Summer adventure day 13 - This is the Place

The kids started off the day with some ipad time while the adults got ready. 

 

 

Just add in more kids as they get up!

 

My cousin Erynn came over to visit and Claire and Elaina were in heaven looking at baby Nikki.  They wanted to hold and touch her.

 

 

Here is a picture with Natalie and I with our kids and my cousins Laura and Erynn with their kids. 

 

 

Claire and Elaina on the porch. 

 

We decided to head to This is Place Heritage Park.  It is at the base of Emigration Canyon in Salt Lake City.  It is here that on July 24, 1847  Brigham Young said, "This is the Place, drive on" which was the end point in the pioneer journey from Nauvoo.  From up here you can see much of the valley, although it was a bit hazy the day we were there because of some fires. A statue of Brigham Young and Joseph Smith.  Although Joseph Smith was killed before this journey, they had spoken about moving west to avoid persecution in the east.

 

 

The monument is 60 feet high and has statues of not only Brigham Young and the pioneers but also the fur trappers, Spanish explorers and other missionaries.

 

 

This statue is called Journey's End.  This sculpture depicts a handcart pioneer family kneeling in prayer at the end of their journey.

 

After seeing the statues, we headed into the Pioneer Village.  It is made of buildings and homes that were relocated or replicated from various parts of Utah to depict what life would have been like in an early pioneer town.  This is a replica of the Eagle gate that is in downtown Salt Lake City which was made in 1859.  We soon found out that there was a lot of stuff for the kids to do in the village. 

 

 

I love this!

 

The first stop was a train ride around the park.  It was challenging to get on with two strollers, but they gave you a brief introduction to the park and some information about some of the buildings.  This was Brigham Young's farm house.  Apparently he never lived here, but used it for visiting guests and dignitaries.  It was originally built in Salt Lake.

 

We got off the train and went to our first activity.  This boat represents the ship Brooklyn which went from New York to San Francisco.  They left in February of 1846.  It look them almost six months to arrive in San Francisco.

 

Right next to the ship was an area where the kids could do gold panning.  They were all excited and intent on finding gold.  We told them to not get upset if they couldn't find anything.  But soon we noticed that one of the workers was throwing gold in the stream when the kids weren't looking.

 

They were so excited to find their gold and show it to us.

 

The best part was that they got to bring it home.  Probably much like it was in 1849, later there were fights about missing and stolen gold.

 

 

In the park the kids got to pick three activities they wanted to do.  They punch your bracelet after each activity, but since we also had 3 activities per adult we were able to do extras.  At this Indian Village they made Indian necklaces.

We went to the print shop and the kids saw how they used individual letters to create sentences and then paragraphs.  They also showed how they spread the ink on the letters and used the press to create the newspaper. 

 

We did some leather working where they were given small pieces of leather and they could pick out a metal rod with a design on the end.  When they pounded the hammer the design transferred to the leather.  Surprisingly, no one got hurt doing this.

 

 

Even Grant did it.

 

Next we headed to the bank.  In the case were several examples of early money in the US and Utah.

 

 

Andrew  wanted to hold Mateo up so that he could see inside the booth.

 

Next door was the shaving parlor.  We didn't know what to expect inside and went in to take a look.

 

It turns out that you can volunteer to get in the chair and get a shave.  I was surprised when Andrew volunteered.  He said it tickled when they put on the cream.

 

Then the barber "shaves" it off and offers the clients some after shave.  Apparently shaving parlors could also do tooth extractions and many other things.

 

 

Even more surprising was Grant volunteering to get shaved.  He sat there very still and loved it.

 

The school house was across the street.  This one dates to 1865.

 

 

There were rows of benches where the seat is attached to the desk behind it.  There was also slate for writing. 

 

Grant and Mateo wanted to get in on the learning too.

There was also a farm and small petting zoo.  The kids were fascinated by this cow you could milk.  It actually had water in it, but the kids could get the idea of how to milk a cow.

 

Then there were pony rides for everyone.  Grant wasn't sure at first but he actually liked it.  I had to walk along side the horse with my flip flops which doesn't seem like a good idea now that I think about it.

Claire and Elaina would have done this over and over.

 



 

 

We headed over the blacksmith shop next.

 

 

They were actually heating up and bending metal in the shop.  The kids listened and watched as the men told them what they were doing.  Andrew stayed in here for a while with Danny while I went on with the little kids. 

 

They had several cabins that you could walk through.  It is amazing to see how small they were inside.   

 

They had never seen an outhouse and had a hard time understanding why it would be outside.  Ah, the marvels on indoor plumbing!

 

We did a craft with paper inside the halfway house.

 

Look how red their faces were, it was really hot outside and they had been running around.

 

The pioneers were singing out front.

 

A pioneer showed them how to scrape wool in preparation for spinning it into yard.  They wanted to use the spinning wheel, but luckily that wasn't allowed.  That could have been a disaster.

 

Next up was pioneer games.  Here you take the metal ring from a barrel and use a stick to push it along as you run beside it.  It took a bit for them to get the hang of things, but once they did, they were running up and down the street.

 

There were other pioneer games they played like trying to walk on stilts.  This was quite hard.

 

 

This is a reproduction of Smoot Hall where Brigham Young University started.

 

Supposedly this is actually the spot where Brigham Young said "this is the place".

It looks over the valley and you can see the other monument.

 

The last stop was the hospital, it was basically a large room with many beds inside.  I like the beds though.

 

One last statue on the way out reminds us of how many pioneer children there were and how hard their lives were as well.

I think that the park gave the kids a really good idea of what it was like to be a pioneer and how they managed to survive without modern conveniences.  We were quite dirty walking around the dirt roads the whole day.  Believe it or not, we didn't even see everything!  We headed back to Rose's house for a BBQ and to start packing for the long drive home.  At least we weren't walking!  When we got back Grant fell asleep on the carpet at the edge of the air mattress.  He was so tired after all that fun.