We ate lunch at Taco John's. I had the Buffalo Chicken wrap...and OMG was it goooooood!
We then went on to the second part of our field trip. The Boone County Historical Center. It is a very small museum but had alot of neat stuff to look at.
The first room we went to had a whole bunch of war stuff. Guns and cannons and uniforms, oh my! These guns are from the Civil War.
Inside the casing was a bunch of war memoribilia. The picklets got a kick out of the blue canning jars. I have a bunch of these that I keep spices in on my counters.
This log was awesome! It has actual shrapnel in it. I think it is from the Civil War but I cannot remember for sure.
This coat was used during the Vietnam War. The picklets made me take a pickture of it because it looks just like my winter coat.
This Dragoons uniform is pretty snazzy.
Some information on the Dragoons.
The next room we went to was a natural history room. I am not afraid to admit that this room scared the heck out me. I wasn't expecting real animals to be stuffed and NOT be behind glass. These things coulda jumped out and attacked me! Let's just say they took me by surprise. Look at the little beedy red eyes! Don't tell me that doesn't scare you.
This mountain lion is really cool but it did freak me out. Ever see Night at the Museum?
Look at the size of the paws on this monster.
The information on the mountain lion is interesting. Though the information is a bit outdated. The 2000 killing was in Dennison. My mom and dad didn't live too far from there at that time. A couple years ago another mountain lion was spotted in Cedar Rapids. It wasn't killed and as far as I know it hasn't been spotted again.
How cool is this mammoth tusk???
There was another room downstairs that we visited. I guess I didn't take any pictures of it though. I had a bunch of presidential memorabilia. All Democratic...LOL. NO Republican at all. It also had a replica of a mining tunnel and a repllica of the path that Kate Shelley took. We had absolutely no idea of who Kate Shelley was so we asked the curator. He set us up in the basement with a 20 minute video.
It is a rather neat story. Kate Shelly was 15 years old. It was a stormy night and there was a passenger train due in to the Moingona station. The station sent a train out to make sure the way was safe ie: there were no bridges out. Unfortunately that train fell into Honey Creek because the Honey Creek bridge washed out. Kate made her way to the station crawling along the Des Moines River bridge to give warning that the bridge washed out. The station then sent word to stop the passenger train and the lives of the passengers were saved. Of all the people who were on that path only two lives were lost thanks to the bravery of 15 year old Kate Shelley. If you are interested you can read about Kate Shelley yourself. Edhelper also has a literature unit on the book Kate Shelley and the Midnight Express by Maraget Wetterer it you have a membership.
Since we didn't have time this trip, we are planning another trip back to visit the Kate Shelley park, railway station, bridge and path. Sweet was very interested in her.
In the main lobby of the museum there was a collection of coins. Those were also neat but I didn't get pictures of them either. Musta not been on my game. Next we headed upstairs....
copyright 2009 Wicked Pickles-Homefront Lines
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