Were there any history reenactment field trips at your school? What did they reenact?

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PerennialGeranium@reddit

Just two, as I remember. We went to a dude ranch and spent the night on a tall ship as "crew".

The ship one was great. We got to raise a sail (I think? Something involving hauling on a rope). Swabbed the deck. Had a watch shift. Gnawed on hardtack. Sang bowdlerized versions of Drunken Sailor.

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My school was supposed to see an reenactment of the battle of Sacramento but what we got instead was a giant yard sale where we weren't allowed to buy anything from and word that of we wanted to see it we had to come back the next day (a Saturday). The teachers tried to encourage us to ask our parents to take us but nobody did. At least the trip on the bus was fun.

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Designer-Travel4785@reddit

There is a local "village " that schools go to every year. It's built as an old settlement from the late 1700's or early 1800's. Shows how the settlers lived their daily lives back then.

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Stitch0195@reddit

I love that you think Sturbridge MA is western Massachusetts. 😆

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an_optimistic_egg@reddit

Lots of American Civil War reenactments out here... I think mostly because a lot of it happened here.

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VentusHermetis@reddit

I remember at least one or two. The highlight was the cinnamon hard candy.

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Lezlord-69@reddit

Midwest - one room school house. There was a actor playing the teacher who made us 3rd graders go through the school day as if we were living back then. Left handed students had to sit on their left hand and write with their right, the teacher would smack our desks with a yard stick if you were caught not following the rules. Oh and we all had to dress in period appropriate clothing for the day. The only bathroom was the historic outhouse.

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seifd@reddit

Not a field trip, but I went to a day camp where they taught us to write with quills in a one room schoolhouse and to cook on a wood-fired stove in a log cabin.

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jesuspoopmonster@reddit

Not really a reenactment but there was a historic town near where I grew up that has preserved buildings and exhibits that we went to a few times.

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TALieutenant@reddit

We went to Fort Vancouver (Washington state) a few times growing up. Mainly showed what daily life was like: the blacksmith, the kitchen, etc. Displayed the furs traded there.

Not a field trip, but in 8th grade, a few days before school let out for the summer, the US history teachers decided that we (the entire 8th grade) needed to cap off our study of the Civil War with a reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg....but with water balloons instead of guns.

....accuracy went out the window within 5 seconds.

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macoafi@reddit

I remember we once went to a house where there was someone with a spinning wheel. I don't know the name of the place. It wasn't far outside of Pittsburgh.

We also had one year that was Civil War Reenactment themed. Each classroom was assigned a state, and the students were distributed to them in a one-room-schoolhouse setup. The boys did some battle reenactments on the lawn. Their guns were cardboard tubes from toilet paper and paper towels, painted black. We all dressed up.

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sharrrper@reddit

The only actual field trip I can recall is going to an old single room schoolhouse and doing a day of like 1902 school or something like that. I forget the exact year.

Along similar lines, though not a proper field trip I remember a couple others.

I grew up in Oklahoma and we did a "Land Run Recreation" once. The land run was when they decided "actually yeah we're going to let white people move into 'Indian Territory' after all" and marked up a bunch of 160 acre plots and then literally just had a race for homesteaders to claim a free spot. They had us elementary school kids make like cardboard covered wagons and stuff in big groups and then divided up the playground into claims and then we all lined up along the fence and they had us race to stake a claim. Then we all ate lunch outside.

They had a civil war reenactor come talk to us once in high school. He just gave a chat in uniform with all his gear. Including his muzzle loader musket. It was outside and he fired it a couple times (powder, no bullet) to demonstrate the reload time and procedure. It was the 90s in Oklahoma so we could get away with that.

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Admirable-Extent-121@reddit

Oklahoman here as well - did all of this stuff except the Civil War reenactor. I still remember my mom putting all my lunch items into tin cans for the schoolhouse trip!

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CurrencyCapital8882@reddit

OSV is in Central Massachusetts.

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famousanonamos@reddit

We have gold rush sites that have people in costume doing things like blacksmithing and butter churning and talking about what life was like then. They also teach kids how to pan. I remember seeing a Native American sporting even of some kind that was meant to be a historical reenactment, but I don't remember what it was called. I seem to remember it being like rugby or football.

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MsSamm@reddit

Sounds fascinating! Where was this?

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famousanonamos@reddit

Northern California. The main one is in Coloma, the Marshall Gold Discovery State Park. We have several mining sites with historicl buildings and communities up here, but that's the one most people go to for school field trips from all over California.

I actually don't remember if the Native American thing was at the same site. It's possible, but I don't remember that happening and my siblings or daughter's field trips, so it was probably somewhere else when I was younger. There was dancing and stuff too, it was super cool.

