They split shakes while looking up
at the cedar-shake barn roof: if it took them so long to cut one perfect shake,
how long did it take to get enough to roof the house and barn?
STAUFFER-WILL FARM PROGRAM
LIVING HISTORY FOR OREGON'S SCHOOL KIDS
By: Robin Will
The children arrive in big yellow school buses -- and step back into the life of a 19th-century pioneer farm.
Period-costumed volunteers and staff members lead them through some of the
things farm kids might have done in the days when everybody on the farm had a
job to do.
They cut firewood -- while trying to figure out how long it would take to cut the four or five cords needed for household heating and cooking.
They split shakes while looking up
at the cedar-shake barn roof: if it took them so long to cut one perfect shake,
how long did it take to get enough to roof the house and barn?
They dip candles, gather fabric scraps for quilt squares. They make biscuits and bake them in the wood stove.
They look at the chamber pots under the beds and shake their heads -- no way.
The Stauffer-Will Farm program is the key element in Aurora Colony Historical Society's educational outreach. Every year about 2500 Oregon and Washington school children take part in the living-history enactment of life in the 1860s on an Aurora Colony farm.
The farm, nestled among the hop yards two miles from Aurora, is original. John Stauffer built the house and outbuildings in 1867, and very little has changed since John's daughter, Matilda, married August Will a generation later. The big log farmhouse is furnished with Colony artifacts -- or replicas, built to withstand the wear and tear -- and tools and harnesses still hang in the old barn.
An excellent teacher's packet, developed in 1998-99, helps teachers prepare the students for this portion of their Oregon history study. A video -- incidentally starring children who are descendants of the Stauffer and Will families -- help get students in the mood for their visit.
Teachers who want their classes to participate in the Stauffer-Will school program should contact the Museum for information at 503-678-5754 or email info@auroracolonymuseum.com. Because of staffing limitations, tours of the farm must be arranged in advance through the Museum.