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Pinedale Online > News > September 2012 > LaBarge Elementary School students learn about homesteading history

Helping with the eggs. Photo by Pinedale Online.
Helping with the eggs
Kids collected fresh chicken eggs from the chicken house and brought them in and cleaned them. Jonita Sommers explains about eggs and the kitchen in the homestead.

Churning butter. Photo by Pinedale Online.
Churning butter
Jamie Brewer gives each of the kids a chance to help turn the butter churn. Later they would get to eat home-made bread with the butter they helped make.

Homestead Playground. Photo by Clint Gilchrist, Pinedale Online.
Homestead Playground
The homestead playground includes the rebuilt old teeter-totter that uses the original tractor seats to sit on, and has broom handles to hold on with.
LaBarge Elementary School students learn about homesteading history
by Pinedale Online!
September 19, 2012

Sixty-three students, all of LaBarge Elementary School 1st through 5th graders, visited the Sommers Ranch Homestead on Wednesday, September 12th. The students got to help churn butter, ate home-made bread with homemade jam, collected and cleaned chicken eggs, helped spin on a spinning wheel, helped do hand laundry, pumped water from a water well, learned how to throw a cowboy rope, visited a nearby Native American archaeological site, and played on the homestead playground.

Volunteers helping out with living history demonstration stations were Jamie Brewer (home-made bread and churning butter), Jonita Sommers (explaining eggs and the kitchen and made gooseberry jelly), Caroline Brazzell (spinning), Dave Vlcek and Sam Drucker (archaeology), Clint Gilchrist (homestead history), Ty Hunt (roping), and Dawn Ballou (laundry).

The Sommers Ranch Homestead is a living history project being done jointly by the Sublette County Historical Society, the Green River Valley Museum, and siblings Jonita and Albert Sommers. It opened to the public in the summer of 2012 and had its Grand Opening on September 1st 2012. Buildings on the 1.5 acre site are still in the process of being restored and interpreted. The intent is to make it a hands-on learning experience about the early 1900s homestead era in the Upper Green River Valley. Much of the staffing and tour leading is being done by volunteers. Initial funding has been through the generous support of the Sommers family and through donations. The Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office helped fund the restoration of the garage and cellar this past year. Additional buildings still to be restored include the old bunk house, ice house, and a barn soon to be moved onto the property. Future projects include rebuilding the wind mill electricity generator, the water wheel in the ditch, replanting the garden, and making the old telephone system functional again. Interested volunteers always welcome. For more information, contact the Sublette County Historical Society at the Museum of the Mountain Man in Pinedale, 307-367-4101.

Photos by Clint Gilchrist, Pinedale Online!



Related Links
  • Sommers Ranch Homestead on Facebook
  • 2011 Sommers Ranch Open House - Sept. 8, 2011
  • 'Before' picture of the Sommers Ranch homestead house - Before restoration done in 2010
  • Sommers Ranch nomination for 2012 Leopold Conservation Award
  • Old newspapers an intriguing time machine - Oct. 17, 2010
  • Sommers Homestead will be open for summer hours - May 31, 2012

  • Pouring the butter. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Pouring the butter

    Making butter. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Making butter

    Butter. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Butter

    Spinning. Photo by Clint Gilchrist, Pinedale Online.
    Spinning
    Caroline Brazell demonstrates spinning.

    Making yarn. Photo by Clint Gilchrist, Pinedale Online.
    Making yarn

    Roping. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Roping
    Ty Hunt shows the kids how to throw a cowboy rope.

    Learning to rope. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Learning to rope

    Throwing the rope. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Throwing the rope

    Cowgirl. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Cowgirl

    Doing laundry. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Doing laundry

    Chicken Coups. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Chicken Coups

    Gathering eggs. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Gathering eggs

    Kid's room. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Kid's room

    Playing with toys. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Playing with toys
    The homestead is meant to be a living history site. Kids can touch and play with the old toys and dolls in the upstairs kids bedroom.

    Pumping Water. Photo by Clint Gilchrist, Pinedale Online.
    Pumping Water
    The homestead house never had indoor plumbing, so all water for drinking, cooking and washing came from the water well pump outside.

    Filling buckets. Photo by Clint Gilchrist, Pinedale Online.
    Filling buckets
    The kids got to pump the water to fill the buckets needed for water at the laundry demonstration station.

    Carrying water. Photo by Clint Gilchrist, Pinedale Online.
    Carrying water
    Kids carry buckets of water back from the well to the laundry station.

    Learning about laundry. Photo by Clint Gilchrist, Pinedale Online.
    Learning about laundry
    Dawn Ballou helps the students learn how laundry was washed in days gone by. They washed clothes, rinsed them, and hung them to dry on a wooden rack.

    Scrubbing. Photo by Clint Gilchrist, Pinedale Online.
    Scrubbing

    Making clothespin dolls. Photo by Clint Gilchrist, Pinedale Online.
    Making clothespin dolls
    As a hands-on craft activity, the kids got to make dolls and alligators out of old clothes pins, and then take them home with them to keep.

    Making a doll. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Making a doll

    Shooting hoops. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Shooting hoops
    The kids enjoyed playing on the homestead playground.

    Long walk up. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Long walk up
    The students had to walk a ways to get to the Native American historic site.

    Archaeology. Photo by Pinedale Online.
    Archaeology
    Archaeologists Dave Vlcek and Sam Drucker talk about a Native American site.
    Pinedale Online > News > September 2012 > LaBarge Elementary School students learn about homesteading history

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