More than 600 fourth grade students from four school districts and two additional schools had history brought to life for them in this year’s re-enactment of the early fur trade and lumbering activities in Chippewa County.
The 15th annual presentation of “The Past Passed Here” attracted a record high attendance. It took place earlier this month in Chippewa Falls’ Allen Park, where some of the history actually unfolded.
The event, sponsored by the Chippewa County Historical Society, turned the park into early lumbering and French fur traders’ camps, where volunteers re-created various activities from those eras.
Jim Schuh, co-chair of this year’s event and a member of the historical society’s board, said the 2018 event attracted a record attendance, which brought the total number of students who have taken part since 2003 to more than 9,000. The event was created to provide a field trip that supplements the fourth graders’ classroom study of Wisconsin history and provides them with a living history experience.
School districts taking part in the 2018 event included Chippewa Falls, Cadott, Fall Creek and Stanley-Boyd. In addition students from Holy Ghost elementary school in Chippewa Falls and Crestview Academy in Eau Claire sent fourth graders to the event.
Both teachers and students commented on how authentic the re-enactments seemed to them, according to Janel Seaholm, community resource coordinator for the Chippewa Falls Area School District. In turn, many of the history re-enactors said they were impressed with the students’ prior knowledge and the depth of their questions, Seaholm said in an article for the historical society newsletter.