LITTLE ROCK — History has come alive for a group of students from Cave City High School.
A five-student team recently worked with the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, part of the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock, to produce a documentary for the center’s Arkansas History Hub website for teachers (arkansashistoryhub.com). The documentary traces the travels of Henry Rowe Schoolcraft in the Arkansas Territory across the Strawberry, Spring and Eleven Point rivers on his return from a journey into the White River country in Arkansas in 1819.
The students presented the documentary during the Butler Center’s 2018 summer seminar for teachers — Mapping the Arkansas Territory, Then and Now — co-sponsored by the Arkansas Humanities Council.
George West, education outreach coordinator at the Butler Center, said young historians such as the team from Cave City and their teachers have been invited to help create a digital map for the upcoming bicentennial of Arkansas becoming an organized territory in 1819 in the Louisiana Purchase region.
Members of the Cave City High School team include Kendall Townsley, 17, who served as the drone pilot and map designer on the project; Amelia Counts, 17, photographer and website manager; Joseph Hutchinson, 17, equipment manager; Curt Jones, 18, flora and fauna specialist; and RaLynnda March, 18, videographer.
West said the students, using still and drone video photography to document the sites described in Schoolcraft’s journal, wrote their own journal entries on each location, recorded oral-history interviews with local historians, wrote and produced the documentary video and created a website to share their findings.
Their project may be found online at sites.google.com/cavecity.ncsc.k12.ar.us/mappingthearkansasterritory/home.
Townsley, who is a senior at Cave City High School, said he became involved in the project because of his interest in history, but especially because of his interest in drones.
“I had flown a drone before,” he said, adding that he has his own personal drone. “But this was my first opportunity to have what I filmed presented to the public.
“I really enjoyed being able to apply what I know about flying drones to learning about the area where I live. This has been a fun experience that tied classroom learning to hands-on activities.”
Counts, also a senior at Cave City High School, said she had taken a lot of history classes and had heard of Schoolcraft but was glad to be able to find firsthand knowledge of his travels in Arkansas.
“I enjoy history because it tells the adventures of people from all backgrounds and locations,” she said. “I was glad to be able to help compile the information we learned and put it on the website.”
Hutchison said he was “amazed” that some of the places Schoolcraft visited “were the same places where I have fished.”
“I never thought about the historical significance of these rivers … until now,” said Hutchinson, who is also a senior at Cave City High School. “Schoolcraft is an interesting character and a pioneer in the tracking of Arkansas and Missouri [history].”
Jones said he found some of the native plants that may have been growing in the same locations when Schoolcraft traveled through Arkansas.
“It was neat to see the timber that was there 200 years ago,” he said. “I love history. This project was a great opportunity to learn more about Arkansas … about the area in which I live.”
“I did not have a clue about who Henry Rowe Schoolcraft was,” said March, who graduated in May from Cave City High School and plans to major in mass communications at Arkansas State University, with an emphasis in television. “History is not my inclination. … I am more of a humanities student. They asked me to be a part of the team because I took TV [classes] for four years in school, but once I got into [the project], I developed a genuine curiosity about it.
“This has been an amazing experience,” she said. “It has furthered my television skills, … improved my ability of being a team player and has given me memories that will last a lifetime.”
The Cave City student project was started in early March. Facilitators were Cave City High School Principal Marc Walling, librarian Tara Ball, history teacher Julie Sandy and technology specialist and adviser Ashley Green. Community partners were Blake Perkins, history professor at Williams Baptist University in Walnut Ridge, and Joan Gould and Steve Saunders, Lawrence County historians.
“I had met Mr. West, but I knew nothing about Schoolcraft,” Ball said. “These students love hands-on experiences, and they are great readers. This has been an eye-opening experience for all of them.”
Sandy said she was pleased with “how they made local connections with the past.”
“I had heard of Schoolcraft …,” Ball said. “It was great how they could connect things they found with what he had found as well. This was a wonderful project.”
West said, “The Cave City students’ presentation accomplished everything I hoped.
“This is not just a one-and-done project,” West said. “These students have become young historians. There is more of the story to be told. … Hopefully, other students will pick up where these students left off.
“[I give] praise for their excellent work and enthusiasm on the part of other teachers for doing a similar project with their students on the historic sites near their community.”
West was scheduled to share the Cave City students’ presentation Thursday at the summer conference for EAST Initiative facilitators in Fayetteville.
“Our high school was thrilled to take part in this research with Mr. West and the Butler Center,” Walling said. “We were honored that Mr. West would consider us. It is such a unique opportunity for our students to do field research, organize that work and present that to a group of professionals. High school students do not always get those opportunities, and our students’ work was exceptional. I was so proud of them.”