Our Community - Fall 2018

Our D&L Trail (Delaware & Lehigh Canal Heritage Trail) - By: Autumn C., Ava P., and Kiley D.

Be sure to visit all the student topic areas by following these links:
~Our Fall Season - Explores Local Halloween traditions, Making Sauerkraut, and more.
~Our Season and Climate
~Our New School
~Our Land, Water, and FOOD!
  
The D&L trail is a great place for families to go for fun outdoor experiences. The trail runs about 140 miles through Bucks, Carbon, Luzerne, Lehigh, and Northampton County. The D&L trail is interesting because it’s one of the only trails that have a dog park in Lehighton, Pennsylvania. Also, the trail is very educational that schools take field trips there and learn about nature. Walking on the D&L trail you might run into many kinds of animals some examples are deer, bald eagles, bears, turtles, fox, and snakes.

          The trail is a beautiful scenery especially in the fall, it’s a great time for people to take photos. The view from the trail was awesome especially near the water. The trail in Bowmanstown has a park that children can play on and have a picnic. Also, on the D&L you can walk, ride bike, fish, play frisbee golf and even have a picnic with family and friends.  Today walking on the trail, we encountered a painted turtle. A volunteer from the nature center gave us facts about the turtle. On the trail you can find colorful painted rocks that have sayings on them that are hidden. When you find the rocks, you can hide them or keep them. We also had time to take the dog to the newest addition the dog park.

          The D&L trail is a wonderful place to visit just to walk, hike, bike riding or just enjoy the view. There are so many things to do! We can’t wait to go back again!

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Though they are helpful keeping the mouse population
down near Heintzelman's Butcher shop (a Lehighton
business going back over 100 years), these stray cats
are an issue as people have been dropping unwanted cats
at the old farm.  Click here for the history of Heintzelman's.

Lehighton's namesake, the Lehigh River, is an important part of our history and our future.  Here the river spills over
to its natural spillway of river stone where many launch kayaks and rafts.  This photo taken from the Lehigh Canal Towpath looking toward town where the trail continues down the old Lehigh Valley Railroad tracks toward Bowmanstown and points sout toward Bethlehem.  Zion's UCC church-tower looms in the setting sun.  For more on the D&L Trail click here.

Outdoors is a place for nature and animals to live. Fishing is a fun activity for all ages also it is a time you can spend with friends and family, Tyler likes to catch fish and be outside to enjoy the fresh air. Stray cats are very cool to see because you can see their cool colors. Austin likes to see stray cats to see their cool colors and what kind of cat they are. White water rafting is very fun and thrilling. Noah likes doing white water rafting his favorite part was when his raft hit a big rock also Noah liked when the waves came in and they made his raft go up and down.

Austin F., Tyler B., Noah M., & Brayden M.

We are lucky to have such a professional, yet all volunteer local fire department. 

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The Tale of Two Massacres (One in our town, the other in Ohio) - 

Our town was founded by Moravian missionaries who wanted to live among Native Americans to share their way of life with them.  They arrived in Lehighton to form their settlement they called “Gnadenhutten,” meaning “tents of grace,” in 1746.  Life was peaceful, Native people living here with the missionaries.  But then came the French and Indian War which led to many Natives to joined the French side and set out to destroy the English settlements.   On November 24^th, 1755, eleven settlers here were killed in what was called the “Gnaddenhutten Massacre.

But it wasn’t the only attack known as this.  Another happened about 27 years later in Ohio also known by that same name.

The Ohio Gnadenhutten Massacre was carried out by Pennsylvania militiamen.  This massacre was much more deadly: 96 Moravian Christians were killed. The massacre happened on March 8,1782 at the Moravian missionary village the village was located in Gnadenhutten, Ohio. This took place during the American revolutionary war.  More than a hundred years later, the massacre would be known as “a stain on the frontier character that time cannot wash away”. 

Danny E., Anthony C., and Tristan M.

(To read more, click this link to Mr. Rabenold's local history site for details on survivors stories and how Ben Franklin built his fort in Weissport.)

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All Around Town with Lindsey and Naveya:

The Gnaden Hutten Massacre site is below our town cemetery (see picture).  Above it, above the straight rows of the old Gnadden Hutten graveyard is the resting place of the 11 people killed on November 24th, 1755.

On the day we worked on this report, my mother drove us to other landmarks in town: the old Graver's Pool (now Snyder's tire), where the railroad had a spur track to access factories (Baer Silk Mill) along Bridge St.  (Four Part Story to the Graver Family - from boats to bricks to their pool.)

We saw many of the important early buildings along First Street and learned about some of the early stores.  How Brights Department Store and the old Hotel Lehighton were tore down to build the Hi-Rise Elderly apartments.
(For a virtual downtown Lehighton tour, click here to Mr. Rabenold's history blog.)

