Cayuga Frontier Explorers


FrontierExplorers2005Ad.gif

February 21, 1792
Blizzard today. The lake is frozen in time, the woods silent and hollow. Crystals too large to be called snow are dancing through the air and sticking to my nose. We have been walking for weeks now. Pa says we are almost there -- but we are nowhere. This "here" looks like "there". Mamma told us we will have to work hard and find food and build a house -- but there is snow everywhere. I wish I were back in Baltimore.

The Program


What was life like for the first settlers in the Fingerlakes? Just how did Ithaca become established and grow into what we know it to be today? Without convenience stores, shopping malls, roads, colleges, libraries, schools -- just unmapped forests, natural gorges, and all the splendor of the native wildlife.
The settlers had to live off the land; heed to its unpredictable weather and find gifts in its hidden and unexplored valleys. How would we, today, react to such a situation?
Cayuga Frontier Explorers is a week long program where youths ages 6-14 adopt a historical Fingerlake's family and role-play what life must have been like. On the first day, these families will purchase their supplies from the "market" before heading off to what will one day be called Ithaca. Along the week long journey, they will be met with many obstacles they must overcome. Blizzards, coyotes, illness, finding shelter and food, and interacting with the Native Americans who called this place home.
Our actors will learn the vocabulary of the day as well as play and make games as the settler children would have done. They will learn to cook over an open fire, dip their own candles, make their own paper, and find natural remedies in the woods. Their first task will be to map the woods as they travel to the Cayuga Nature Center Homestead site and learn how to build a shelter and store their supplies to keep them safe through the winter.
All participants will keep a daily journal in character. Journals, maps, and other projects created during the February program will be on special display at the Maple Fest on March 12, 2005. The second week of this program in April will continue the story with our families setting up for the spring planting of crops and preparing areas of the land for livestock.

Registration

Cayuga Frontier Explorers is offered during the winter and spring school breaks, February 21-25 and April 18-22, and is set to the same schedule as our summer camp programs with the day starting at 9am and ending at 4pm. After-care will be available up until 6pm for an extra fee. The cost of this program is $150 for members and $170 for non-members.
REGISTER TODAY!

Last Updated: Saturday, January 15, 2005 3:26:03 AM Posted: 1/15/05 3:15 AM Expire: Summer 2005 √
© Cayuga Nature Center