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PacSan300@reddit

We went to Coloma in 4th grade for our Gold Rush trip as well. Did gold panning, and visited Sutter’s Fort in Sacramento on the way back.

My school was in the Bay Area.

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famousanonamos@reddit

I was lucky, I went to school like a town over from Coloma so the bus ride was pretty short. I always felt bad for everyone that had to travel far. My daughter's school went in 4th grade and I drove because the bus ride would have been an hour on nothing but windy roads (hwy 49) and that just sounded awful!

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ndubitably@reddit

Can't speak for the poster but our school that did this was based in southern California and we visited San Francisco/Sacramento.

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OkayDay21@reddit

Yes, I live in the Philly burbs. Lots of historic field trips. Multiple with people dressed up. We also dressed up for some of them. They still do them in most districts.

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RedSolez@reddit

I just chaperoned my kids' 3rd grade field trip to Pennsbury Manor last month. Honestly until this thread I hadn't considered that some people don't encounter reenactors in their regular lives 😂

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RedSolez@reddit

I grew up in Central Jersey, equidistant to Philly and NYC and right next to Princeton NJ/Washington Crossing PA. We had the most dope field trips especially in the wild West of the 90s where free roaming kids were the norm. I remember buying sparklers during a field trip.

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LiquidityCrisis69@reddit

Antietam is pretty cool

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ThrowAwayIGotHack3d@reddit

Small town Pennsylvania and no we did not, but also my only experience with a brick and mortar school was a mediocre private school.

I'm a historical reenactor and have been at events where schools come tho, usually for (American) civil war or (American) revolutionary war reenactments, not so much world war 2

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FlyByPC@reddit

I grew up outside of DC; our typical field trip was to one or another of the Smithsonian museums. We did have one day-long bus trip up to Gettysburg, and saw the animated diorama thing. Not really a re-enactment, but that and seeing the actual battlefield gave us a better idea than just reading about it.

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JosephBlowsephThe3rd@reddit

I grew up near Williamsburg, VA. I went on several field trips to Jamestown where they re-enacted much of the day to day activities of both the Jamestown settlers and the Native Americans.

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clamshellsnailshell@reddit

Our big exciting 5th grade field trip was to Boston at one school I attended, and was Revolutionary War oriented. At the other school, the 5th grade field trip was to Plymouth, and Mayflower oriented.

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Ceorl_Lounge@reddit

I went to college IN a reenactment (W&M in Colonial Williamsburg), people would occasionally wander through campus and look really confused. We'd also wait for line at the coffee shop behind people in 100% period accurate tavern garb. Weird place, but I love it so much.

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pittpanthers95@reddit

I lived in Williamsburg for a little while and this is absolutely accurate. I remember seeing people dressed in colonial clothing at the supermarket and it would always make me laugh. It was definitely a unique place to live.

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EvangelineTheodora@reddit

I once drunkenly got lost and walked through the campus when I was staying in one of the tavern rooms in Colonial Williamsburg. It was very peaceful on a June Saturday night, 10/10.

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Ceorl_Lounge@reddit

June? Very quiet, everyone's gone then. April? You would have seen nerds making rather merry.

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onegirlarmy1899@reddit

If I did life over, I think that's what I would have done as well. I'm now 40 with the body of an 80 year old and am feeling like the days of adventures are over.

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Next_Ad_4165@reddit

I worked at a restaurant outside of a historical village, and several everyday workers ate breakfast or lunch with us, while all dressed up.

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mcm87@reddit

Fairly certain that a bunch of the “ghost sightings” in Gettysburg are just reenactors who took off their kit and got in their car.

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Morbid_Uncle@reddit

Portland metro area, we went to Fort Vancouver in elementary school

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CountChoculasGhost@reddit

We went to The Henry Ford (at the time I think Greenfield Village and The Henry Ford Museum were separate entities?).

It is like a early-1900s village with a bunch of demonstrations. Since it is affiliated with Ford, I think there’s a lot of focus on “American ingenuity and innovation”. They had some stuff related to Thomas Edison, did glass blowing demonstrations, lots of stuff related to early automobiles (that might be more in the museum part, can’t recall).

It is pretty cool though. Went as an adult a few years ago and it is still pretty fun.

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SpearmintFur@reddit

It boggles my mind that Henry Ford was so rich for his time, he collected the houses of famous people. Like, he bought the Menlo Park lab and the Wright Brother's bicycle shop and had it shipped to Dearborn.

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SpearmintFur@reddit

Let me tell you the greatest field trip in my life.

