Students at Carson Elementary took a journey back in time on March 31 when the Pioneer Farm Museum & Ohop Indian Village visited the school. They learned what life was like in the Ohop Valley more than 120 years ago and engaged in some hands-on activities that pioneer and Native American children would have done during that time. Prior to entering the living history museum set up in the Carson gym, students watched a 25-minute video where they learned about the culture of the Coast Salish tribes that existed for hundreds of years before settlers came to the Pacific Northwest. They also learned how the first pioneers travelled ten miles a day by wagon and came to the valley because of the Homestead Act.
Pioneers in the 1800’s had to be self-sufficient in gathering their own food, clothes, shelter, and medicines. They did not have electricity or refrigeration, and the children worked extremely hard with little time to play. 

   As students went to the various displays in the gym, they were able to experience the tasks and ask questions about early pioneer and Native American life. They could:
• Shape a handle for a tool. • Shape and sharpen an arrowhead by rubbing it back and forth on a rock.  • Scrape the bark off a log used to build a cabin.  • Grind dried foods and corn with a mortar and pestle. • Use a grinder to sift flower wheat flour and work it into a dough, knead the dough and use a rolling pin and cutters to make biscuits • Saw a display of a variety some tools- some very different, some very similar to those used today. • Learn how an old-fashioned curling iron was heated with a kerosene lamp and used similar to today’s version.   • Use a pump to see how pioneers got water from the well and carried it inside for cleaning and cooking. • Try out a pioneer washboard with a big tub and put a cloth through the wringer. • Examine the various furs used to make clothing and warm blankets.