Our field trips have been taking us outside more and thank goodness for that! The sunny weather cannot come soon enough. Meanwhile, I’ll be content with overcast skies for our outings, just as long as it’s not a downpour. It’s is frightfully difficult to find motivation for hiking when a proper PNW rain starts.
I’ve been incorporating history successfully into the field trips AND hikes. I had the idea to do grave stone rubbings, which for the life of me, I cannot think why I haven’t thought of before.
Auburn has a historical cemetery right in the middle of town! Some even say it’s in the dead center…get it? Haha! When we went to this cemetery I was astonished to find a Civil War veteran buried there. The kids got a rubbing of the grave stone, we took it home and did some research and WOAH! You will not believe the high drama that surrounded this guy’s life. Check out the story here. One of my favorite things to discover with the kids are all the mysteries behind the lives these people had. It feels like we are real historians learning about the local people who came before us. Fun fact, Auburn used to be called Slaughter. Slaughter! Who would have thought?!
This past week we made the trek out to Franklin Ghost Town which didn’t disappoint. We accidentally ended up hiking 4 miles instead of 2.5 but that’s another story. Anyways, we saw the 1,300 foot mine shaft where some miners died (suspected murder!) and the small decrepit but touching cemetery, the remains of the coal car tracks, and the ruins of the powder house. The kids got great rubbings of some of the graves. Of course we are always very respectful and gentle when we get rubbings, only getting them from grave stones that are in decent condition and not roped off. The kids are very into doing the rubbings and finding these “lost in time” historical sites, as C calls them. There were at one point 1,100 citizens in the town, and 15 different nationalities and languages being spoken! Talk about a diverse group. The mine shaft has an incredible view of Mt. Rainier, it feels like you can just reach out and touch it.
We also stopped by the Black Diamond Cemetery, another historical location know for its paranormal activity! While we were excited by the potential spookiness, we didn’t see or hear anything out of the normal. Just a rooster crowing. Or was it? Haha. I tried to convince the kids it was someone howling, and I received quite the eye rolls which I may or may not have been aiming for, haha! There were many Italian names on the old graves which makes me wonder if Black Diamond hosted a large amount of Italian immigrants at one point- must have right? There were some really beautiful quotes on some of the stones with tragic implications, such as young woman and two infants buried together, since the infants didn’t even live a day we assumed she died in child birth.
A week or so ago we went out to Point Defiance Park which is a labryinth of trails and I accidentally ended up adding a mile or two to our hike (hm, I’m noticing a theme here). We finally made it to the ancient mountaineering tree! This tree was a sapling when William Shakespeare was born- wowza! The bigs and I chatted all the way back about what that tree has seen, or not seen, and how noisy it’s life must be now.
If you’re wondering where Pickle is in all these pictures, she usually munching on a snack in the backpack. She is hiking more and more and covered about a mile all on her own on this past weekend’s adventure, “Me wun, mama!” Im definitely ready for her to “wun” as much as she wants. I will bring however many raisins I need to bribe her; she’s getting big! I’m so grateful we can have these adventures throughout the kiddos childhood, I hope they have fond memories of these days. I know I will.
