History Club Trips 2018-2019

This past academic year, History Club had a blast visiting Old Fort Niagara, the Buffalo Zoo, and the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site.

Our first trip in November 2018 took us to Old Fort Niagara where we learned about the French construction of the fort in the late seventeenth century and the imperial contests that eventually led to the British conquest during the French and Indian War in 1759. Jacob Keenan served as an excellent tour guide, sharing his inside knowledge about the fort and life as a soldier in colonial America.

This is an excellent view overlooking Lake Ontario. You can
see the CN Tower in Toronto from this vantage point.
From Left to Right: Jessica, Oscar, Andrew, Christian, and Jacob.  

The main fort where French, British, and American soldiers lived,
traded with Native Americans, and served as the last line of defense. 

These revolutionaries are about to take up arms against the
tyrannical British or perhaps join the cast of
Hamilton: An American Musical. 

Jacob demonstrates the finer points of how to properly
hold a musket and march to the rabble above.

This tiger was quite friendly. 

History Club with Theodore Roosevelt.
From Left to Right: Andrew, Will, Oscar, Ashley, Tori, and Nick

Our second adventure took us back to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when zoos and world's fairs became popularized in Europe and the United States. First, we went the Buffalo Zoo. Built in 1875, the Buffalo Zoo is the third oldest in the United States. Students enjoyed seeing the lions, tigers, and bears but Ashley's passion for turtles became a group quest to find the shy reptiles. After a fantastic lunch at a Mexican restaurant, we went to the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site where Theodore Roosevelt was sworn into office after the assassination of President William McKinley at Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition in 1901. We learned a great deal about McKinley's assassination and Roosevelt's swearing in, including the story of Roosevelt's harrowing trip from the Adirondack's, where he was in the midst of climbing Mt. Marcy when he learned of McKinley's dire situation, to Buffalo.

Will found great satisfaction in exploiting his
workers to become a "Captain of Industry"
like the great steel baron Andrew Carnegie 

Will added a little fist-pump action for good measure.  

Checking out the seals at the Buffalo Zoo 

Watch out for that Rhinoceros horn, Tori!