Monday 2 April 2012

Indian Steps --Field trip

My parents took the kids and I up to Indian Steps which is a museum about the Indians that lived in this area in the 1700's. However once we arrived at the museum we discovered it had not opened for the season yet:( But that didn't stop us from exploring and still learning about the Indians that lived here.



There were several mosaic pictures around the house using Indian arrow heads that have been found on the property




















The museum was begun in 1908 by Mr. John Edward Vandersloot, who collected Indian artifacts as a hobby. He purchased 9.6 acres of land and discovered many Indian items while digging in his garden.

The Indians had to leave the area in 1750's due to the Europeans and it is believed that the Indian tribe died out or were incorporated into another tribe in the late 1700's.


My Mother with the children along the Susquehanna River













Indian totem pole which is not authentic to the local Indians but used by the museum as a center point. Since we haven't been to the Pacific Coast my kids loved it;!
















The meaning behind the museum's totem pole
















After exploring the grounds of the museum we discovered a nature trail across the road and went for a walk to learn about Native Pennsylvania plants,. These are what we found.

May apple, the sign said the leaves and roots are poisonous but it does produce a yellow fruit that can be made into jam.












Trillium's covered the forest floor





















Not sure what this one is called






























The trail took us up to a waterfall that was just barely a trickle but we all had loads of fun finding it.

3 comments:

  1. Wow totally blown away by this post as my passion is Native American things and my blog is http://www.nativeamericanimages.net/
    I would love you to have a look. Hope you get to visit this museum again when it is open!

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  2. Lovely to learn about natives :)

    ReplyDelete