We also went into Jenny's Candy Shop and took pictures of the old Moxie Soda Machine.  Moxie soda once out-sold Coca-Cola.  It was only ever bottled here in Lehighton and also in one town in Maine.  Moxie is still made today, but it tastes like cough medicine.

We also drove by the childhood home of the famous Abstract Impressionist artist Franz Kline's house at Alum and 9th Sts (the blue one).
(For the life of Franz Kline and his famous 'Lehighton' mural.)

The Franz Kline 'Lehighton' mural, painted onto the wall at the American Legion Post #314 in Lehighton is now preserved and protected at the Allentown Art Museum.  (See Mr. Rabenold's short talk on the mural, click here.)  Watch how conservationists saved the mural, click here.

Lindsey K & Naveya N-R.

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The Lehigh Canal - Work crew scow - About 140 years ago

This picture taken on the Lehigh Canal just above the Rickert house at Weissport.  (You can see Rickert's rooline with brackets in this picture.  The house remains today as Rod and Jenn Mann's Canalside Guesthouse directly across from the Weissport Canal Parking lot.)

The Lehigh canal, is located in North Eastern Pennsylvania that was opened in1820 and operated throughout the early 1930s. It consisted of 20 dams and 29 Locks and was 72 miles long, stretching from the small town of White Haven to Easton, PA.

Mules towed the loaded barges which mainly carried anthracite coal and pig iron from the coal regions to the Delaware river area. The workers, called lock tenders, lived on the canal and spent their days working the locks to make sure that the barges passed through without any problems.

Locks are a junction to transport the barges up and down the canal at different levels of the terrain. They would fill up and let out water to raise and lower the barges to connect to the next level of the canal.

As the railroads in the region were being built and taking over the transportation industry, the canal quickly became obsolete. The time it took to transport was much less using trains. This eventually shut down the canal transportation system forever.

The Lehigh canal is a critical part of American history and has been recognized as one of the longest canal transportation systems in it's time. It created a pathway for future use and an important part of the Lehigh River area. Many people have visited and enjoy this important landmark as a recreational area and natural habitat.


To read more about the Rickert family on Mr. Rabenold's history blog, click here.

To read more about Josiah White, builder of the Lehigh Canal, click here.

By Jeremiah C., Nick P., and Kaden Walck

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Games We Play - Sports Superstitions:

Jayse L, "When I play baseball and go out to do the National Anthem

                                             I don’t touch the line because that means you will lose     

                                             And if you put your name on your gear you will get bad luck."

But this isn't just a youth idea.  Pro athletes also have their own idiosyncrasies.

In the NFL Denver Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders played against his opponent in Madden for that day and if he would win his team would. Cam Newton would feel if he looked good his team would look good. Marshawn Lynch felt if he ate Skittles he would go beast mode. 

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Nathan S, Lukis H, & Dylan K:

Our area has always held rich farmland, from the Moravians who first farmed along the Mahoning Creek and Lehigh River to the farmlands of Franklin Township (look up Fairyland Farms of yesteryear and Graver's and Seltzer's of today) and the Mahoning Valley  (The Kresge Family Wos-Wit was a famous farm along with all the important tree farms of today: Larry Hill and Sons, Chris Botek at Crystal Springs (3-time National Champion grower and White House tree 5 times, and Yenser's.)

Farmers that help people get food so they can live and eat. Food is important to every living thing on earth. We give food to people so they can share it with others that need food. People, sometimes go out to find food if they are camping or something like that.                                                                                      

  

We also farm animals like cow, pigs, and chickens. We can eat the eggs and bacon and drink the milk, so we don’t just have to eat fruits. With the cows we can make butter, ice cream. We can use butter for corn and stuff.

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Matt B., Ever S., Eli P., and Talin F.

Students enjoying recess in our large grass field. Many students play traditional American "Football" while others often
play a kick-around game of European "Football" known in America as soccer.

Today we`re going to be talking about sports. A lot of people think gymnastics is a girls sport, but boys can do it too. We have a picture of someone doing a front flip. 
Next we have soccer. Soccer is currently the most popular sport. 
We have a picture of someone trying to block a goal.
Next in the list we have basketball. Basketball is a mostly 
American sport. We have a picture of someone braking someone 
else’s ankles. Braking someone’s ankles means that you make 
them fall or go the other way, it`s useful to get someone away from you.
There are some nonprofessional sports like Po-going. Po-going is when you 
Bounce on a Pogo stick. A Pogo stick is like a mini trampoline that you stand
on. This is what it looks like.
This was an amazing essay about some amazing sports.