In 4th grade, we got to dress up and go spend a day at a local Revolutionary War-era fort. We went on a regular field trip, to check out the museum and stuff, but we went later in the year to reenact. We got to dress up like little colonial-era Americans - I remember my mom getting me a hat and pinning it to form a tri-corn.

They had photocopies of Colonial Army enlistment papers we got to sign (with feather pen and ink!), got a little $1 colonial note for our "pay", and we got to do stuff like do drills with little wooden muskets and they had some reenactors show us stuff about what life was like at the fort.

That was my all-time favorite field trip. Even then, I was so psyched I went to bed super early because I couldn't wait for it.

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schoolydee@reddit

kind of, hale farm outside cleveland.

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greenmtnfiddler@reddit

I'm the same age as the Little House On The Prairie kids, and was in grade school during the Bicentennial. We did our own re-enactments on the playground All. The. Time.

Locusts, tornadoes, cholera/smallpox/scarlet fever, blizzards - every day was a new way to die. It was great.

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Joel_feila@reddit

Nope nothing Battle or war related in my area. Just a tree where a guy in a ye olde wheel chair was hunf from a tree.

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MedicineRight7694@reddit

Grew up in Alabama…..

My school principal was a Civil War reenactor. We had reenactments on the front lawn of the school every year for “living history day”. Guess which side won the battles on those days? 😵‍💫

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nowhereman136@reddit

I dont remember any field trips. My brother went on one to a pilgrim village that my class just never did.

Every year we did have a few Revolutionary War re-enactors come visit the school to teach kids about the war and how muskets worked. That was pretty cool.

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Emily_Postal@reddit

We went to Jockey Hollow where the continental army was encamped during those two brutal winters.

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Radar1980@reddit

Depending on your age and area, not only did I attend them but likely was part of them in high school

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SabresBills69@reddit

South of Rochester, ny in Leroy there is a living history town we would fo field trips to s couple times in K-6. It was set in late 1700s/ early 1800s.

It is similar to Williamsburg, probably not as elaborate in terms of scenes you might see with actors.

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Zillajami-Fnaffan2@reddit

We had none

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Justmakethemoney@reddit

We didn't, but my grandparents did Civil War re-enacting. My sister and I did a little with them, my favorite thing were the dances. Whatever event it was, they always had a ball Saturday night.

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IvyLestrange@reddit

We did prairie school in Nebraska. I had my own Laura Ingalls Wilder costume so I didn’t even have to borrow one from the school. Basically we went to a one room school house and did lessons based on old prairie lesson plans.

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Edi-Iz@reddit

We had a few history-themed field trips too, but nothing as detailed as Boston:). One I still remember was visiting an old traditional village where people dressed in historical clothing and showed how people used to live, cook, and work back in the day. It actually made history feel much more real than just reading from textbooks.

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khurd18@reddit

My 5th grade class went to the largest living history museum in New York State, its a replica 19th century village and it was really fun

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-Boston-Terrier-@reddit

Old Bethpage Restoration is a pretty common field trip for Long Island schools but the actual reenactment is pretty limited. I actually love going there to this day and am a big fan of the old time baseball games on Sundays.

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botulizard@reddit

I grew up near you, but out in the suburbs. I think one time we went to Lexington and Concord and there were a few period actors interacting with us on the tour. Same at Plymouth Plantation. Lots of historical trips, but no real reenactments outside of a few actors doing a living history thing.

I did go on a week-long field trip up to a camp in New Hampshire in the sixth grade, and they made us do one of those Underground Railroad LARP reenactments, which I think have since become more commonly seen as kind of fucked up.

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MotownGreek@reddit

Yup, although I think they were all in elementary school. Two that I can remember are one to our cities historical museum and the other to Greenfield Village.

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shelwood46@reddit

I've been to Greenfield Village as an adult, it is awesome.

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CreamyImp@reddit

We also went to Greenfield Village at our school!

We also went to “French Voyageur Day” in the local park. We learned about the French trappers and fur traders, and the native Americans that inhabited the state at the time.

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MsSamm@reddit

Thank you for the link. I had never heard of Greenfield Village before. It sounds like a fascinating place to see, full of Smithsonian - level quality exhibits.

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shelwood46@reddit

My town (Green Bay) moved all the historic buildings in town to this big lot next to the prison. I remember us going there for a day, they had fur trappers in costume land on the river. It was pretty cool. I think moved to the Princeton NJ area, so I went all on my own as an adult to watch them re-enact Washington Crossing the Delaware (usually went to the dress rehearsal), and in the summer they would do re-enactments of the Battle of Princeton. One year they did the whole Washington's March from Trenton, that was cool. Also, the local boy scout troop had a group that would dress up in buckskin and fire a 21 gun salute with muskets at area Memorial Day parades and such, it was fun to watch.

