Waterloo Village

Today we took a field trip to Waterloo Village (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterloo_Village). Read the Wikipedia entry-it is accurate. Waterloo is a town the is at the midway point on the Morris Canal between the Delaware River and the Hudson River. It is an amazing story of human engineering. It is not easy to move boats over the mountains. Sadly, the historic park closed down 3 years ago due to lack of funds. Some wonderful people worked really hard to get some money to start restoration and it is now open for school tours. They are hoping to one day raise the money to restore all the buildings and bridges.

We started our tour at Abraham's cabin. A small 2 room cabin with a hayloft (where the 10 children slept). The 2 rooms were the main room-which served as the master bedroom, living room, and kitchen and the keeper room-which is where the spinning wheel, yoke, and farm tools were kept. The white stuff between the hand chopped logs that they built their house from is called chinking. A mixture of mud and clay to insulate the house.

Here we learned where the saying "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" comes from. It seems if you did not tighten the ropes holding the mattress every day you could fall down. The bug portion comes from the bugs that lived in your mattress.

We also learned where the old "Pop goes the Weasel" nursery rhyme comes from. The round thing in the corner is a Weasel. It would pop when there was 2 skeins of yarn on it. You can also see how they laced in the baby at night so he/she couldn't get out in the middle of the night and crawl into the fire.

The Inn

The General Store/Post Office. Here you could get whatever you needed.

The Saw Mill. Not open to the public at this time.

Outside the Canal Museum. This is housed in the teacher's house. In order to attract a quality teacher who they paid a pittance the town built this lovely home for him/her to live in. At the museum we learned how they built the locks and engineered how to get boats over the mountain. They were literally pulled up the mountain and then they went down the other side like a log floom. It was amazing. Here we also learned how they tied their young children to a pole so they would wander off the side of the boat.

After the canal museum we headed over to the Leni Lenape Village. Here are some of the gardening tools they used. A sharpened stick for digging, an antler tied to a stick for raking, an Elk's shoulder blade tied to a stick for hoeing.

The boy's and men cleared the land and the women planted the gardens. Mostly planting the 3 Sisters. Corn, Pole Beans, and squash. First the corn. When the stalks started growing, the beans-they would climb the stalk, then the squash which grows low to the ground. The women and girls got to sit up in this shelter and throw rocks at any animals that wandered in. Boy's would sometimes sit up their and practice hunting with their bow and arrow.

The men and boy's fished. They built Weirs. The fish would be trapped in baskets at the point and then they would use their spears to kill the fish.

The Native Americans tied their babies to a cradle board and hung them up on poles while they worked. This kept the baby safe from snakes, eagles, and other dangers.

Everyone lived in the long house.

The Leni Lenape believed that when you died you would meet your dog. Your dog decided if you got into heaven. The moral here-be kind to your dog.

The Island the village is on is called Winikung. Which means Sassafras. They had a wonderful story that tells why the Sassafras has 3 different shaped leaves. An oval, one notch, and two notches. There was a boy who was born with hands shaped liked paddles. No fingers or thumbs. As the boy grew he was fishing with his father one day. He discovered that he was really good at catching fish in his paddle hands. He became the greatest fisherman in the village. The Spirit liked this and gave him thumbs. With thumbs he was able to pick berries. He became the greatest berry picker. The spirit smiled and gave him pinkies. With pinkies he was able to use a bow and he became the greatest hunter. When he died his body became the trunk of the tree and the leaves grew as all of his hands over the years.

The kids got to grind some corn. Hard work to make enough ground corn.

It was a fantastic day and we learned a lot. We are hopeful that over time they will get the funding they need to restore the entire village for generations to come.

With all the really great things we learned today the fact that really hit home? Back in the day there was a lot of tying up of babies and small children to keep them safe. No one thought this would be remotely enjoyable.