Hands-on history
Photos: LOREN BENOIT/Press Ponderosa Elementary speech teacher Alicia Aldendorf helps fourth-grader Kayla Reeve rope a calf Thursday morning at the Pat Triphahn Memorial Idaho History Rendezvous at school.
Fourth-grader Logan Bronzini shoots an arrow at the archer station during Ponderosa Elementary School’s Rendevous Day on Thursday. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Fourth-grader Cole Holley and Lowla Plummer cut wood at the lumber station during the Pat Triphahn Memorial Idaho History Rendezvous at Ponderosa Elementary in Post Falls. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
Dave Paul assists fourth-grader Laila Jones as she rides Red during the Pat Triphahn Memorial Idaho History Rendezvous Day at Ponderosa Elementary School in Post Falls on Thursday.
Wearing traditional regalia, Butch Nomee, of The Coeur d’Alene Tribe, and his son Tsanes show Ponderosa Elementary School students a Men’s Fancy Dance during Ponderosa’s Rendevous Day on Thursday. (LOREN BENOIT/Press)
By BRIAN WALKER
Staff Writer
POST FALLS — Jet Zobell's eyes lit up when he thought about living in the 1800s.
"I would have rather lived back then than now," the Ponderosa Elementary fourth-grader said Thursday during his school's hands-on Rendezvous, which caps a lesson in Idaho history. "I love the outdoors and survivor games."
Students sampled lentil soup made with a Dutch oven, rode Red the horse and a wagon, teamed up to use a crosscut saw, made Native American jewelry, tested their archery skills, visited a cavalry camp and enjoyed other stations at the event that was started more than 25 years ago in memory of former Idaho history teacher Pat Triphahn.
Jet was among the students who dressed the part, donning a coonskin cap and mountain man coat.
At the wood cutting station, longtime volunteer Paul Wagner got a workout assisting and cheering on the teams of two.
"Keep it going," he told one duo. "Don't slow down. Take it away."
Wagner also showed students how wood shingles are built.
Over at the cavalry camp, James Teague, as an Army soldier of the 1880s, told students that the weather was the biggest threat back in the day, followed by their diet and Native Americans.
He showed them a piece of hardtack, flour and water baked as hard as a rock.
"I have to soak it in my coffee and fry it in my bacon grease just to eat it," he said. "Everything is dried and full of salt."
Teague drew some shivers when he explained that the bristles of his toothbrush were pig whiskers.
He explained that soldiers valued the small stuff.
"One of my most important possessions is a dry pair of socks," he told the students.
After trying his hand at archery, student Logan Bronzini said he felt good about the sport.
"Archery is better than a rifle because it doesn't make loud noises that can hurt animals' ears," he said.
Speaking of loud noises, a cannon was fired as the traditional kickoff to the Rendezvous.
"We have to alert the neighbors and, in the past, we've sent out flyers," fourth-grade teacher Kristin Owens said.
The cavalry's John Bunch, who manned the cannon, said the common response from students after it’s fired is to question the sulfur smell when the black powder burns.
"They'll try to put their nose right up to it," he said.
Sharla Wilson of the University of Idaho Extension offered biscuits and soup made with Dutch ovens. She cautioned students to refrain from trying to chew on a peppercorn if one was in their soup.
"If you have a black rock, don't eat it," she said.
Wilson explained how water had to be retrieved from a stream and boiled to make everything from coffee to bathwater.
"I like my coffee, but this is no Dutch Brothers or Starbucks," she said.
Wilson said entire families used to have to use the bathwater and, if the water wasn't completely gross by the time the youngest person had a bath, it was used to clean the floor.
"That's scary," one student responded.