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Dazzling-Climate-318@reddit

No, we visited a Commercial Bakery, a Potato Chip Factory an Art Museum and a Zoo different years.

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No_Importance_750@reddit

When I was in fifth grade we did an overnight field trip on the Star Of India (an old historical boat in downtown San Diego) and we basically did a simulation where we lived like crew members who had once sailed that ship lived for 2 days. It was rlly cool tbh.

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2centSam@reddit

Yes, I also used to work at one. We focused on the American Revolution and on the Civil War mostly

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StoicWolf15@reddit

Upstate NY. Fenimore, an early colonial village. Also, all the Forts like Ticonderoga and William Henry would but on battle reenactments. One of my favorite childhood memories is firing a cannon.

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sean8877@reddit

No but that would have been cool to see one. We got boring field trips like museums lol

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Zealousideal_Draw_94@reddit

Not really.

We did go to a square and they did a skit of George Oglethorpe being greeted by Tomachichi, for Georgia Day each year.

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Antitenant@reddit

I remember a field trip to Historic Richmond Town here in NYC. It's a living history village focused on colonial era life.

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1337b337@reddit

We went to the largest mill town in our region and reenacted the daily life of a mill worker.

They even kept old looms up and running.

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marxman28@reddit

At my California elementary school in 5th grade, we were the reenactors. We reenacted the Battle of Bunker Hill on a small hill outside the school with the three 5th grade classes and muskets out of construction paper. (This was a few years before Sandy Hook so I have no idea if they continued doing that). My class and another class were the British and the other were the Patriots.

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Flimsy-Surprise-4914@reddit

Reenacted the Galleon days with a fake ship and pirate outfits. Also flew to Sacramento to see the capitol and sit in on a congressional session

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GreenBeanTM@reddit

Home schooled but I went to a few different re-enactments on field trips in elementary school. I think all of them were revolutionary war but I might be miss remembering. I still have the old bullet I was given at one of the stations.

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themidnighttailor@reddit

When I was in elementary school we went to a pioneer village. Employees were all dressed in mid-1800s garb and we got to watch someone churn butter.

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MattieShoes@reddit

I don't recall any live reenactments. Video reenactments, sure. Period appropriate costumes and whatnot, sure. Guides telling us what happened, yes. But no live reenactments of historical events.

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Apprehensive-Pin518@reddit

I live in Virginia and although we didn't have any event re-enactment field trips, we did have multiple field trips to the Jamestown settlement historical site. We also had trips to williamsburg for revolutionary war history.

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Current_Poster@reddit

Whole bunch. Concord and Lexington, the Plimoth Patuxet thing, a historic one-room schoolhouse that was still there. Once we took an overnight to Quebec and there was something at Montmorency Falls.

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xiphoid77@reddit

Philadelphia suburbs here - the amount of history field trips can not even be counted on two hands - Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Washington's Crossing, Gettysburg just to name a few. It was either that or the Philly Zoo on field trips 😄.

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zfcjr67@reddit

Philly kid here, too.

You forgot City Hall and William Penn's hat. Or am I just that old.

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Cerulean_IsFancyBlue@reddit

I grew up in Philadelphia. In seventh grade we actually did a two night three day field trip to colonial Williamsburg. It was the only time in my entire school experience that we did a field trip outside the immediate area.

We definitely have a lot of historic site visits within Philadelphia area, but aside from maybe a Ben Franklin impersonator around the Liberty Bell Park, I don’t remember any of them being heavy on the reenactment. I’m sure that for example, there are specific times when Valley Forge has reenactors or doses in period dress. But it’s not a permanent fixture and I don’t think we timed our visits specifically to see those reenactment.

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OpposumMyPossum@reddit

I'm from Mass , but Philly leans into its history to an amazing degree.

We love visiting there!

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Express_Leading_4840@reddit

South Jersey and we did the same field trips.

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onegirlarmy1899@reddit

Reenactments aren't really a thing in the northwest. I think they're becoming more popular with the desire for people to escape modern times.

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jamiesugah@reddit

My high school used to (still may, but it's been 20+ years) devote an entire week to learning about Gettysburg. We learned how to march, we ate what the soldiers ate (hard tack is gross), and then at the end of the week we went to Gettysburg. And then once there, the class was split into groups - you either did Pickett's Charge or the medical track. If you did Pickett's Charge, they gave you the name of a soldier and marched you across the field, and if they said your name, you had to stop, because you'd been killed. Those of us in the medical group got to learn about battlefield amputations.

