Named for the broad Muskingum floodplain, the three-acre Big Bottom park is the site of a skirmish between Ohio Company settlers and some Delaware and Wyandot Indians on 2 January 1791. The Big Bottom massacre marked the start of four years of frontier warfare in Ohio, which only stopped when General Anthony Wayne and the Indian tribes signed the Treaty of Greene Ville.
Website does not specify any interpretive services beyond signage.
Logan Elm State Memorial is said to be the site where, in 1774, Chief Logan of the Mingo tribe delivered his eloquent speech on Indian-white relations. The speech was supposedly delivered under a large elm tree. Considered to be one of the largest elms in the U. S., the tree stood 65 feet tall, with a trunk circumference of 24 feet and foliage spread of 180 feet. It died in 1964 from damage by blight and storms. The tree's former location is marked by a plaque. Other plaques and monuments in the park honor Native Americans and early Ohio settlers.
The site is open to the public.
Website does not specify any interpretive services beyond signage available at the site.
This site marks the location of a sod-wall protective enclosure hastily constructed by an 80-wagon party and their cavalry escort. They were attacked by Sioux Indians while en route to Montana gold fields in September 1864 and stayed corralled within the six-feet-high and two-feet-thick walls for 14 days until rescued by a column of troops from Fort Rice. There is a marker on the site.
The site is open to the public.
Website does not specify any interpretive services available at the site.
Located three miles south of Chaffee, this site marks a crossing over Maple Creek on the Pembina Trail, a transportation route for settlers and freight. There is a marker on the site.
Cannot find a website with any substantive information on the site.
No details available.
Led by Patty Limerick, this seminar uses focused case studies to explore the larger picture of environmental history, a subject that has grown increasingly complex as historians deepen their understanding of the vast role of "anthropogenic change" (also known as "history") in reconfiguring the places and processes thought of as "natural." Much of the seminar explores the transformation of attitudes, from the assessment of North American landscapes and resources by early settlers to the recognition of the changing "baseline" of global warming, along with a reconsideration—and revision—of the usual polarity-pitting utilitarian approaches in opposition to preservationist approaches to the management of nature. With guest speakers drawn from the University of Colorado's widely respected environmental studies program, the roles of naturalists and scientists in shaping American thinking about nature will receive particular attention, as will changes in the production and consumption of energy, a fundamental matter in environmental history. The concluding field trip to Rocky Mountain National Park gives the themes of the lectures and discussions a down-to-earth grounding in a visit to one of the most popular units in the nation's public lands, while close attention to John McPhee's Encounters with the Archdruid provides a framework for drawing lessons from the past to enhance the quality of contemporary environmental decision-making.
To many, the Great Plains are part of the Great Flyover, whose landscape and history alike are flat and featureless. However, in this region in the middle of the nation, cultures have mingled and clashed for thousands of years. This seminar will focus on the 19th century, though also examining the first peoples and the continuing cultural exchanges of the 20th century. The seminar will begin with the physical setting, plants, and animals, and consider early humans in both Native American traditions and anthropological/archaeological studies. Europeans arriving in the 16th century accelerated the long history of change and evolution, initiating more than three centuries of converging peoples and cultures, new centers of power, flourishing trade, calamitous epidemics, and cultural and material intrusions from across the planet. Participants will visit Bent's Fort to see a cultural crossroads illustrated through one family. They will also examine cattle ranching, homesteading, scientific explorations, and the depiction of the plains in art.
Students analyze a variety of primary and secondary sources to determine the cause of the Jamestown starving time during the winter of 1609–1610.
This lesson provides a great opportunity for students to engage in real historical inquiry with prepared sources. The lesson is displayed in three locations on the site: the student view, which guides the student through the activity; the teacher view, which provides additional background information; and a PDF file that contains scripted instructions for the lesson.
Students first read a textbook passage about the Jamestown colony in 1609 and 1610. They then discuss how the writers of the textbook might have obtained their information, and go on to analyze primary source documents that expand upon the textbook account. Students essentially "do history" as they use a variety of sources to answer a clear, concise historical question—one that can be answered in multiple ways with the given data.
Another strength of this lesson is the document collection itself. A wide variety of primary sources offer greater insight into the reasons for the food shortage that resulted in the death of over 400 colonists in Jamestown during the winter of 16091610. Particularly helpful to teachers with struggling readers is the fact that the lesson includes not only the original documents, but also "modern" versions of the documents, written in language much more accessible to students.
While the detective log graphic organizer included in the lesson provides space for students to record source information, and the lesson itself provides a great exercise in sourcing, the documents themselves contain little source information. We recommend that teachers support students in using the available information about each document to understand its perspective and meaning. In general, the lesson provides good opportunities to engage in historical inquiry, to open up and go beyond the textbook, and to use primary sources to analyze the causes of an event.
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A passage from Joy Hakim's Making Thirteen Colonies is included in both the student view and the teacher view of the lesson.
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Teachers will want to support students in using information about the perspective of the various sources as they interpret each document's significance and meaning.
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Documents are included both in their original form, and in an adapted "modern version" that will be more easily accessible to most students.
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No assessment criteria are included, but the final writing assignment provides a great assessment of students' understanding and historical thinking.
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These Territorial Kansas collections convey the growing divisions in Kansas and the nation over the expansion of slavery, federalism, nationalism, industrialization, and changing political coalitions in Congress. Materials include government documents, diaries, letters, photographs, maps, newspapers, rare secondary sources, historical artifacts, and images of historic sites. The website is divided into five sections: Territorial Politics and Government; Border Warfare; Immigration and Early Settlement; Personalities; and National Debate about Kansas. Each is searchable by keyword, author, and county. Topical sections are subdivided into relevant themes and include an introductory essay. Visitors will find essays on territorial politics, the rights of women and African Americans, military organizations, and free state and pro-slavery organizations. "Personalities" lists 32 individuals, including John Calhoun, and the final section presents both anti-slavery and pro-slavery perspectives of the national debate about Kansas. The site also includes a timeline with links and an annotated bibliography.