Sutter Fort

I took a field trip to Sutter Fort. I had to come on a bus. The bus was tiring.

To get prepared for the field trip I had to take a history class. In that class there were Sutter bucks that you needed to earn for the trade store. Sutter bucks are green or yellow slips of paper that you earn when you do your home work read a book or take a test. The yellow ones are 1 dollar and the green are five dollars. I even had to dress up in pioneer clothes. I wore a shirt, an apron, an undershirt, an under skirt, a skirt, and I had a bag. My character was Virginia reed. She lived in Springfield Illinois. She came to California when she was 13 years old.

Before we went we had to learn lots about the fort. One thing about the fort was it was established in 1839. we also went on a scavenger hunt on the computer. We had to answer the questions.
We took a wagon ride to get from old Sacramento to Sutter fort. The horses were very big. They also had ginormas hooves. We even went on the main street where cars were. We waved to people that were on the sidewalk. Most of them waved back, but some people didn’t wave back and they were sour. We even saw the state capital. It was so big. One person thought it was the white house.

I made candles. It was a little boring because all you did was walk around in a circle taking a different candle from the rack each time you dipped it in hot wax and water. Most of the girls liked candle making the best. I didn’t .I liked the trade store the best. There are things such as dolls, banana chips, dominos, or beef jerky. The trade store was one of my favorite things.

I went to the trapper. It was fun because I had an envelope that said rattle snake eggs, but it didn’t have rattlesnake eggs in it. It was two rubber bands attached to something with a metal thing tied in the middle of the rubber bands. You would wind it up, put it in the envelope, give it to the person, and say open my rattle snake eggs and take a peek. They would open it and it would rattle against the paper like a rattlesnake.

I wove on a big loom. I wove the colors blue, yellow, white, violet, pink. The yellow yarn was very cheery. The blue yarn was really thick. We were supposed to do spinning wool, but we didn’t have time. I already no how to spin wool. It is harder then it looks. It looks like all you do is spin a tick with a hook that has wool attached to it. Most of the time it is hard because your wool gets tangled.

I also saw a black smith. The blacksmith made a nail out of metal. What he did was get it really hot in the fire. Then he hit it with a hammer and it made the sharp part. After that when it was still hot he got something with a lot of little holes in it and put the top of the nail in it and the nail was done. Then he made something out of an old half of a horse shoe. He heated it up in the fire so it got really hot and he took a hammer and hit it really hard and made it into a horse pick. A horse pick is something when you put a new horse shoe on the horse you could pick all the bad stuff that got into the horses hooves. After he made it he put a decoration in it. He put a horse head on the front. Blacksmiths are a good help.

I made a rope at the field trip. We had to spin it on this thing it took three people one to hold the paddle, one to spin the thing, and one to hold the thing that the thing was holding the rope. That was the hardest job so that person got to keep the rope. I was the first one to get to keep the rope. We also learned about the wagon when we were at the rope making. We learned that it is not made to carry people. They were made to carry your stuff. You would have to bring only things that you needed. There wouldn’t be room for other stuff.

At the pioneer doctor demonstration I got to volunteer. she pretended I had a stretch throat. She pretended to cut shallow lines in my throat. She also put pretend leaches on my throat to suck the blood that got out. Some other people got to volunteer too. One she said bumped her head and the other she said had gangrene. After we saw the doctor demonstration we had dinner. For dinner we had mashed potatoes, steak, vegetables, biscuits, and pumpkin soup. We had pumpkin custard for desert. I usually am not into custard, but this was like pudding with home made whipped cream. When it was time for the evening entertainment everybody danced. I didn’t like the dancing because the person who led it was embarrassing. After the dancing we all got to play instruments.

I did night watch to look and make sure intruders didn’t break into the fort. We got big fake guns just in case. It was all pretend, but it was all very fun. We caught the intruder stealing the ginger snap cookies we made. We new he stole them because he had them in his pocket. He said it was dirt, but we new it was cookies because they smelt like the cookies we made. One girl even licked it. After we caught him we put him in the dust jail. Then we went to the kitchen and had hot chocolate and cookies. After that slept at Sutter’s fort because it was an overnight field trip. I did not sleep well because the ground was hard and I didn’t have a pillow. I slept in a room with only girls in the building were the doctors office was. It was kind of creepy.

I had so much fun at Sutter’s Fort. I want to go again someday. I hope you could go to.