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concrete_isnt_cement@reddit

No field trips, but we had a Thomas Jefferson impersonator do an assembly once. He ended up talking extensively about daylight savings time of all things, after a student asked him if he thought it was a good idea.

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Stressed_C@reddit

Same with the Old Sturbridge Village, at every school year we went at once since my hometown was like 10 mins from it.

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1235813213455_1@reddit

We were participants in a reenactment of a slave auction and the under ground rail road. It was uh, interesting. Can't imagine they still do that.

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myshellly@reddit

Not through school, but we’ve been to multiple re-enactments of WWI and WWII (including trench warfare, tank warfare, the Bora Bora Bora plane run), Civil War, Alamo, Goliad, Vietnam. We’ve done Williamsburg and Old Sturbridge. Log Cabin Village, early 20th century village, Greenwood (Tulsa Race Massacre). The Museum of Tolerance in LA has a part of the Holocaust section where you are separated and walk through tunnels into what feels like a gas chamber. It affected me greatly/horribly, if that makes sense.

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Minimum-Syrup7420@reddit

1700s colonial town and the patriots day reenactments were an optional trip. It's on a holiday so there wasn't actually school.

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Few-Wrongdoer-5296@reddit

Northern/Central California- the Gold Rush. It never stops from K-8. It's given the same importance schools in the Mid-Atlantic and New England give to the Revolutionary War. We made several trips to the local fort, camped in historically accurate miner's tents, did mine tours, went gold panning countless times... you get the idea. And every time we had to dress up in historically accurate clothing... so long sleeves, high collared-dresses and pants at 100+ degrees. We also did the one Spanish mission project and trip that's practically a rite of passage.

My school also brought in a volunteer every week to teach us American heritage songs, particularly California ones, which I'm actually grateful for.

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Grindar1986@reddit

No reenactment, but we did visit Shiloh

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Sirhc978@reddit

Yes but I went to school a few towns over from Lexington and Concord.

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IHaveBoxerDogs@reddit

My kids went to Williamsburg and Jamestown. Plus various colonial and pre-revolution homes. We also had reenactors create a pre-revolution village at their school. (Virginia, if you couldn't guess.) I can't remember if they went to Yorktown or not.

I grew up in So Cal. We went to a Spanish mission and a historic ranch. Not a field trip, but we learned about the Donner Party in detail. My kids think it's wild that we learned about cannibalism in fourth grade.

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msabeln@reddit

Not on a field trip, but since after graduation, I’ve seen lots of historical re-enactors: WWII, Victorian, US Civil War, pioneers, explorers, colonial, native, etc. I’m not sure that one Renaissance fair I attended actually counted.

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Bitter-Awareness-867@reddit

Frontier town experience & a Native American burial grounds historical site (a branch of the Mississippian Mound people).

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Southern-Usual4211@reddit

Yes here in NM we have El Rancho de las Golondrinas which is a living history village showing how colonial spanish settlement life is like in the 1600s

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DukeofBraintree918@reddit

Growing up around Boston we went to Plymouth plantation and the Mayflower

We didn't too much more unfortunately considering all the history we had in the area

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SoutieNaaier@reddit

I went to school in South Alabama

In 4th grade, I was the only white student in my class.

Our field trip was to the Pioneer Village in Troy, Alabama which modeled life in Antebellum Alabama. This was relatively harmless, but then the next part of the trip was to stop at a cotton field to get the "authentic experience"

All my Black friends got pillowcases and picked cotton, and when I reached for a case, the bus driver said "no son, not you". I thought I was in trouble.

I was pissed off because my friends got to play in the field lol. There's a semi-famous video of a guy talking about this exact field trip, but he went to a different school.

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Sweetwill62@reddit

That dude is now a lawyer and he hates people bringing up a video of him drunk in college lol

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SoutieNaaier@reddit

Ironically, I also went to law school

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Anthropophagite@reddit

We went to a frontier town and also did a full day of school in a 1800s schoolhouse

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4Q69freak@reddit

We didn’t because we were only one or two generations away from one room schools in small town Illinois in the ‘70s when I was in grade school (my parents were older, so they went to one room schools).

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MillieBirdie@reddit

Did you do your normal subjects, or what school would have been like at the time?

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Anthropophagite@reddit

I don't remember exactly but it was mostly learning about what school was like back then. I remember learning how to write and doing arithmetic on slate boards for example. Maybe some reading but I can't remember what. I remember a dunce cap too

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sharrrper@reddit

I was thinking I never did one but this comment unlocked a memory. I also did a day of 1800s single room school.

