Parent Chaperones please come with the understanding that this is a participatory experience.  You are expected to keep an eye on a small group and do the activities with them.  For example, if they are sewing a leather pouch, you make one also.  Also, everyone needs to remain in costume at all times (except when in the tents at night).  If anyone is cold, try to add warmth with layers under the costume.

On the way to Old Sierra Historical Ranch, understand what was happening in the early 1850's so students have a feel for the setting of 1854 when they arrive.  This time line will give you an idea what to discuss and what the students can expect.

1846

  • Sewing machine patented by Howe.  Five years later Singer patented a more efficient machine.  Howe sued but lost.
  • The Smithsonian was founded

1847

  • The Potato Famine in Ireland reach its peak.  105,000 Irish immigrated to the United States

1848

  • Gold was discovered in California.
  • First women's rights convention was held in Seneca Falls, New York, led by Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stantton.
  • Chewing gum was invented.

1849

  • The gold rush was on in California.
  • The safety pin was invented by Walter Hunt.

1850

  • California becomes the 31st date  as part of the Compromise of 1850.  This compromise allowed California to enter the union as a "free state" and the territories to decide by popular vote whether to be free or slave.
  • The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne was published.
  • President Zachary Taylor died and Millard Fillmore was sworn in as the 13th president of the United States.

1851

  • Gold Rush in Australia.
  • Moby Dick by Herman Melville was published.
  • The 1st YMCA was organized in Boston (right after one was started in Montreal).
  • Social reformer Amelia Bloomer invented bloomers.  She also wrote about suffrage and the unjust marriage laws.
  • Jean Bernard Foucault demonstrated the earth's rotation with his pendulum.  He could mathematically predict the speed of the earth's rotation.
  • Elizabeth Blackwell campaigned for women's rights in a letter to Baroness Byron.

1852

  • Elisha Otis invented an elevator that was safe by using a system of ratchets and teeth.  If the rope broke the elevator would not fall.  This made taller buildings possible.
  • Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe was published first in a newspaper in installments, then as a novel, and finally as a play.  
  • The population in the United States was 23 million.

1853

  • Franklin Pierce was elected as the 14th President of the United States.  He was a democrat and won over Winfield Scott.  He was the first president to be born in the 19th century.
  • Levi Strauss made and sold his canvas pants.
  • The New York - Chicago railroad was completed.
  • Potato Chips were invented.  When a customer complained that his fried potatoes were too thick, George Crum, a native American cook in Saratoga Springs, New York, deep fried a batch of super thinly sliced potatoes. (Thomas Jefferson had introduced french-fries 50 years earlier at the White House.)

1854

  • The Kansas - Nebraska Act was passed.  It allowed both territories to decide by popular vote whether to be slave or free.  Pro and anti-slavery factions participated in riots and violence leading to the name "bleeding Kansas".
  • The Republican Party was founded in Ripon, Wisconsin.  Abolitionists unhappy about the Kansas - Nebraska Act, helped form the party which was a coalition of Whigs, Free soldiers, and anti-slavery Democrats.  This party elected Lincoln in 1860.
  • The clipper ship "Lightening" set the all time speed record for a single day's sail - it covered 436 nautical miles in 24 hours.