also had a big statue of a ship.

We then walked to the Narbonne house, which was built in 1675. One thing that was surprising was that no important event happened in it, or no important people lived there, although it is still very famous. It was consistently changed, because people kept on adding additions. They excavated the entire back yard, and they found A LOT of artifacts, they were amazing. They included china plates and cups, coins that could be dated back to before the 1800’s, I bet, wine bottles, intricate buttons, pipes, a huge coffee cup, bowls, pots, and much more.

We then went and had lunch by the waterfront. It was not awesome, it was horrible. The food was sort of bad, and the smell was even worse, but it was worth it because of the thing that we did after lunch. We got to go on a boat, a BIG boat. It was actually a ship, called the Friendship. It was actually really fun, and I got to become a JUNIOR RANGER SHIP MATE. I am so glad.

After that, we were almost done, but not quite. We went to a great gift shop that sold Asian products. I bought three items. Then we went to Mr. Newhall’s friend’s house. His name was Mr. Carr. He did a little excavation in his yard. He found a great many things, and that is because his house was built in 1788, which is really cool. He found a variety of things which included china plates, pipes, what we think to be a candle mold, ceramic, a lot of brick, a lot of rocks, and many, many more things. Then we got a special treat, Mrs. Carr gave us soda, lemonade, and homemade cookies. They were delicious. Today was majestic.

Salem: One Last Field Trip

Today we went on our final field trip, a trip to Salem, Massachusetts. I thought we were going to see the Witch Museum, but as usual, I was wrong. Instead we went to the Narbonne House, the Friendship, Gallows Hill, and Mr. Carr’s house. My favorite non-giftshop part of the trip was the Friendship. I tried out one of the hammocks below the deck, and I actually found it to be very comfortable. Before we left the ship, everyone was awarded a Jr. Ranger badge. After shopping in a giftshop, we went to Mr. Carr’s house. He had found more than 10,000 artifacts in his backyard, and he has been digging there for three years now. The most amazing thing about the artifacts he found was that a lot of them were still intact. Mrs. Carr gave us cookies and Coca-Cola which we gobbled up quickly. I had a fun day today, but I can’t believe Summer Session is almost over! With the last field trip completed, I feel really sad. I might never see any of my classmates ever again, but I will always hold the memories we made close to my heart.

Going to Salem and Discovering Friendship

Today our class crammed ourselves into the “rally wagons” for the last time (sad sigh) to visit Salem. The small city is famous for witchcraft, but, like Mr. Newhall said, it’s not only about the witches; it’s about the history of a city and its people. We visited several different sites, including Gallows Hill, the Narbonne house, the very historic Carr house (backyard archaeology at its best!) and a “multi-media, surround sound, presentation” about the history of Essex County. My favorite part of the trip was when we went aboard the Friendship.

The ship we went on was actually a replica of the original, which was captured by the British in the War of 1812. I love old ships, so this was a variation of heaven for me. It was so beautiful, standing on deck with the wind blowing and those tall masts, the huge sails… Anyways, this was definitely the best part of the trip. Below deck was simply amazing. I don’t know how a person could live down there for months at sea (I mean, seriously, major personal space issues!). Seeing the captain’s quarters was also interesting, with the old maps and navigational equipment. We were all awarded honorary “Junior Ranger, Ship’s Mate” badges for learning about the Friendship, thanks to Art and John for their extensive maritime knowledge.

Going on all of these field trips has taught me that history isn’t just the study of dead people and memorizing dates.

It’s how we shape our future.

The last field trip-The Salem Tour

The Salem tour was a great experience. At the begging, I thought Salem is all about witches, wizard or witchcrafts those supernatural things, but after this substantial trip, I have learned more about Salem, such as trading and manufacturing.

            I think looking at the artifacts dug from the Narbonne House was the apogee of the Salem Trip. There were tons of significance artifacts, which could tell us more about the Salem trading and economic growth. For example, I think the traders have traded with the Chinese before by looking at China ceramics, cups and plates, which have lots of wonderful Chinese images on it.  I think the Salem people imported lots of tea, because there were couple teacups and teapots.

            Our last field trip, the Salem tour, was a great trip. I enjoy looking at the cultural environment and the history in Salem.

Final Field Trip, Salem Massacusetts

Salem Massachusetts

Today we went to Salem Massachusetts where the hanging tree once was, there now is a playground. We then went to the Visitor Center where we saw a short award winning video on the history of Salem. From there we went to a home and a park ranger gave a tour of the house. The ranger talked about as the family grew more additions would be made to the house. She also talked about that the garbage would be thrown out into the back. Also once the privy was full and it began to smell the people back then would throw their garbage over it and then the layers began to accumulate. They had an archaeological dig in the backyard and had over 150,000 artifacts were found when the park wanted to acquire the building. When I found that out it really surprised me on how many things can be found in that backyard. We then went to the French Ship at the wharf where we had lunch. They gave us an activity to do on the boat to become a junior ranger. Once we were done on the French ship which was very interesting to see we the went to the Mr. and Mrs. Carrs house where Mr. Carr had dug up his backyard to see what was under the ground and had found over 10,000 artifacts. He even found a tea pot only missing a little piece on the top that was completely in tact. There house is from the 1700s so that was why they found so many things in the backyard.