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Anthropophagite@reddit

Did you also have to pack a period accurate lunch? I remember my mom making molasses cookies and they were awful

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sharrrper@reddit

We were supposed to. I recall mine being like biscuits with cheese or something like that. Something that at least wasn't fruit roll ups and Lunchables or whatever. Probably wasn't technically accurate but wouldn't look weird at a glance. No one was checking on that anyway.

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Fairycharmd@reddit

Got a quill and some ink and my mom was FURIOUS that I had ink all over my hands for weeks

something something family pictures

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Anthropophagite@reddit

As a left hander I think I tried using my right hand to avoid smearing and to be authentic to the time since we were told they would hit kids hands if they were lefties

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MsSamm@reddit

🤣

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Practical-Ordinary-6@reddit

We went to the bread factory and watched them make bread. Bread is a historical thing, right?

Actually we did go to a Civil War battle site but there was no reenactment. It was simply touring and looking at the buildings, some with holes from musket balls.

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Vachic09@reddit

We went to Jamestown Settlement, which had people in colonial clothing demonstrating different parts of what life was like in the settlement.

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Rockglen@reddit

I lived in a bunch of different places, but I remember seeing reenactors in Colorado showing what homes and businesses looked like during the mid-1800s.

Additionally, I can't remember if the school took us to Greenfield Village in Michigan, but I know our parents definitely did.

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ND7020@reddit

We went to Ellis Island, and kids were split into groups of 4 or so and each had to come up with a backstory of which country they were coming from, what they brought with them, etc.

My group decided we were Norwegian, planning for a short stop in NY before heading for the Great Plains, and as we were relatively prosperous, we brought windows with us for the house we’d build (which was a real thing).

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Lucky-Paperclip-1@reddit

One of my kids went to Ellis Island last year, and they (4th Graders) actually sort of re-enacted the arrivals processing, with needing to line up, go through parasite/disease inspection, work on solving some wooden shape puzzle (as a test for imbicility) then wait in the main processing hall in a big line so they can say why they've come to America.

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Communal-Lipstick@reddit

We went to ghost towns where people pretended to have a shoot out.

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4Q69freak@reddit

We never did a historical field trip, even though we were a little over an hour away from Lincoln’s New Salem, IL. My son got to do a really cool field trip in 4th grade in MO. They read The Adventures Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in English and then towards the end of the school year they went a couple of hours away to Hannibal and visited Twain’s home and the caves and other sites mentioned in Twain’s books.

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ALoungerAtTheClubs@reddit

We went to the Spanish Quarter in St. Augustine, which has people in historical costume doing blacksmithing and such.

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Dr_mombie@reddit

My kids got to go to St.Augustine too. They loved it. I just wish it wasnt so sweltering when we went there for a vacation.

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ALoungerAtTheClubs@reddit

It's fun to go around the holidays if you ever get the chance. They have lots of lights around the square. I stayed at a B&B there this last New Years Eve.

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river-running@reddit

Jamestown, Williamsburg, and the Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia.

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teresa3llen@reddit

We didn’t do anything like that but every year, the 5th graders went out to the conservation site and traipsed through the woods, learning about trees and plants. We’d see butter churning demonstrations and pioneer cabin living. We’d have lunch and games and just play in the woods.

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anneofgraygardens@reddit

I grew up near a Mexican-era rancho, which is preserved as a historic site. I remember being taken there during a reenactment period, where people were dressed up and baking bread in the outdoor clay ovens, but I'm not sure it was a field trip. it's possible my mom took me on her own.

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hello_sweetie_@reddit

We did a Civil War battle reenactment in 5th grade, in suburban Colorado😂

Also one we did an overnight field trip where we slept in tipis outside a museum somewhere

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MsSamm@reddit

That sounds like fun!

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Dr_mombie@reddit

My kids got to go to Fort Christmas. They learned about the natives and settlement wars, sugar cane processing, Florida frontier life, farming, 19th century school and cafeteria, toured some preserved settlement homes, learned about doing laundry and got to make candle sticks to take home.

It is run by volunteers who just have a hard-on for history and historical reenactment. The only people that are there full time are the people who own the animals, but they aren't in costume day to day.

You can still look in all the windows and read plaques on non-event days though.

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MyUsername2459@reddit

We went to some reenactments at Fort Harrod and Fort Boonesborough, which were settlements founded right before the start of the American Revolution when Kentucky was first being settled (two of the first three settlements in Kentucky, the third, Fort Logan, didn't have a surviving site or reconstruction at the time I was in school but I think they built one later).

