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Fourth graders in the Western UP are spending one more day learning more about Upper Peninsula history as the Copper TRACES program concludes today.
Over 500 students from 6 counties are participating in the program offered by the Keweenaw National Historical Park.
The program started in 2016 in celebration of the 100 year anniversary of the National Park Service.
“The fourth grade park pass was also started in 2016 as a way to celebrate the National Park Service and that’s called the Every Kid in the Park program. The idea is to come and visit your parks and get out and explore them. Copper TRACES was started to invite kids to come to the park, see what it’s like, and introduce them to that idea of Every Kid in the Park,” said Kathleen Harter, who is the Keweenaw National Historical Park’s Chief of Interpretation and Education.
Due to an overwhelming response, Copper TRACES has continued to grow each year now featuring 20 hands-on workstations.
“TRACES stands for Technology, Research, Art and music, Community, Environment, and Service,” Harter added.
Upon arrival, students are greeted with a pep rally, building excitement and interest among the eager young minds, before being divided into groups and exploring the exhibits.
Pupils dig into the Keweenaw’s past where they learn about some of the operations of the Calumet and Hecla mining company.
“They’re learning about traveling back in time through the Keweenaw Time Traveler and reading maps and using photography and looking at the landscaping today, shipping, traveling through the Great Lakes and shipping–a whole breath of things that really exposes kids to all the wealth of cultural natural resources that exists here in the Keweenaw Peninsula–and all of the activities are also tied to their grade level content expectations through Michigan as well,” said Harter.
One group explored pattern making and metal casting, an in-house tooling process used by the company to make parts for machines used at the time.
Along with some of the processes, they also received company pay slips that had no value anywhere other than the company store owned by mine. This exercise gave the children an idea of some of the conditions that led to labor strikes.
As well as mining, the students explored other areas of UP history, such as bridge building, archaeology, and local farming.
“Copper TRACES is all funded by the National Park Foundation. We’ve received a grant for three years in a row now. They provide the busing, so all of the busing is covered for all of the schools to get here. They also get a free lunch and all the activity stations get a certain amount of reimbursement to help set up for their activities,” she also stated.
Harter says that the success of the program would not be possible without the support such a strong local community.
“This is truly a collaborative effort. We have over 60 volunteers, station leaders, people helping to put this on. It’s not just park service staff, but literally community members. All of them are dedicating three days of their time to help make this happen. They’ve all created their own activities and it’s just a lot of enthusiasm, not only that the kids are having but the station leaders themselves too,” Harter concluded.
