Students saddle up for frontier fun during Wagons Ho

Adrian Juarez (left) and Kevin Zepeda (right) from West Elementary help each other at the leather crafting station. Juarez is hammering a stamp into a piece of leather using authentic tools cowboys would have used in the frontier to mark their belongings.

For 26 years, fourth grade students in Mountain Home have benefited from the knowledge of two traveling teachers. Last week, both of them spent hours introducing these students to the challenges and adventures of life on the frontier during a program held in Carl Miller Park.

Cal and Marla Clevenger have spent more than a quarter of a century playing the part of the wagon master and chuck wagon cook during a hands-on history lesson known as Wagons Ho. Last Wednesday, the pair held the attention of nearly 200 students from West and Stephensen elementary schools along with 50 parent volunteers during the day-long experience.

Cal Clevenger started the day with lessons about each learning station the students will rotate through during the day. Each station was closely monitored by a parent volunteer as students learned to do chores like saw logs, cut firewood and make a fire as the pioneers did as they made the trek along the Oregon Trail.

Parent volunteer Stacey Spies shows West Elementary student Carlos Wilburn how to hold a lasso for roping.

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