They focused on reenactments of daily life in late Colonial/Revolutionary War era frontier American life. Seeing craftsmen doing blacksmithing and other pre-industrial crafts, using muskets, things like that.

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DachshundNursery@reddit

I'm from Western Mass, so heck yeah I dipped my share of candles at Sturbridge. We also went to Storrowton on the Big E grounds, and a house in our town where they do living history field trips. I've always been a bit of a history nerd so I LOVED those trips when I was a kid.

I will say, I was always annoyed that the boys got to go to the blacksmith shop and the girls had to make lunch for the boys.

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revengeappendage@reddit

I grew up right outside Gettysburg. Sooooo, yea.

I had to carry a fuckin flag while we reenacted Pickett’s Charge. Lol

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MillieBirdie@reddit

I'm from northern Virginia so the field trip options were basically one of the Smithsonian museums or a reenactment spot. George Washington's birthplace, Mount Vernon, Williamsburg, Jamestown, etc.

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MsSamm@reddit

I lived on Staten Island. Our school went to historic Richmondtown, a collection of colonial period homes. There was a woman in colonial garb doing information in one of the houses. We walked around with a guide in regular clothes. No reinactments.

But you're in Boston, which is full of history. Not at all surprised at there being reinactments.

I spent a couple days in Boston, before moving on to a family reunion in Rhode Island. I loved Boston. If I knew then what I know now, I could have seen myself moving there.

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DonJovar@reddit

The Battle of San Pasqual. I think they still do reenactments on the weekends.

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Scrappy_The_Crow@reddit

I was in school in the Atlanta area in the 70s-'80s. We never went to what I would consider a reenactment (as in a special event like a Civil War battle), but we did go to historical sites (e.g. the Smith Farm) where there were living history actors.

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dildozer10@reddit

We never did anything like that. We took a field trip to a cave once in the second grade, then a farm in the third grade, which didn’t teach us anything because we all grew up on or around farms, and we took a trip to our state’s capital building in the 4th grade, and that’s it, no more field trips between 5th and 12th grade.

I went to a poorly funded rural school, so we didn’t really have the money, resources, or opportunity to do a lot of field trips.

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JuanSolo9669@reddit

I wasn't allowed to go because my teacher called it a "War of Northern aggression" reenactment.

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Jorost@reddit

Ipswich here. Plymouth Plantation, Freedom Trail, USS Constitution, Mayflower, etc. It sometimes feels like our entire childhood was one long Colonial era reenactment.

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__birdie@reddit

The only thing I can think of that we did was the Underground Railroad at Nature’s Classroom. Not sure how accurate that was though.

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LadySiren@reddit

Not me but my kids. The went to the Alamance Battleground pretty much every dang year.

From its website:

In 1771, an armed group of farmers calling themselves Regulators battled with royal governor William Tryon's militia on land now preserved at Alamance Battleground State Historic Site. Growing anger over expensive land, embezzlement of tax money, and collusion between creditors and public officials led small farmers in piedmont North Carolina to form associations, write petitions, and seek peaceful redress of their grievances. A lack of response from the royal government only deepened the Regulators' resolve, and rising frustration later gave way to violence. The Regulator movement ended with their defeat at Alamance.

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therealdrewder@reddit

We went to the old spanish mission and learned about the

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TooManyDraculas@reddit

We had a couple of visits to the school from a Revolutionary War re-enactment group who set up a military camp behind the high school in the spring.

Then were near a couple of living history museums. An early 19th century/colonial village, and much smaller mid 19th century working farm.

The weirdest one was Indian Dan. Who would also visit the schools. A so far as I'm aware entirely white Native American renactor. Who would set up a Teepee, despite supposedly being from an Eastern Woodlands people. Then tell a mish mash of Aesop's fables and Anansi stories, and give people a stereotype laden run down of local Indigenous history. Despite not knowing the local history.

From what I gather the schools replaced him with assemblies featuring historians and leaders from the actual Indian tribe nearby sometime in the 00s.

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mvillanueva88@reddit

California we did gold rush reenactment called Valley days and some kids at other school Wild West shows

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Odd-Tell-5702@reddit

We went to Vincennes Indiana. It’s the 1779 Battle of Fort Sackville.

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General_Ad_6617@reddit

Hmmm, not really. In Vermont, we went to Fort Ticonderoga after the Green Mountain Boys lesson. But no reenactments. We also went to Upper Canada Village.

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Usual-Reputation-154@reddit

Not necessarily a reenactment, but we did a field trip to a farm in elementary school where we all got to thresh wheat, churn butter, and use a sewing machine from the 1800s

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moonwillow60606@reddit

Yes but it’s been ages. I know we went to Williamsburg, VA and Old Salem in Winston-Salem. Plus I grew up in a pre-Revolutionary War town in NC so we had local stuff as well.

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SnooChipmunks2079@reddit

We took a family vacation to Williamsburg a few years ago and never actually made it to Colonial Williamsburg. I was so mad at my wife and daughter. It was the whole point of the trip to me but they kept putting it off and then "whoops, time to go home."

Went to Busch Gardens though. Blech.

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MrPNutButters@reddit

The thing I remember most about Old Salem is the Moravian cookies

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moonwillow60606@reddit

They’re so good.

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MrLongWalk@reddit

Lexington and Concord, Plymouth Plantation, a couple living history things in Boston

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bass679@reddit

Not so much. I grew up in Utah so it's literally impossible to separate religion from the pioneers settling here so I think it was avoided a bit. The only exceptions I recall are re-enactment of the Golden Spike when we visited that for a field trip and a specific one for the states centennial in 1996.

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MageDA6@reddit

We didn’t go to any reenactments but we did go to two battlefields in high school. Pea Ridge and Wilson’s Creek, both are really cool places and have great scenery.

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eugenesbluegenes@reddit

Sutter's Fort in Sacramento is a historic park and we did a field trip there that was basically mid 1800s frontier farm life.

The CA Thayer in San Francisco is a late 1800s schooner docked at Hyde street. We did an overnight trip there and the kids had to be part of a crew to run the ship. We even had to do a two hour "night watch", where we stood on the deck and watched. I think I had the 2-4am shift.

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SnooChipmunks2079@reddit

Nothing in Illinois. I remember field trip to the village police station, post office, and telephone company (it was locally owned) when I was in early elementary school in the 1970's.

I think my parents took us to Lincoln's New Salem one time.

Our daughter went to a thing at one of the DuPage forest preserves, I think.

There's Naper Settlement in Naperville that does a lot of school group business.

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lindini@reddit

You guys didn't have reenactment at New Salem? When I was a kid in central Illinois it was all Lincoln and civil war reenactments all the time.

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SnooChipmunks2079@reddit

It would have been in the 70's, I have no idea to be honest. I remember the fact of having gone and that's about it.

But the question was about school, and I definitely didn't go as a school trip.

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Fangsong_37@reddit

We had a field trip to Connor Prairie here in Indiana. It was a reenactment of a village from the early 19th century with crafts of the time (glassblowing, spinning, blacksmithing, etc.). We also got to play with toys from that era, like the stick and hoop.

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vanillablue_@reddit

Sturbridge Village

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Training_Respect@reddit

Masshole as well and it seemed like we went to Plymouth Plantation every year in elementary school.

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Elevenyearstoomany@reddit

We went to a local historical society a couple of times and made root beer once. I’m kind of salty actually because there’s a WWII reenactment about an hour from where I grew up and that’s my favorite time period. Yes, I can go as an adult but young me would have LOVED it.

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SouthCotton1979@reddit

Yes I went to several places in Georgia and Tennessee

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MamaLlama629@reddit

Fort Vancouver and Foster Farm

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tyoung89@reddit

We went to some local historical buildings where the staff were all in historical outfits, not exactly reenactment though. The closest to that we did was when we visited an old Plantation. Lots of people in old outfits pretending to do work that was done at the time. No, they did not reenact the slave labor. But they were truthful about the fact that they had slaves there.

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Agattu@reddit

Yes. We used to go to this farm in the Detroit Metropolitan area that had historical reenactors play characters to show us what life was like 'back in the day' with a blacksmith, one room school house, etc etc.

And then there was Greenfield Village that also had people playing roles for the different exhibits.

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Sensitive_Stand4421@reddit

Yep. I live near Antietam and Gettysburg. We had a lot, mostly regarding the Civil War.

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02K30C1@reddit

My daughter’s class went to Hannibal, Mo, and saw an actor portray Mark Twain.

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GovernorGeneralPraji@reddit

I’m a Pennsylvanian, so Gettysburg was a very popular field trip destination for many school districts around me, although mine never did.

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ReferenceCreative510@reddit

Went there in middle school. Elementary was Ft. McHenry

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Round_Creme_7967@reddit

We had a "frontier life" reenactment when I was in elementary school. It was set shortly after Texas's admission to the union, and was of dubious historicity.

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Aubeng@reddit

Not really a re-enactment, but there is a local historical site of a French colonial fort collocated with a later War of 1812 fort that is the destination for a lot of field trips. It is usually staffed with 'reenactors' but not really reenacting an event, just more lifestyle.

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